2023 :: week 31

Summer Week #11

July 30

Sunday was our first full day with the Maxfields. In the morning we went to church, and Anthony and Elliott were asked to speak at the last second because the scheduled high council speaker had gotten sick. In the afternoon we started our gum tournament. We know the Maxfields like tournaments, so the kids and I bought a bunch of different types of gums to try and find our favorite. In retrospect we should have stuck to one type--minty, bubble or fruity--because there was a lot of noise in the scientific process. Regardless, it was a lot of fun trying the different flavors and being surprised by how popular the Sour Patch Trident was, as well as how no one really liked the Orbit Spearmint gum. The kids played a lot of games throughout the day (and week). Anthony let the kids in on the secret that he will read longer, and thus delay bedtime if they scratch his head. 

July 31

Monday morning I took Miles to Children's Mercy to have a pediatric orthopedic surgeon look at his osteochondroma. Luckily it seems to be "normal" and we will get yearly x-rays to keep an eye on things. In the afternoon we headed to the Truman Presidential Library. It was recently redone by the same group that did the Spy Museum in DC. It was informational and engaging and we easily spent over two hours, which is pretty impressive considering that we had 8 kids with us ranging from four to 13. Most of the kids liked the game where Senator Joe McCarthy would interrogate them and *gasp* found most of them to be communists! Miles spent a lot of time with Nolan at the library and throughout the week. 

August 1

Monday evening our luck turned and we spent a lot of Tuesday dealing with the issues. On the way home from the Truman library we noticed we had a flat tire. We filled it with air, but it was flat again within a few hours. Tuesday we dropped the van off at Costco to get the tire repaired (they found a screw in it). Also Monday evening we found a pool of water around our HVAC system. We learned the hard way that when water starts spilling out you are in danger of shorting out the system and that is very expensive. We turned off the machine to let the frozen coils melt and spent several hours with towels and wash cloths sopping up the runoff. Our HVAC company was able to come out Monday and refill the freon. By Tuesday night the AC was up and running again. With all this housekeeping we had to stay close to home. Luckily we have a pool down the street, so we were still able to get out of the house and cool off. We had some of the hottest weather of the summer the week the Maxfield's were in town.

August 2

Wednesday we went to Science City at Union Station. The Maxfield's have a pass to an science museum in Oregon that has reciprocity at Science City. We spent several hours and still weren't able to do everything--a few summer camps were there as well that pushed us to move along. That evening we went to Stonegate where Elliott experienced the high high of being allowed to go down the slide a few times, and then the low low of being denied access to the slide by another lifeguard who deemed him too short.

August 3

One of Will's goals for the week was to turn the Maxfields into Royals fans. On Thursday we went to an afternoon game and made some major progress on that count. We got some a great deal on a ticket package that included a drink and hot dog for each person, plus free parking. It wasn't very crowded so our cheers felt extra important. Will even got within a few feet of catching a foul ball. The Royals defeated the Mets 9-2! The boys were very happy that their favorite player, Bobby Witt Jr, hit a homerun. After the game we visited Young's Pool and the lifeguards there allowed Elliott to go down the slides there. 

August 4

Friday we headed to downtown KC. We rode the streetcar to the City Market and then walked to the bridge overlooking the Missouri River. It was hot, so we stopped and bought ice cream at Fountain City Scoops. They had Blue Bell ice cream and various drinks you could buy--such as butter beer. Steven, Will and Anthony picked out a bunch of specialty sodas for another taste test. That evening we went back to Young's Pool. It was the consensus favorite with the big slides and multiple diving boards. We didn't get a chance to go to Tomahawk because someone wore glass goggles into the pool and they broke in the water, necessitating the draining and refilling of the pool. We ordered pizzas to eat at the pool and stayed until closing. After the kids were in bed the adults drove downtown to go to a Jazz club. Anthony and I don't frequent clubs, so after the men did some research we decided to go to the Green Lady Lounge in the Crossroads. The were lucky to score a booth, which set us up for great people watching. We all determined we were glad we were out of the dating scene. We ordered mocktails and listened to live jazz while we visited and speculated about the people around us. On the way home we drove up Grand Street, and a renegade gang of people on ATVs and motor bikes swarmed around us and other cars when we were stuck in downtown traffic. There had to be at least fifty of them! TJ made it extra exciting by honking at one of the more reckless bikers. He stopped his bike and popped several long wheelies a few feet in front of our car. In the moment we were confused, amused and scared all at once. We wish we had taken a video or photos. We googled it, and apparently roving bands of ATV gangs have been terrorizing cities all over. That was enough adventure for us for awhile!

August 5

Saturday the Maxfields headed back to Oregon, but not before fitting in one last tournament. This time we did a soda tasting tournament with sodas Steven bought while we were at the City Market Friday. The 1919 Root Beer was the clear winner and Moxie was the consensus loser. We were all so sad to say goodbye when they left at lunchtime. The house was too quiet after they left. That evening we met up with the Throssells at the Lea McKeighan Park in Lee's Summitt for our annual summer picnic dinner.