Kansas City is known for BBQ. It’s arguably in the same league for BBQ as places like Texas and Memphis in the discussions of top BBQ in the country. Having grown up in KC and eating KC style BBQ my whole life, I certainly have a preference for it’s style. All of that being said, if you come to KC, BBQ must be on your list of must try things while you’re here.
Today, I’m sharing my top three bbq restaurants in KC!
There’s this special age range of little kids where they are old enough that they don’t sit still. They’re exploring, maybe even walking…scratch that, running…, and they don’t listen to a single thing you tell them. This is also that special age range where they also don’t sit still long enough to watch a movie, TV show, YouTube video. It’s a really tough age to travel with them, particularly on an airplane. They, generally speaking, don’t have their own seat yet – because who wants to pay for a seat when they can fly for free still? And man, they are a force of nature in and of themselves.
I’ve flown with these special little toddlers several times now. First when Harrison was little, and then just a few months ago with Jonathan all by myself. Here are five things that I’ve found that make traveling with these toddlers easier:
-1- If you don’t need it, check it. Even if you’re going for a short stay and you’re only taking what would be a carry on with you, if you’re traveling with a young toddler, check the carry-on. Your hands will be so full dealing with your little one!
-2- Snacks are life. You run out of snacks, you run out of entertainment. Bring lots and bring a variety. Yes, half of them will end up on the floor. But it’s truly the only thing that keeps their attention an their booty sitting for a long period of time. Bring all the snacks and have them with you underneath the seat in front of you.
-3- I know I said check it all, but bring the stroller and gate check it at the plane door. You need to get a gate check tag from the agent working your gate, but when you’re hauling through an airport, or waiting for luggage at baggage claim, or just need to stand in the Starbucks line for a MUCH NEEDED cup of coffee, you’re going to be glad you have a device to strap them into that they can’t run away from.
-4- 9 out of 10 people on your flight are not going to be upset with you if your child is a disaster. Most people have been there already, whether recently or in the distant past. It won’t go perfectly, but you never have to see these people again. If they have the worst flight of their life, they’ve got a good story and you never talk to them again. Children flying is just part of the cycle of life.
-5- Have their comfort object for take-off and landing. Whether it’s a paci, lovey, blanket, it’s worth it to have when their whole world is being turned upside down during this change in routine.
Happy flying, friends!
A couple of weeks ago, Nathan and Harrison headed out to drive across the state of Kansas to Colorado for their very first ski trip. I packed them a lunch to eat in the car, and they were off for the mountains! Harrison was a level 12 out of 10 excited for this trip. All of the good one-on-one time with his Dad and beautiful setting was a perfect father/son trip.
After a couple of days, Jonathan and I packed up and flew out to Denver to meet the boys back in the city and spend a couple of days with Nathan’s parents, the boys’ Gigi and Pops.
The boys rented a small studio apartment in the village at Breckenridge. Harrison was SO EXCITED to get fitted his first day of ski school.
I’ve shared the first two part of our Beach Trip to Florida’s northwest beaches Here and Here. Today, I’m sharing the final couple of days of our trip. After a half a week at the beach, we were really getting into our stride and never wanted to leave. 😊
After the morning in Seaside with the kids, we opted for the beach in the afternoon and a beach picnic to round out the day! It was so fun to go to the beach with the kiddos at a different time this day, and they thought it was too fun to have pizza delivered on the beach.
You know I have more beach pictures for you all. This is my equivalent of a scrapbook, after all, and we had so much fun at the beach with our boys a couple of weeks ago. Every morning I wake up wanting to go back! The weather, the house, the company and food were all so so so good. If you missed Part 1 of my recap, go back and check it out HERE.
Today is part 2.
After two days at the beach, we didn’t want to do a full beach day, so instead, we went down to the beach for an hour in the morning with the kids.
We finally took our first big vacation as a family of four. We headed down to Florida’s northwest beaches, “30a” for a week of sand, sun, and so many memories. We had THE BEST time. It was long awaited, and on our very last day, Harrison woke up and said, “I’m going to miss the beach.” Sounds like we’ll be taking our little beach babies back!
Ready for take-off! First time on a plane for me in 22 months!
I shared our Part 1 of our Black Hills trip yesterday, and today I’m wrapping up the latter half of our trip.
We decided to keep our activity the next day pretty low key. We headed to a playground in Spearfish that ended up being amazing for all of the kids. It was great for running around and playing hide and seek, and there was a place along the stream that the kids could dip their toes in the freezing cold water.
How baby J felt about the cold water…
If you’ve been coming around here for awhile, you know that the Black Hills in South Dakota is a special place for my family. I grew up going to the Black Hills to visit my grandparents as a kid. It’s on the very western side of South Dakota, and in 2014, my parents built a cabin in the Hills with the intention of living in South Dakota during the summer months.
We’ve gone to visit every summer since 2015, except for last year with COVID. It’s always a lot of fun, but it was particularly exciting this year to see Harrison really enjoy the Hills. The freedom to be out in nature, explore, play and thrive was a joy.
Our trip began with a verrrry long car ride. We got up and were in the car by 5:30am for our drive to the Hills. Harrison was so excited to go visit Mimi and Papa that he didn’t go back to sleep like we were hoping for the drive. 😳 But he ended up doing so well. Baby J too!
A few weeks back, a reader asked me for suggestions about where to eat in Kansas City when they came to visit, and it got me thinking that I wished I had a post to refer them back to with all of my favorite “touristy” activities in Kansas City. I’ve lived in Kansas City almost my whole life. There was a brief seven years when I moved to Michigan for college, and then North Carolina for grad school, but for the most part, KC has been home.
I’m going to break this down into parts, and today, I’m going to talk my favorite kid friendly activities in KC!
Being a mom to a toddler and a baby right now, there are some activities that just don’t work for them quite yet because they’re too young to appreciate it, so I’m denoting with an asterisk next to the activities that are really more appropriate for older kids only.
Wonderscope :: An entire “museum” for kids. There’s pretend play set-ups, building stations, water play activities. It is a kids’ dream place to play and learn!
Right before Thanksgiving, Nathan and I got away for a few days in NYC to celebrate our anniversary. We had so much fun getting to spend time talking, playing around the city, and eating so much! Earlier this week I shared all of the amazing food and drinks that we loved in NYC. Today I’m going to share some of our favorite activities from this visit to NYC! I’ve saved down to my Instagram Highlights all of my favorite clips from the trip too.
Nathan and I have been to NYC numerous times, both together and as kids with our families. So, the things that we chose to do this time around were mostly off the beaten path. If you’ve never been to NY before, you absolutely need to to the big touristy things – The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the World Trade Center Memorial. They are not to be missed things as an American city, or anyone visiting NYC.
Nathan had never done the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island before, and it had been 15 years since the last time I went, so we did hop over to Ellis Island for the afternoon one day.
