Celebrating Westie

Oh, man.

It's finally here.

As you know, I'm a planner...

and I've been planning my birthday

since the day have my last birthday!

I had my best buds over--

Sully, Mack, Bennet, Kwasi, and cousin Austin

for a slumber party.

We ate pizza,

decorated pillowcases

Oh, yeah.

My brothers were invited too.

Lots of creative juices flowing

We finished up the night

with a popcorn bar

and a movie.

The next morning,

we had some breakfast--

Austin and Sully cooked eggs for everyone

and we had a taste off to see

who the best cook was.

It was a tie.

What would be a birthday breakfast

without whipped cream shots?

For everyone!

We opened presents

 and headed for the pool.

Blizzard ice cream cake,

just as ordered!

What did I wish for?

More fun with these guys!

To the pool!

We got to play on the Wibit, 

which is this huge inflatable

jungle gym for the water.

It was amazing.

We only got one picture

because Mom and Dad 

actually jumped in and swam with us

the whole time!

After that,

we had relay races.

That was fun.

Mom's really proud she beat

us at butterfly.

But she didn't catch us

in freestyle

 It was an awesome party!!!

I'm already planning next year's...

The next night,

I got to pick my birthday dinner.

Jack Stack, anyone?

Wings, fries, flavored tea,

and a brownie sundae?

Yes, please!

Meemaw and Grandpa joined us

for the night too!

Happy 9th birthday to me!

A Howling good concert

My choir's last performance of the year

was an invited performance

at an Alex's Lemonade Stand

fundraiser.

We had to wear goofy clothes

and I gathered my courage

to join in.

Can you see me?

I'm in the green hat.

We sang 5 or 6 songs

and a few more with the adult choir.

 We raised a ton of money for

cancer research and family support.

It was a good finale

to my first choir season

Love to my supporters!

Swim lessons take 3...

We've tried this a couple times before

and it hasn't gone very well.

We're trying again...

Third time's a charm, right?

I'm at the side of the pool...

...and I'm floating!

I'm a shivering little monkey!

Beckett is in level 3 this year--

gotta work on his strokes

for Waves this summer

He was so good a floating,

his teacher wasn't even watching him

It's hard for a guy

with 2% body fat

to survive in a cold pool--

but this round is going better

than any round before!

Just what we always wanted!

Birthday came a little early this year...

I've been BEGGING to get Stitch Fix

like Mom and Jack.

My wish finally came true!

Mom and Dad are hopeful

I'll dress better... 

And Tuck?

Big Boy Booster Seats!

It's gonna be an awesome year!

One last adventure in Wichitawesome

Well, boo.

Today is our last day of Spring Break.

We're headed home.

But we had time for

one more swim

Twinsies! 

And some goofing around

On our way home,

we headed to Stearman Airfield

for lunch

You could sit and watch all these little

planes take off while you ate

Pretty cool

One heck of a Spring Break!

Wichita day 3: Strataca and Cosmosphere

Today we headed to Hutchison

for a day of adventure

underground and in the stars.

First we went to Strataca,

a huge salt mine.

We descended 650 feet under ground

and started exploring

That's a big block of salt! 

Here's a little block of salt

We listened to some presentations

checked out all the nooks and crannies

and looked at a lot of

memorabilia

The best part was our Dark Ride

where we boarded a little tram

and headed waaaaaay out into the mine

Do we look excited?

An Austin selfie

There was a lot of cool formations

and such out there.

Here's an area with a bit of the ceiling came down

We stopped to fill our pockets

with salt

 Fill 'em up, boys!

Ha!  Look at this!

It's a drill hole

for explosives

Salt mines are an amazing

place to store things.

We saw a newspaper from when

Lincoln was assassinated

and lots of movie props--

like this dude from The Matrix

(Wes and Dad's favorite movie)

Well that was pretty cool!

We had a quick

van picnic

and then headed into the

Smithsonian-associated Cosmosphere

As a boy considering astronomy

as a career,

I was in heaven

There was a life-sized model of a space shuttle

right in the middle of the lobby!

We rode on a flight simulator

and played in a few displays

but all the actual space artifacts

were what really held our attention.

Here was the back-up for Sputnik

one of the Gemini rockets

and a lunar lander

But the Apollo artifacts

were what really stopped us

in our tracks.

We watched a show about

Apollo 13 on our way to Hutchison

so we were up to speed on the crew

and their story.

Here are their actual suits

and the ACTUAL capsule!!!

This is one of 3 White Rooms.

This is the room that connects

the Apollo rockets

to the launch tower.

1/3 of the astronauts walked 

RIGHT HERE!!!

It was really impressive.

Tuck got a space shuttle

and an SR-71 to commemorate the day

(although he did call it the

"s-r-go 71" which sounded like

escargot...)

Time for some pics

After we got back to Wichita,

we caught the Q-line trolley

and ate at The Anchor.

We decided to branch out 

for dessert and rode the trolley a bit further

to The Donut Whole

for dessert.

BUT, it was closed.

They had sold out for the day.

We could see they were getting donuts out

for tomorrow

so Mom and Aunt Michelle 

tried to plead our way into a few donuts.

We thought we were in but the employee

had to check with the manager...

who turned us down.

Boo. 

No matter.

We headed back to the hotel

for some card and board games

and kept the night fun going.

Nothing like family time...