5 years 10 months 24 days

Day 2154. Emmy was up first this morning, and then Sammy was up right away as well. It was already close to 8 am. My alarm was set for 8:15 which was mighty early for me, but I had a 9 am student. I checked my phone and found a message that he had to cancel our lesson so I was glad that I could stay in bed after all and get some more sleep - at least once the kids went upstairs and it got silent. 

At 10:30 am we all left the house together and got into the car for our ride of 1 hour 50 minutes. I had charged all their tablets over night so that they could use them in the car for the long ride. 

At 12:30 pm we arrived at the American restaurant in Columbia, MO, where we were meeting our friend. As it was a Saturday, the place was very busy. I put our name in and was told it would be about 10 minutes. Then we sat down and waited. I got the message from my friend that she had arrived at the same time as the restaurant's that our table was ready. Together we sat down and started looking at the menu. I had already done so in the car to be ready to order but they had no pasta and the lunch menu was not for Saturday so we had to change our plans. We ordered, and then we finally got to talk. We were disappointed she hadn't brought her husband and her baby, but it was sure good to catch up with her. I wished we could have had more time. The kids enjoyed their food as they had already been very hungry - even before arriving and then it took an hour for the food to come out. So we ended up having little food to take home with us. Before and after the kids were eating, they were on their tablets. Sammy was in a baby chair next to our friend and had a good time interacting with them.

When we were done and ready to leave, we asked a waitress to take our picture. Tammy was really clinging to our friend, and Sammy really liked her as well. She walked with us to our car then it was time to say good-bye.

It was 3 pm, and we drove 4 minutes to the indoor swimming pool we wanted to go to. There are lots of waterparks in Kansas City but we hadn't had any time to go to any one of them. Having driven for two hours, that seemed to be the right place to go before driving back.

We paid $18 for the five of us, then walked into the family locker room where we got changed. We took all our stuff into the pool area with us. They had a shelf set up for people to put their stuff on which we did.

The kids were really excited to be there and didn't know where to start. We walked to the little playground but they wanted to go on into the deeper water so we did. It was rather cold, like the pool in Austria, but it lots of different areas. They had a lazy river, where there we water was moving and moving people along, and they had water come down from the top in some places. I was playing with the kids as we went through there, and we had lots of fun. We went through there quite a few times. They also had a round area where the water was moving even faster going round and round, and the kids were enjoying it too.

They had a nice water slide that the kids wanted to do so I asked the lifeguard there what the agre restriction was. She said they had to be 48 inches tall (just like in the indoor playground). I asked whether the kids could go down with a parent, and she said no. In Austria that's possible. It was very disappointing for the kids.

Emmy is quite sensitive to the cold water and started shivering considerably, so Randy got out of the water with him. I continued having fun with Tammy and Sammy; surprisingly Sammy was fine with the cold water. We were going to the playground again, when Emmy excitedly pointed out that there was a whirlpool in the corner there. We went inside the very hot water which was so very nice. We all enjoyed it greatly for a few minutes. Then an employee came and told us that you had to be 16 or older to go into the hot tub. That was disappointing but thankfully we'd had a few minutes in it.

The kids made a short visit to the playground where I let Sammy go down the slide a few times, then it was time to get going. We changed again and left the building to walk to the car. We had spent two hours there. It was 5 pm when we started our 2-hour journey back to Kansas City. They were on their tablets again while I was so very tired that I closed my eyes. 

Just after 7 pm we arrived at the grocery store near the house where we're staying. Emmy went inside with me to pick up some items. It took us about half an hour, and we didn't find everything. We put everything into the car and drove the remaining 3 minutes to the house where we arrived just before 8 pm. We hadn't eaten dinner yet so we all had some food in our room where we have a little kitchen area. Then it was time to get them ready for bed. I still read them a story, prayed for them, and they went to bed. It was about 8:45 pm, so later than usual. Then I turned my computer on to work on the pictures and the report. Now it's just after 11:30 pm, and I'm the only one still up. We have to leave the house early tomorrow morning.