The Steen Experience: Back in Derby

After leaving Coffeyville we headed back to good ol' Derby. The first morning back, Isaac opened his birthday gifts from Oma. Legos (!) and a book. 30 minutes later, he had finished building his Lego Star Wars racer. It was just too chilly and windy to really do much outside, so we went to Exploration Place.

Olivia and Chad enjoyed building a dam and watching the water flow.

Of course no visit to Kansas would be complete without seeing a tornado! Ezren was very brave climbing up there to touch it.

Exploration Place also had a very cool exhibit called The Scoop on Poop. We often find ourselves discussing digestion and all things associated with it (at dinner, breakfast, snacktime, whenever), so this was really cool for us! There was even a game where you have to race dung beetles (not real ones). Let's just say, Chad is the champion dung roller! :)

After leaving Exploration Place, we went to a favorite place of Chad's when he was a child -- Sim Park. Still windy and cold, so we didn't stay long at the beach (I know, it's not the ocean, but it's as good as it gets in KS!).

We also stopped at Riverside Park to check out the rocket. Unfortunately they have sealed it and you can no longer climb inside. Big bummer. But they did have a giant spiderweb thing that scared the bujeezers out of me -- but Isaac loved it!

By this time the kids were cranky and tired, so we headed home from so good Fried Chicken von Mutti.

The next day was quite the bust. It was too cold and windy again, so we went swimming. Yes, really, we went swimming at the indoor pool at the DRC. Crazy, I know! It smells and sounds and feels and looks exactly the same as when I was in high school. I didn't bring any goggles or caps with me, but I did go and do a 100 (with flipturns and all!). And about passed out so I decided to just stick with the kids.

We went out to Towne East looking to play video games at Aladdin's Castle, but it's no longer there. :( So, we went to North Rock. Nothing great, but the kids had fun playing skee ball.

Olivia was very proud of all of the tickets she won. She even got to get some prizes!

On the way home, we stopped by Tanglewood (my old elementary school) to play on the playground. Goodness! I have never seen so many spiders hanging out there! Seriously, the place was covered in webs and those crazy, big jumping spiders. Isaac was pretty freaked out and didn't really want to do anything, but we eventually cleared out some things for him to do.

Here they are climbing the ultra old (really, it's been there since I was in Kindergarten), and really scary spiral slide.