Day 1,961 - Clydesdales, Empty Arenas, and a Moderate Drive

I don’t know about you but my kids are generally ready for some kind of an adventure. There are those times though when they are filled with slight doubt. Those times generally arise when they learn that it might take some time to get to an adventure. After all, what kid wants to take a long drive on a way to an adventure. On Thursday, we embraced one of those long drives to get to an adventure though and we survived to tell the tale!

This adventure arose from the mind of my dad and took us on a journey to Boonville, MO to Warm Springs Ranch, home of the Budweiser Clydesdales. Our journey didn’t just come from the mind of my dad though. He and my mom actually met me and the kids early in the morning to journey along with us. After setting out around 7:30, we arrived at Warm Springs Ranch around 9:50. If that seems like it took a little longer than it should have, it’s probably because we had to make multiple stops along the route for Ethan to use the bathroom.

Once we arrived at Warm Springs Ranch, we were instructed to park alongside a set of giant letters that were repurposed from the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis. Since Ellie and Ethan had been cooped up for a while, we took the opportunity to let them run around the giant letters while waiting for our tour. Soon enough though, it was time for us to join the rest of our group and begin our tour.

Ellie and Ethan are up there somewhere.

After receiving our complementary bottles of water and our radio packs so that we could always hear our tour guide, we began weaving our way through the barns making up Warm Springs Ranch. It was fun to see Ellie and Ethan taking in all of the sights. Ellie, for her part, absolutely loved using her camera to take pictures of the massive Clydesdales she was seeing along the way. We even saw a TV star in Stan, a multi-time Super Bowl commercial star/Clydesdale horse. Before leaving the Ranch, we  were treated to getting to see three foals hanging out in private pens with their moms.

One of my favorite parts of the tour had to be at the end when we received the opportunity to pose with one of the horses named “Kid Rock”. It was cool because we could really see how tall a full-grown Clydesdale was up close, especially compared to Ellie and Ethan. It was also pretty cool to see just how well-trained the horses were. “Kid Rock” would even turn his head towards a camera for pictures which Ellie loved!

Once our tour was completed, we loaded up and headed towards Columbia to grab some lunch as it was only ten additional miles down the road. Despite my protests, the kids would not listen to anything other than Chick-Fil-A for lunch. No worries though. After we finished lunch, we decided to drive over to my dad’s old stomping grounds, the Mizzou campus. As Ethan is a pretty big fan of sports, it only seemed fitting that we check out Faurot Field.

While I was initially just planning on making a quick drive around the stadium’s parking lot, imagine my surprise when I saw what looked to be an open gate heading inside the stadium. Therefore, I decided the only thing to do was to see where exactly that open gate would take us. As Ellie, Ethan, and I headed inside, I fully expected to be cut off by a closed gate somewhere or by security. Instead, we headed into the actual seating area near the 50-yard line. Looking down towards the field, I saw more open gates actually heading out onto the playing surface. With that, there was nothing left for us to do but continue on our quest of possible trespassing.

We headed down the stadium stairs until we reached an open gate leading onto the playing surface. As we stepped foot on the field, Ethan knew he was on hallowed ground. He actually took it all in instead of running wildly as he normally would. As we wandered towards midfield, I asked the kids if they wanted to stand on the Tiger head on the 50-yard line. With that, both Ellie and Ethan took off sprinting across the field while I laid back and snapped a couple of pictures. With that, I figured it was time for us to make our way off the field and not test our luck anymore.

Once we reached my parents and the van, we settled in with the intention of heading back towards KC. However, we needed to make one more little drive past Mizzou Arena, home of Missouri basketball. When we drove by though, I noticed a banner waving outside the arena saying that the Tiger Team Store was open for business. That was enough to make me wonder if we could actually find our way inside the arena to see the basketball court. With that, I asked the kids if they wanted to check it out. Ethan enthusiastically replied, “Yes,” while Ellie halfheartedly said, “I think I’ll just stay in the car.” Therefore, Ethan and I excited the van and headed inside.

When we entered the arena, we noticed a pair of locked gates keeping us from wandering to other sides of the concourse. However, we noticed an open doorway leading into a seating area. We walked through the door and headed down a flight of stairs before finding ourselves in a row of seats directly in front of the court. Ethan was once again pretty stoked to be standing inside an area where he’s watched Mizzou play on television. Once again though, we didn’t stay long before making our way back out to the van so that we could head home.

All around, I would say that our little adventure was pretty great. I hadn’t been sure how the kids would handle being in the car for two hours to the farm and back. However, outside of Ethan’s constant bathroom breaks, they did great! They didn’t even seem to mind the driving time. I guess it just goes to show that drives aren’t that bad when you’re going on a cool adventure.

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Day 1,954 - Nueve

I know I’ve mentioned this before but my kids don’t particularly care about stuff. They would always prefer to have some kind of fun experience instead. That’s made fairly evident when looking at the way Ellie chose to celebrate her 9^th birthday (yes, nine) this past weekend.

From the very beginning, Ellie was fairly involved in planning her birthday. She knew she wanted to eat a “Better Than Anything” Cake and she also knew that she wanted to go on some kind of adventure. In addition, she planned out the actual day of her birthday in painstaking detail.

Her birthday began fairly simply with the request of her favorite food, pancakes, for breakfast. However, these weren’t any ordinary pancakes. These were topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. Clearly the breakfast of champions, right?

From there, Bethany and I called a quick audible and bestowed a birthday gift upon Ellie. While she had already received her gift of a new tennis racket a couple of weeks prior so that she would have it for tennis camp, it didn’t seem cool for her to not have anything to open. As such, I had sneakily headed into Costco a few days prior sans kids to purchase a new beach towel with Bluey emblazoned upon it that Ellie had been eying for quite some time. Ellie’s excitement was fairly obvious as she spread the towel out on the living floor and laid down on it, proudly proclaiming, “Look, this towel is bigger than I am!”.

Once birthday gifts were opened, it was time for us to head outside for some tie-dye fun. Earlier in the week, I had taken the kids to Hobby Lobby to pick out some things to tie-dye the morning of Ellie’s birthday. Ellie decided on a new t-shirt and a pillowcase while Ethan picked a drawstring bag and pillowcase as well. While tie-dying always takes a bit of work to set up, it’s a ton of fun watching the kids exercise their creativity in coming up with fun designs and colors. Soon enough, we finished tie-dying and it was time to let the dye soak.

The next thing on Ellie’s list had been to play outside. However, Mother Nature had another idea in mind as the rain fell hard outside. Instead, we decided that a family movie was in order. With that, we all snuggled together in front of the television to watch the live-action version of The Lion King. Neither kid had ever actually seen this version of the film but both were pretty invested by the end.

After our movie ended, it was time to partake in Ellie’s planned birthday lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Yes, I am aware that it’s June. Ellie was too for that matter. However, can you really argue with a brand-new nine-year-old when she makes a relatively simple birthday lunch request? After lunch ended, it was time for both kids to head to their individual quiet times for a short nap as we would be having a late night.

Once the naps came to an end, we spent the afternoon just kind of hanging out around the house and engaging in a variety of activities until the time came for us to leave the house for our next engagement. You see, one of the perks of Bethany’s job at DFA is that tickets for sporting events occasionally are available for employees to call dibs on. This was one of those times as Bethany, seeing that the Kansas City Monarchs had a home game on Ellie’s birthday, took advantage and asked for the tickets. Lucky for Ellie, we were now the proud recipients for four Legends Club tickets.

When we arrived at the Legends Field, we found our way to the VIP Entrance located far away from the traditional commoner’s gates. Then, after a quick stop at the Fan Services table where Ellie obtained her birthday crown, we headed up the private stairs and into the Legends Club where we were treated to an “all you can eat” buffet complete with hot dogs, brisket, turkey, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, watermelon, potato salad, and several other things.

Once the game started, we took our seats right outside the Legends Club in a nice, covered section that served to protect us from potential sunburns, errant foul balls, and crying babies. However, there was one thing that the Legends Club seats couldn’t protect us from and that was a visit from Monty, the Monarchs mascot.

While a mascot visit seems like it shouldn’t be a bad thing, this occasion was slightly traumatizing. It started simply enough with Monty entering our seating area and inviting Ellie to join him for a picture. However, when Ellie stood alongside him, her birthday crown became hooked to the baseball stitches lining the side of Monty’s baseball-shaped head. When he stood up, the crown whipped off of Ellie’s head and fell from the second deck to the first deck below. Monty and Ellie were both understandably traumatized by this moment. They both just kept sadly looking down at the ground below. Soon enough though, a Monarchs staffer was right there in our seats with a brand-new crown for Ellie to wear.

After that, I’m happy to say that there were no other mishaps awaiting us at the Monarchs game. We simply enjoyed watching a baseball game. Although, I will say that Ellie was more than a little sad that the Monarchs couldn’t muster a win for her birthday. The post-game fireworks kind of helped to soothe that hurt though.

All in all, I’d say that Ellie had a great ninth birthday. She got to create her own schedule of events for the day and had a ton of fun in doing so. It is a little weird though to realize that this is her final year with a single-digit age. Next year, the big 1-0 hits and who knows what that will bring. Actually, let’s just focus on having fun this year and worry about next year later.

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