A Little Trip to Kansas

Chad had to take a business trip to Kansas last week so Gavin and I went with him to make a fun little trip out of it. It was only a two hour drive and we got a nice new rental car for the ride up there so it was a fun road trip for all of us.

So I'll just go ahead and tell you about the huge dramatic event that took place the day after we got there. As I said, we got lucky and got a new 2014 Ford Escape rental car with all the bells and whistles. It had a plug for our DVD player, XM radio and a cool little key fob that allowed you to turn the car on before you even got into it. Which was nice because any time after noon it would get quite toasty outside and getting into a car with the air conditioner already kicking was quite a treat. So my first day of having the rental car, Gavin and I head out the door to go pick Chad up from his training class. I walk out the door and punch the button and the car turns on at my very command. I am feeling IN CONTROL! I get Gavin settled in to his car seat and get his Mickey Mouse DVD going (He was begging to watch it as I had just woken him up from his nap and Mickey always makes that transition so much better.) I slam the door and go to get in the car and I am taken over by a sudden and violent panic. The. Door. Is. Locked. I am SO NOT in control!!!!! I quickly run around to all the doors and not one of them answers my begging to please, please, please open. Nope. I have locked my child inside the car. I take a deep breath and in the middle of silently cursing myself out, I do thank my lucky stars I had my phone in my hand. I quickly get to thinking and call the rental company we got the car from. I won't go into detail but that ended up being a huge dead end and my hanging up in a fit of rage. I call a lock smith. No answer. I call THREE lock smiths with no answer and finally get the fourth on the phone. While I am on the phone with said lock smith, the car turns off. Now my child is inside of a non-air conditioned car in 95 degree weather. I start panicking. Especially when the lock smith is telling me she doesn't know when she can get someone to come out there and help me so I need to call the fire department. Are you kidding me here???? I just hang up on her and start looking up the fire department. I get them on the phone and they inform me I have to call 911. She starts explaining rules and whatever, I wasn't even listening because I am faced with the fact that this situation just got real. I hang up, take a deep breath and call 911. I have never had to do this before and I hope I never have to do it again. The operator gets on the phone and I immediately start bawling. Bless his heart, he heard everything I was blubbering and was asking me all these questions. I knew he was trying to calm me down but I was trying so hard to apologize. I could NOT get anyone to help me!! I had to call you! My child is inside the car and it is so hot outside. He asked me if he was upset and I looked into the car and that boy could have cared less. He was glued to the DVD and Mickey was bouncing around on the screen so all was good in his world. I was doing my best not to be by his window while I was blubbering on like some girl in a Nicholas Sparks book. The operator told me I had to go stand by the road and flag the "unit" down. I was under the impression a cop car would come but nooooo. I hear this huge siren blaring down the street and in swings an enormous firetruck and parks right in front of me. I am about to explode with embarrassment. Out pop three firemen that meet every criteria you have ever wanted in a fireman. Young, nicely built, blue eyes (yes all three of them and yes, I looked) and the embarrassment just keeps mounting on me. They walk around the car and access the situation. One of them is talking to Gavin through the window and he is sort of starting to wonder what is going on at this point but again, Mickey is just so darn interesting! After lots of struggling with a wire hook thingy and not enough apologies from me, those poor guys finally got that stupid door unlocked. Gavin was in there almost 35 minutes without any air and oh my goodness. When I popped my head into the car to check on him, he was SO hot!!! His face was all red; he had sweat beads all over his little cheeks; his hair was all wet at the tips. It was AWFUL!!! One of the guys got in the back and talked to him and made sure he was fine. I profusely apologized for making them have to come out there and they did their best to make me feel not so stupid. They tipped their fire hats at me and climbed back on the truck and drove off into the heat of the day like the modern day heroes they are. Of course Chad was, most definitely not for the first time in our marriage, wondering how I even manage to get my shoes on the right feet in the mornings. But in my defense, I had NO idea the stupid car locked when you started it up!!! From that point on, I just started the car like a normal person. Sometimes luxuries just aren't worth the trouble. The rest of the trip was drama free.

We went to the zoo and I have to say, it was THE best zoo we have ever been to so far. It was so pretty and really well designed. There was hardly a soul there. At times, it really did feel like we were the only ones there. All the animals were pretty active and we got to see a lot of them up close (sometimes too close; that tiger was HUGE!) Many of the exhibits were hands on and built to make it seem you are in the enclosure with the animals. It was just a really fun day at the zoo. (It totally made up for me roasting my child inside a Ford Escape.)

This fellow was quite taken with Gavin. It was SO cute!!

This is Elliot. I tried to get Gavin to feed him but he wasn't so sure of Elliott. So I did.

This was one of the coolest parts of the zoo- an actual rain forest inside a greenhouse.

Yowza!!!

Double yowza! This guy was huge!!!

The next day we went to the botanical gardens and it was sort of a bust. I guess after the zoo experience, nothing much could compare. But the children's gardens were closed and it wasn't all that big. Gavin wasn't too interested in the butterfly garden and no matter how much I tried to make it seem like all the water fountains were so cool, he wasn't much impressed. However, they did have a little railroad set up with two running trains and Gavin thought that was pretty awesome. So it wasn't a total waste.

Thrilled

 

So excited about the trains! He would yell "All aboard!!"

We had fun with Daddy too on our trip. We would try out new places to eat for dinner and enjoyed a few locally brewed beers. We had lunch at a really nice place with great food. We ate at a restaurant that was pilot themed. There was plane stuff everywhere. The tables had plane engines incorporated into them. They even had their own wine room stocked with their own wine. And it was delicious! So it was a fun, short trip filled with neat animal experiences and just a quick call to 911, no biggie.

Our view at lunch

Being silly with Daddy

Hangar One Steakhouse and Wine Bar