Arkansas and St. Louis, Missouri

My Mom, Dad, Seth Kaia and I set off on our road trip on September 20, 2010 with no time limit just destinations!     

Our first stop was the Arkansas Visitor's Center.

 Got Hoops?

 Then we set off to see Graceland!

Here are the kids signing the front wall!

 Kaia and I with our names on the wall.

 We set out for St. Louis, MO to see the Gateway Arch.

We made it to MO. to a hotel where we had the pool all to ourselves, SCORE!!!

Day 2 we got up and set out to see the Arch!  This was so Amazing!!!

View from the top!

 The elevator (if that's what you want to call it) was a little scary, but I loved it!  

I have learned to embrace the moment and just go with it.

Seth, Kaia and my Dad also had a great ride up!

As you can see there wasn't a whole lot of room in there!

 Mom, not so much!

But she made it!

Here is a shot from the outside, if you look really close you can see the windows that you look out of from the top.

 Seth and Kaia picked up this really cool quill and ink set from the gift shop under the arch!

If you have not visited The Gateway Arch you are missing out.  It is something I can't wait to go back to!

Rethinking Everything Conference 2010

 This was our first year attending RE and I have to say it was fabulous!  The kids wanted to live there!  It was held at the American Airlines Training Center in Fort Worth.  Since it was our first year we decided to drive up there on Thursday to get a feel for the place.  The kids decided to take a dip in the pool.

 While there we helped set up the Kid Village.

 Seth wandering around.

  Who doesn't love playing in shaving cream!

 Sewing Room

Seth and a group of kids created their own Harry Potter Club.  It wasn't on the schedule so they bounced around from room to room recreating the Hogwarts Experience! 

Here they are on The Hogwarts Express!

 One of their classes.

 New friends!

Learning some Judo

 Kaia at the Kids Bazaar selling her crochet jewelry.

Kaia is Awesome!

 Beauty!

 At the AATC there was an airplane cabin for training, they let the kids play in it and they had a blast recreating the in flight experience.  I have to say with these two passengers they needed some extra flight attendants!

 Practicing their CPR skills!

 Seth found a new use for the oxygen masks!

The view while eating breakfast!

 Kids playing a game called Gaga.

Here are the basics.

There are tables that are laying down to make a circle.

 1. You can only hit the ball with your hands.
2. If it hits the knee or lower you are out.
3. After you hit the ball it has to touch something before you can hit it again.(somebody or the wall)

 Kaia soaking up some morning sun!

 Taking apart electronics.

 Watermelon seed spitting.

 Kaia learning some face painting skills from Susan.

 Kaia and her first customer!

How would you live if you were free?

 Lobby and check in.

A Little Less = A Lot More

Feels like forever since I have seen my kids faces.  They are always in something electronic (They take after me there).  So today starts a week long journey for our family. We explained to them that we didn't have all the things they did growing up and that we were still happy. They just can't imagine not having all this stuff.

We are not going to extremes with it just a taste of what it was like. 

Things we are trying out this week.  These things are not set in stone, we are just making a conscience effort to find something else we could be doing instead!

DVR and NETFLIX
We are watching live TV, I have to say I hate commercials and I don't think my kids have ever HAD to sit through them.

COMPUTER
They are still able to get on them if needed to look up something but they are not spending all day on them.

HAND HELD GAMES AND IPODS
The DS is easy since they never play it but since I got my new Droid Incredible they have been using my Ipod Touch a lot.

Comments so far this morning.
Kaia "What did we do to deserve a week?"
         "Did you have DVD's when you were a kid?'

Sewing

I love to sew! I got hooked when Kaia was about 4.  It didn't start with clothing though, it started with bows and the price people wanted for them. While I was searching the web for instructions on bow making I and ran across some boutique clothing but it was way out of my price range.  So I decided to teach myself to sew!  I have to say I made some really cute outfits! You can check them out here!

This is the first outfit that I made.

...and this is one my favorites!