Down Home Family fun in the Midwest (by Lawrence)

The glorious weather finally broke today, and we had our first Kansas thunderstorm.  Brother in law Matt and I were just heading out for a ride when the first drops began to fall.  Good thing we turned around because the skies positively opened up moments later.  We would have been drowned or zapped or both had we ignored the weather.  It worked out perfectly though since we had planned to take a trip to the Miniature and Toy Museum.

This is a museum dedicated to toys, models, and other tiny things.  It was fantastic!  Of particular interest were the vintage GI Joes of my childhood, architectural models, marble mazes, and what has to be one of the most complete Pez dispenser collections on the planet.  American Choppers Pez dispensers?  Really?  Really.  I shot a few pics of Metropolitan Kansas City with the new Canon G10.  Check 'em out!  

Oh yeah!  I forgot to mention that we got to go to a KC Royals game on Tuesday night.  The stadium was so civilized.  It kind of surprised me.  Highlights included nearly catching a foul ball and being ushered off the opposing team's bus (which I mistook for our bus).  My favorite photo of the evening is two of KC's finest gazing into the glowing maw of the stadium.

  

Kansas (finally) by Isabel

We're in Kansas (finally)... today I went to Union Station to study trains and beaux-arts style architecture. Cool, huh? There were model trains, cool ceilings and much more. Actually, the real reason we went was to see Disneys  "A Christmas Carrol" train tour, but it would have been an hour and a half wait in the hot sun to get in so we decided not to. Sophia, and  Grant (my cousin) had a great time and so did I, (most of the time). Other than that we have been going to birthday parties, swimming , and having fun with family. We miss you all !!!!!!!!

The Journey Begins (by Lawrence)

Greetings friends!  This blog is a record of our family's travels in Peru and Bolivia from September of 2009 until June of 2010.  Part of Krista's job at Bowdoin College is to conduct research during sabbatical leave every seven years or so, and we are the lucky beneficiaries of this program.  I have taken a one year leave from my teaching position at Georgetown Central School and the girls will be home schooled by us for the year.  Sophia may attend a Spanish speaking pre-school if we can find one we like.

The first hurdle we had to overcome was preparing our house for the couple who will be renting it for the year.  This involved some long overdue repairs, purging of years worth of clutter, and cleaning.  We all agree that our house has never looked better than the day we handed it over to the renters.  How ironic, no?  We managed to live in a state of abject squalor for all the years we occupied 89 Green Street, but for someone else we give it the old spit-shine.  

So, once the baton was passed we drove off, packed like sardines into our rental car, headed west toward the next staging ground, Krista's parent's house in Shawnee Kansas.