Danelle and Sonora had a 4 day weekend from school and work. I decided to take a day off and have a whole family four day weekend. We tried to think of what we could do beyond just hanging out at the house. I had heard that dad could use some companionship and we decided to go to Kansas City. I started coordinating our visit with dad. I explained that we were excited to come see him, but we didn’t want to sit around the house chatting all weekend. Instead we would do some activities at least two of the days. Dad thought that was wonderful and we started planning.
We started Friday morning at the Federal Reserve’s Money Museum. Its interesting to learn about the history of our money. First, we needed to see a proof of new bills…
President Hogan and President Sonora on these bills.
And President Dan and President Danelle
Then we each tried our strength holding up a bar of gold. Its not crazy heavy, but the protection around it to keep it in place makes it harder to pick up.
We spent about 45 minutes in a windowed area (photos were not allowed) where workers bundled money and ran it through a machine to clean and re-package it. It was staggering how much cash was in front of us being processed by the machines!
We ended up in Sugar Creek, MO to grab lunch. Kross Lounge was our pick. We were strongly put off by the smoking in the bar area. It was a very potent smell. If we weren’t very hungry, I’m confident we would have left. The food and service made up for the smell. Danelle got a pork tenderloin sandwich and it was crazy large!
After lunch, we relished the sweet smell of clean air outside. Then we drove to the President Truman Library. Dad had wanted to go here. He said it had been updated since he last visited and was curious about it. We stopped on the way in at the statue of the past president.
The guard wasn’t impressed with my pose, but didn’t prevent us from going in. I was pleasantly surprised that we all really enjoyed it. We read nearly every sign learning about our country’s past. Some time past 4pm, I happened to look up the hours on my phone and realized that the museum closed at 5pm. I let the others know, then started skipping stuff to try and find the most interesting facts for me.
Ultimately, we got kicked out (cause we wanted to see it all) when the museum closed for the day. This was a perfect first day of our weekend!
Saturday had a later start. We had a reservation for 5 at Pinot’s Pallette. They are a “paint and sip” studio. That means that we paid for an instructor to guide us in painting our own version of an existing painting. Your reservation for a class gets you instruction, for painting and all of the supplies you need to complete your painting.Its also BYOB or purchase at their bar. I brought 3 bottles of sparkling grape juice for our group to enjoy together. Lets start with our cast of characters.
Autumn the instructor, Sonora, and Danelle with blank canvases.
I’m busy taking photos, Henry and Dad (Dan) with their backgrounds started. If you’re looking critically, you’ll notice that dad’s canvas is portrait orientation while the next four are in landscape. Our instructor just went with the flow. Where dad went off script, she just smiled like she had seen every type of shenanigan and kept going.
As we progressed, the canvas started to take shape.
Don’t think that it was just all serious art, we were having FUN!
As we reached the end, we used hair dryers to get our paint safe for transport. We wouldn’t want to ruin our masterpieces!
And a final view of each of our masterpieces. The left is Autumn, the instructor. Right of that is the reference piece she started the class from. and then we’re each holding our own work.
Henry
Dad
Danelle
Sonora
And finally Hogan’s (mine). Many would say the best for laugh [insert coughing noise].
We didn’t have much time and had to rush across town for our second appointment for the day. Dad booked a class for the five of us at The Culinary Center of Kansas City.There we would be learning about Mexican street food. We had a fun time as a group, but the cooking just wasn’t quite the same vibe as the painting.
We did have some delicious food and heard lots of stories about the presenter’s family. We burned tortillas on open flames as well.
Danelle working with the meat.
Ultimately most of the food was way too spicy for me so I didn’t eat too much. We did learn that putting mayonnaise and cheese on cooked corn is unexpectedly delicious.
While in town, dad wanted to start converting video to digital files after my family photo project. I heard from a co-worker about Legacy Box and dad decided to give it a try. So far 20 videos have been sent out and nearly 3 months later, we’re still waiting for them to be digitized and returned. We’ll see if this was a good idea 🙂 Below is dad sitting in front of the pile of videos to consider converting…
Our last full day in town, Holly and her two kiddos came over. It was just a time to hang out together at the house. We played lots of pool in the basement.
I played dolls, but was told I’m not good at it…
Jim came over later and we all had a lovely dinner together. This was a fantastic way to spend some time off. Being a tourist in your own town is sometimes easier than expected when you have not done much there for years. Thanks to dad for allowing us to drag him over town and getting to see some of my siblings!
Hogan Haake