Meet The Kirks

We’re back in Wichita after a weekend away in Kansas City. It was a great time with lots of firsts for Ester, some good times with family, and time to reconnect with old friends. We’re a bit tired at the moment, but looking forward to spending Memorial Day resting up.

 

On Friday, Chris underwent a successful root canal. He had been in a lot of pain all week, so we were happy that the procedure went well, albeit a big poorer. After the dental fun, we drove to Kansas City where we decided at the last minute to get a hotel. We lucked into a super cheap price at the Hyatt Recency, so we got to stay in the heart of Crown Center, twenty-two floors up. Ester and Justice enjoyed the view. 

On Friday evening, we met up with some of Chris’ old college friends for dinner at Jose Peppers. We had a great time reconnecting after many years and catching up with each other.

Saturday was Jiggle Jam at Crown Center. Wes, Nancy, and Jena joined us and the girls had fun dancing to the music. We saw Justice Roberts and the Sounds of Africa. Ester loved playing in the fountain with the other kids and Justice even got his feet wet. After the show, we drove north to uncle Daryl and Beverly’s home for our family reunion.

We had a wonderful time introducing the kids to that side of the family. We roasted out hot dogs and smores, played music, and ate some yummy food. Ester and Justice fit right in and had a lot of fun.

We just got back from celebrating Mother’s Day at Chris’ parents home.  It was a great conclusion to a good week and a weekend full of activity.  As you can see from the video we experienced some firsts, enjoyed the first weekend of River Festival, and had a lot of fun together as always.

On Friday evening, we headed down to the River Fest Parade.  Ester loved watching the helicopter’s in the sky and the floats going by.  Then, we walked over and watched a couple innings of Wichita’s new baseball team, The Wingnuts.  Ester loved the music as you can see, and we got to see a Grand Slam Home Run.  We finished the evening with some ice cream and fireworks.

  Our RiverFestival fun continued on Saturday as Chris, Wes, and Jason all ran in the  RiverRun 10K race.  It was a nice morning and all the guys did really well.   Afterwards, we visited the opening weekend of the downtown Farmer’s Market and worked in the yard.  The afternoon was spent napping and watching the broadcast of Pangea Day, an event to connect people globally through film.

Justice had a big day today.  He tried his first solid food and did very well.  The little man is getting very mobile.  Today, he attempted to roll down the hallway towards his Mama, and he loves rolling towards the guitars.  It’s hard to believe that he is almost six months old.

Tomorrow, Chris is taking a day off so we can celebrate Mother’s Day II.  We figured since Natasha went from being a mother to none 13 months ago to having two now, she deserves an extra day.  More on that, and the other antics of our family soon.

This weekend flew by as we kept busy with the culmination of two big events. On Saturday, we celebrated Ester’s first Gotcha Day with a little cookout. We munched on yummy kabobs and enjoyed time with the whole family. It was fun watching Jena and Ester play in the back yard. The weather was GORGEOUS! It was a perfect way to commemorate the amazing year we’ve had with our wonderful daughter. We really can’t imagine life without her now.

Then, this morning we rolled out of bed at 3:30 a.m. and drove to Lawrence for the Half Marathon. Chris had been training for this event for the past few months, and we were glad it had finally arrived. The course was tough (they actually have hills in Lawrence), but Chris survived and actually enjoyed some of it. Needless to say, we find ourselves exhausted and headed to be early this evening before our new week begins.

 

Here’s a video of some corn munchin’ and Daddy’s number one cheerleader. Enjoy.