ANG-CATION #6 - LOCAL SITES, MINNIE'S 50th

Back to school and business on Tuesday! It was my last full day in Kansas. I made sure that I was all packed up and ready to go. Contrary to Sunday and Monday, it was a mere couple degrees outside. Talk about brrr!!! Kansas cold seems a little worse than Idaho cold. I'll give you that point Ang!  Our first stop in the morning was the Kansas Historical Museum. 

They were doing a quilt exhibit for Kansas where everyone gets to vote on their favorite. One of the coolest quilts was of Potwin, which used to be a separate city of Topeka and was annexed in. It is where Minnie lives in a Historical District, so the houses are AMAZING and have tons of character!

This was a bible and a trunk of one of the first residents of Kansas. It was really cool thing to look at.

What kind of Kansas bird are you?

For me? A Meadowlark.

Ang is a Honeybee.

Did you know that the women were in charge of setting up and taking down the tepees? The poles are 20 feet long!!! They took down and set up all of the time, so they were quick in that. (We had a hard time getting the top of the tepee in the picture. Much bigger in person than it looks on camera.)

One of my favorite parts was to look at this poster and see Fort Hall and Salt Lake City on the map!

Covered wagon

Awesome train that they had to open up the building to put in and drive in on tracks. There were several cars inside the building that you could go in as well.

Bundled up and trying not to die in the cold and wind. Did I mention that Kansas has wind???

After picking up Remington, we headed to the Capitol Building downtown. They recently spent over $325 million dollars to renovate this 5 floor capital building. Quite a staggering figure, but it looks amazing.

Before

After - notice the new roof and covering on the dome

Inside of the dome - this is totally breathtaking! Pictures just do not do it justice!

We checked out the building, which has a lot of history, including a flag of when the state was added - the 34th state to the union. Another crazy fact is that Kansas was the last state to be added before the civil war. There is a lot of history regarding the civil war, especially in Lawrence, which is home to the University of Kansas, the Jayhawks shown below.

There is also Kansas State which is in Topeka shown here.

You can't go anywhere without seeing both of these logos on tshirts, hoodies, etc. Kansans are PROUD!!!

We purchased this cute "bubalo" (buffalo) for Robbie! The kids couldn't get enough of that stuffie!

Next step was Hazel Hill chocolates. It was really good. I tried a cake ball (they call them something different) and bought some turtles that were SO, SO good. Probably the best chocolates I have ever tasted (sorry Mom!). If you go to Topeka Kansas, make sure that you put this on your to do list!

Our next stop (as if we needed more sugar) was Mad Eliza's.

The cupcakes were pretty good, but still not as good as the Cocoa Bean in Idaho Falls (Rexburg and Provo too.)

After dinner, the Warth family ran over to Minnie's house to her surprise 50th birthday party (which ended up not being a surprise.) We saw a ton of deer just running through the neighborhood. I've never seen anything like that either! I think that Rob was wishing we were not in the city and that he had a gun with him! She is so gracious and a great hostess, as she showed us her amazing house! Just in case you are wondering, this is what 50 candles looks like on a cake. Minnie did awesome!!! 

Shannon, me, Minnie, Ang

And with a couple of kids added!

That night, I was happy to grab a quick picture of this amazing family. They really made me feel at home, loved, and blessed. I am so thankful for wonderful friends that are family! Thank you Rob, Ang, Sierra, Robbie, Bridger, and Remington for making my week in Kansas so memorable and wonderful! You are an amazing family! Love ya!