Ashley's Here!

I've been chatting with my good friend, Ashley, about coming to visit for awhile, and this week she emailed me to let me know she had booked the time off work and was heading to KC! I was a little concerned about finding things to do (because KC offers so many great outdoor things and it's December!) but luckily we had some warm days that we could take advantage of.

The timing was perfect because Nathan was off work this week, so he took on Allison so that Ashley and I could be by ourselves. When we picked Ashley up from the airport, Allison was sleeping. She woke up and looked at Ashley sitting in the front seat, and heard me talking to her beside her. She looked at me and asked, "Mummy! Why is there two of you?!?" Ashley and I have been told that we look similar since we were little kids (much to my delight) so it was so cute that Allison thought that too.

Of course I had to take her to the zoo, because it's my favorite space. Many animals were off exhibit, but the ones that were out were very active. The hippo, who never moves, was thrashing in the water, mouth open, then he swam over to where we were standing (he usually hides at the back of the exhibit).

The koala was awake and moving, and it was the first time I've ever seen it awake. They are nocturnal animals that sleep 23 hours a day so it was very special to see it moving. We also saw a wild kangaroo fight. It wasn't too violent, just a lot of slapping and kicking, and we joked that we used to fight with our siblings like that.

We also went shopping at the Legend's Outlet Mall. We didn't find much, but as we were leaving we saw the the Saks on Fifth store was closing and was having a big sale. We both scored on shoes.

I got a pair of Uggs and a Sorel boots, both for under $60. I absolutely love them, and they were a price that Nathan wouldn't be shocked at.

Other activities for our three days together were:

-trip to the Nelson Atkins art museum
-saw Allied at the movie theatre
-shopped at the Ward Parkway shopping Plaza
-went out for lunch and two dinners

My favorite part of the visit was on the last night, we played Dream Phone. Ashley is the friend who had the game as a kid and I always was jealous of it. So tonight we played it, and Ashley was the first to guess that Carlos was her secret admirer.

I'm so glad I got to show her a little bit of KC. I needed some friend time now, even though I'll be back to Ashley's neck of the woods in a couple of weeks.