The Great Kansas Tour

You guys! It's time for the final part of my great summer vacation story (AKA Jax's 1st road trip)! But first..

ICYMI: Here's Part 1 (The Great Tornado of 2014), Part 2 (Les Mis(souri) and the Prettiest Wedding Ever), Part 3 (Handsome Branson), and Part 4 (Jackson's 1st Haircut) of our vacation.

We packed up and left my Uncle Denny and Aunt Jean's early Thursday morning and headed for Brandon's mom's new house (she recently moved to the country and this was our first time seeing her since she and her boyfriend bought their house)! As usual, I'll let the bullet points and pictures tell the rest of the story. 

Thursday

• Bid my parents & brother farewell as they headed home to Colorado. 
• Ate breakfast, drank coffee, and visited with Aunt Jean before hitting the road to Brandon's mom's house.
• Stopped in a small town to feed/change Jax, grabbed lunch at a hole in the wall cafe (I ordered a sandwich and they were out of bread.. so Brandon and I both ordered calzones and heard "Does anyone here actually know how to make a calzone?!" come from the kitchen), and got back on the road. 
• Arrived at Mamma Nanc's house, unpacked, and relaxed a bit before Nancy and Russell arrived.
• Greeted Britney (Brandon's sister), Benny, & Sara (our niece and nephew) and visited/played.
• Headed into town with Nancy, Brandon, and Jax to pick up a few things at Walmart. 
• Dinner, drinks, and lots of Apples to Apples. 

For not knowing how to make a calzone, they did a pretty good job!

Cousin Benny holding Jackson--both kids were so good (and gentle!) with their cousin!

Sara LOVED her baby cousin and kept trying to grab & hold him--he yanked out a handful of her hair at one point (poor sweet girl!) and she was still really gentle with him.

Love these two!

Cuddles with Nana.

This boy loves his Aunt Britney!

Friday

• Slept in, enjoyed coffee & breakfast, and sat around visiting with the gang.
• Antiquing & thrifting around town.
• Back to the house for more Apples to Apples, naps, and visiting. 
• Said goodbye to Britney, Benny, & Sara as they headed home. 
• Dinner, relaxing, and even more A2A (Apples to Apples). 

Sleeping in.

No family resemblance whatsoever!

Nana is so fun!

Nana and her (uncooperative) babies.

The 3 Amigos.

Saturday

• Woke up, sipped coffee, and visited. 
• Fed (and fed and fed) growth spurt baby & gabbed with Mamma Nancy while Brandon & Russell moved furniture and boxes from the old house. 
• Said our goodbyes and headed to Hays to visit friends. 
• Jax & I met up with some of my old girlfriends (and Brandon met up with some of his friends) at our beloved Gella's.
• Headed back to the hotel with Jax for bath and HGTV.
• Bed.

Sleeping in.. again!

Jackson and his buddy, Sam. This is the first time that Jax has been around other babies and he LOVED it (funny story on next picture)!

Jax with his friends Hannah (3 months) & Sam (5 months)--and mommy with her friends Kelly & Becca :). When we first arrived at the restaurant, Jax was playing in his car seat and I was holding a sleeping Hannah, showed her to Jax and said how pretty she is. As I was saying it, Jax was ignoring me, clutching his (toy) rosary, and being really sweet--my friend Allison and I were cracking up and saying how he was going to be a priest someday and I was bragging about how "that's my son." Anyway, fast forward about an hour and a half (while we were getting ready to leave) and all three of the babies were tired and fussy--Jax and Hannah were facing each other crying and flailing their arms and Jax grabbed her dress and pulled it up.. that's Brandon's son!

Gah I miss these girls!

We hit the road early the next morning and arrived back home to Denver at around 4pm (which wasn't too bad considering how many stops we had to make). Jackson's first vacation was perfect and we all had such a wonderful time--I just wish it hadn't gone by so quickly! 

My mom, Jax, and I will be (hopefully) hitting the road again later this month to visit family in Kansas and then Brandon, Jax, and I will be flying to Knoxville over Labor Day weekend to visit Brandon's dad and step mom--hooray for family vacations!