After our beds were packed up, we stayed in a hotel down in Wichita. Wichita is a half an hour away, but because there are Marriott hotels there and not in our neck of the woods, we like to stay there to rack up the Marriott rewards points. We feel very blessed that Kenneth's company gives us time in temporary housing for the move- also providing a stipend each day for food.
Because of the timing of the sale of our house, we decided to use 2 weeks of our temporary housing in Kansas, rather than just drive directly to Georgia and stay in hotels here. Every year at the end of May, we make the trek to New York to be on Kenneth's parents' farm for First Cutting (of the hay). It is a 21 hour drive to the farm from Kansas, 14 hours from Kansas to Georgia and also 14 hours from Georgia to New York. If we moved directly out to Georgia and then made the trip up to New York and back, it would have been 7 more hours of driving than if we just stuck around in Kansas. Seven hours with 4 young children can seem like a really long time!
The hotel stays were definitely much easier this time around than when I had children so small I could never leave them alone. I remember when we moved from New York to Maryland I had a 3 year old and a one year old and I could never leave them alone in the hotel room; not to switch the laundry, not to get some filtered water from the exercise room, not to get something quickly at the front desk. It was very tricky, and not much fun all the time. This time around, Emma was old enough and responsible enough (and I don't have an infant) for me to leave them alone in the room for a few minutes while I run those short errands. So much nicer!
Does eating out every night sound like fun to you? Well, I must admit on the outset of this sort of adventure, getting to choose wherever you'd like to go out to eat each night
is a lot of fun! (Especially for people like us who very rarely go out to eat!) But, as much fun as it is, the kids don't always act as you'd like them to act at restaurants when you are going out every night. Not to mention, going out to eat can take up to 2 hours or longer. So, as you can see, staying in hotels with a food stipend can be a blessing and a curse! I also get pretty tired of the breakfast food in the hotels, although it's not too bad.
Since we were still in session in our schooling during the 2 weeks in the hotel, and I also knew that I wouldn't be able to keep our full normal school schedule with our lives in such uproar, we took quite a number of field trips. The girls were very good about getting right up in the morning and getting right to work on their spelling, math, writing and reading. Consequently, we had some time in the mornings to go on outings and still get Kate her afternoon nap.
The kids also watched a lot more TV than they usually do, simply because we were cooped up in a hotel and they couldn't go play outside in the backyard. The kids also missed having the piano to play and the chickens to spend time with.
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| Watching TV in the hotel |
Here are some pictures of our various adventures during our time in the hotel:
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| Fun tire swings at a Wichita park. This park also had a lake at which the kids had fun playing. |
These next few are at the Hutchinson Zoo:
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| The Dino Dig |
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| The big kids got a little frustrated with Kate covering up what they had already uncovered! |
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| They had lots of fun and uncovered a lot! |
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| Kate chasing the geese and goslings |
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| They followed them all the way to the pond. |
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| Arianna touching the fish |
These next few are Riverside Park in downtown Wichita. The playground was amazing and they even had a small area with native Kansas animals. We had a lot of fun here! I did feel the need to be extra vigilant in keeping track of each child because of some interesting characters I saw walking around the big park.
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| Kate playing on the structure |
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| They had so much fun on this structure! |
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| By the pond at this park Emma found a tiny baby turtle-too bad it was dead. |
These next few are from a Saturday outing to the Exploration Place in downtown Wichita:
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| It's always fun to have Dad with us! In the background is the famous Wichita statue, the Keeper of the Plains |
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| Playing at the water table with the Keeper of the Plains in the background |
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| Daddy and Kate with the Keeper of the Plains |
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| Building with blocks at the Exploration Place |
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| Arianna and Emma trying their hand at the building |
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| Grant in the airplane in the flight display |
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| Kansas in Miniature Display |
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| Riding the horses |
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| Arianna and Kate in the tornado experience. Kate couldn't handle it the first time she tried, but then ended up liking it! |
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| Our last visit to the Ellsworths'. Boy, we'll miss them!!! |
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| The day after we were at the Ellsworths', they came down to eat with us at Chick-Fil-A. We hung out there for over 3 hours! It was hard to say goodbye. |
Visit to the Great Plains Nature Center:
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| Hello wolf and bear! |
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| Riding the turkey statues |
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| On the nature walk. The kids had so much fun looking at all the animals. They saw geese, fish, turtles, a turkey and other birds. |
To curb the cabin fever, we searched out a great park. It so happened that it was right near the Humane Society, so we also made a visit there. The kids had so much fun seeing the animals.
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| Fun park! |
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| Kansas Heritage mosaic wall right next to the playground. It was very beautiful! |
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| Someone was bringing kittens into donate to the Humane Society and the kids got to say hello before they went in. |
After a little over 2 weeks in the hotels, we took off for New York. That post is next!
