July 4th, 2014, KC Family Vacation

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!  We certainly did.  We went on our first family vacation.

Although not sure if it's really what you think of as a true 'vacation', I mean no site seeing occurred, no amusement parks were visited, no real 'firsts' happened but it was nice to get away for a few days down to the Kansas City Country Club Plaza.

We really enjoy shopping on the Plaza in the summer, they have a few stores we don't have back home such as Restoration Hardware (fun to dream!), Tiffany's (again, fun to dream!), a Potbelly's (smoothies please!), a Cooper Hawks (wine..um YES!), and a lot of 'A' stores as Aaron calls it using his commerical real estate lingo, which translates to a bigger Banana Republic and Gap stores with plentiful variety to fill a dressing room with.  My best find was this amazing black dress to wear for an upcoming wedding, if you are looking for the quintessential black dress, this one is for you!

  Annie did relatively well all weekend.  She picked her meltdowns almost perfectly to occur at every restaurant we ate at which was a bummer but we made due, one of us would walk around the restaurant or outside to calm her while the other one ate.  Oh well for relaxing, piping warm dinners!

She did great at the fireworks!  We decided to take a BIG gamble and put her to bed in her car seat before we headed out to the fireworks.  Then we transferred her back at the hotel into her swaddle sack and into her Rock N Play and we successful made the transition without waking her and she slept all thru the night.  Wheew!  We watched fireworks for a second year in a row at the Liberty Memorial which is located just off of downtown.  I love this high point in the city.  You can see 20+ firework displays for miles.  No fireworks go off at the Liberty Memorial which works out well with a sleeping baby beside you.  It's not crowded and everyone leaves as they please, no traffic to hassle with.

Aaron and I both agree, that if we weren't settled already in Des Moines, we would definitely live in KC.  I love our visits there!  

During our stay, we ate at a restaurant I would definitely head back to next time.  It was in the Westport area, which isn't far at all from the Plaza.  McCoys has a wide variety on their menu and a huge patio which was unfortunately packed when we got there.  

We started with an appetizer.  Can't go wrong with Spinach Artichoke Dip but this one, was spectacular, rivals our all time favorite in Chicago at Gino's East. 

It was so creamy and warm and the perfect combo of ingredients! YUM!

Onto the entree, as if the appetizer wasn't enough to fill my comfort food craving, I had to get the Mac Daddy.  AKA best mac and cheese ever!  For real, I could eat this for every meal. It was certainly yummers in my tummers.

The pizza on the other hand I have to be honest was just MEH.  Not that great.  The sauce was too saucy and had a kick to it that I didn't care for.  OH well they can't all be homeruns! 

All in all, I give McCoys 2 thumbs up even though the pizza wasn't great.  We'll be back for sure! 

Annie felt right at home at the hotel, just kicked back watching her movies.  Girl loves a good cartoon! 

My festive loves.  All decked out in their red, white and blue!  Hope you all had a Happy 4th!