Dance like no one is watching

and you end up with a big pile of old shoes in your bedroom. I hate to think what this would look like if it included all her ballet, tap and jazz shoes past their prime. She won't discuss parting with these and I am thinking it's all down hill to being a hoarder.

Emily auditioned for The Nutcracker AND a toe tapping part in her middle school's production of The Wizard of Oz last week. She was super excited to be cast as Spanish in the Nutcracker and part of the Lullaby League (pointe shoe dancer) for Oz. We were in the car and she was dancing away like she usually does and I thought to myself, do other people's children dance in the car like mine do? Probably not.

Everything's like a dream in Kansas City

It's likely only people from Oklahoma know that song. And only people from Kansas believe it. We traveled north to Kansas City for Labor Day weekend and stayed on site at Worlds of Fun Amusement Park.

The cabin was the same type accommodations (it's a trailer) as what we had at Cedar Point in Ohio, including the roller coaster out back, probably because both parks are owned by the same company. Who knew?

The park was not crowded at all so we just went on all the big roller coasters twice. We came back later and rode our favorites again. This was in the backyard.

The Mamba. At the end of the day they decided it was their favorite roller coaster.

We could hear the screamers while inside the cabin.

This was the Patriot. My favorite.

It was like Batman at Six Flags only bigger.

The Boomerang is the ride where the whole thing happens facing forward and then the whole thing happens again backward.

When we went back in the evening to ride this again for the third time those cars were stuck on the ride just like that.

In the dark. They were stuck for at least 30 minutes but as soon as the passengers were rescued they just started running the ride again. Makes you wonder about roller coaster riders, hmmm?

Lonny, decided not to ride the timber Wolf.

Emily and I rode twice than decided if we had ever wondered what shaken baby syndrome felt like, we now had some idea.

And voted world's best new attraction, the Prowler.

Not sure if they meant "Worlds of Fun" world or world world? I would vote it exceptionally entertaining.

The Spinning Dragons ride had a long line and was silly. The funniest thing about the ride was watching the mom in line in front of us try to convince her son to give it a try. I relived Disneyland with a young Geoff all over again. Ahh, the memories.

Emily rode this Finnish Fling while Lonny and I watched. We didn't know what it was so we sacrificed our daughter while we safely observed. She and the other lambs stood along the wall which began spinning.

Eventually, the floor dropped and they just clung to the wall. It was hilarious and her favorite ride.

We rode Cyclone Sam but still not sure who Sam is.

It was inside of a building so I'm thinking maybe Space Mountain junior but Lonny says he is imagining Fire in the Hole. The ride was so hilarious, think the Himalayan, only faster, darker, higher, and lower and scary. This is Emily as it ended.

We had walked and walked and walked all day. And it was dark.

The park closed so we left. They wouldn't let us stay.

Sunday we went to Church and then to Liberty Jail.

We trekked to the Richmond Cemetery where David Whitmer is buried. We drove into the cemetery with hundreds of headstones and wondered how we would find what we were looking for. Thankfully there was a sign.

Farther down the road in Richmond is the pioneer cemetery with a monument to the Three Witnesses,

and the grave of Oliver Cowdery. There were not too many marked graves but at least four Turner headstones. Pretty sure this is not our George.

We just kept going to the Far West Temple Site.

At one time Far West had over 150 houses, stores, etc. And now there is nothing. I find that so fascinating that people didn't move in to the abandoned town. It is just gone.

The site was surprisingly well taken care of. The whole area is landscaped with park like grass, picnic tables and clean restrooms. And it is out in the middle of nothing. Well except for this store that I would have shopped at if only it wasn't closed. It was Sunday.

The small town metropolis of Hamilton was between here and there. Most famous homegrown boy . . . . J.C. Penney. Must have had some angst about not being able to buy a blender and tube socks under the same roof. Now that I think of it Sam Walton matured not too far away some 200+/- miles almost straight south. Interesting.

We just kept driving farther and farther to these sites so we decided to go another 30 miles to Adam-ondi-Ahman.

I mean when are we coming back? No, I mean really, when are we coming back?

Then it was back to Kansas City and Independence. The Church has a visitor's center. I would say it is a favorite. And the Community of Christ has a Temple across the street.

And the Church of Christ Temple Lot has . . . . well a temple lot.

Monday morning we took a tour of the Jesse James Museum.

This was the site of the first bank robbery by Jesse James and eleven of his dearest friends. Not sure why he gets the notoriety since he just stood outside. With a gun.

Money is heavy.

We thought about buying Jesse James rubber band guns for our grandsons but decided not to give them any ideas about robbing banks. They have some chaos all thought up on their own.

I don't think Emily would be a good robber. She is not very intimidating. She also does not like to be in big trouble.

Last stop was the Crown Plaza in downtown Kansas City, a mall built around the Hallmark International Headquarters. The Hallmark Visitors Center was closed over the holiday. Do people take off work to go to the Hallmark Visitors Center? It must be something. The mall smelled like chocolate. Here's why.

There were shops and restaurants for children I had never seen before, but I wished the grandkids were with us because Emily is not as young as she used to be. She didn't want to eat at the Crayola Cafe

or Fritz's Railroad Restaurant which delivers your hamburger by electric train. The kids walking out of there were wearing engineer hats. I can hardly imagine the fun she missed.

So now, unlike Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore.