Independence Day in Independence, MO

So I was waiting until I got my pictures off my camera.... then I realized they weren't good blog pictures. I need to get better at photography.

I went to visit my sister for the fourth of July. She lives in Independence, which is just funny. Ok, technically she just moved to a new town. But it is near Independence, and we watched the Independence fireworks. Ha!

I arrived on Wednesday, and we headed out to the huge furniture store to shop. We sat on every couch they had, but had more luck finding comfortable chairs. We are short people, so huge couches are not very comfortable because our feet don't hit the floor. In this store I think people work on commission, because one sales guy was stalking us. So we kept dodging into other furniture aisles to avoid him. We did look at dining tables, but they were all too big. The first couch we sat on was actually the one we ended up getting, and then we matched it to some chairs with custom fabric. It was a very successful shopping trip. Then we ate steak to celebrate. Then because it was a gorgeous day, and my sister had planned the weather perfectly, we went to see Legally Blonde at an outdoor theater (Starlight Theater). It had great music and was fun to watch. Whew! I am tired.
Thursday we got up and hit the gym. Yea, I can't keep up with my sister. But that is ok, it was good triathlon training. The perk of a gym is the machine tells you how far you have run, instead of just guessing how far in the neighborhood. Then we went to work... well, she went to work, I sat in her office and read. Nice. Then we got Thai food for lunch, our favorite. Then we went to Union Station. Back in the day, all the railroads decided to cross the Missouri at Kansas City. If they hadn't, it would probably just be a corn field today. The floor of the station is wavy where people shuffled their feet for 50 years. They also had a special exhibit on the Chronicles of Narnia, complete with snow. Then we walked to another building in downtown KC and saw a lego exhibit. An artist had done sculptures in legos, which were cool. Then my sister had to go back to work, so I watched Bones and took apart a nightstand with hideous molding. Demo!
Friday was rainy, so instead of going to the garden, we went shopping at the outlets. I love outlets, and I got an extra 20% off! We also got a dining room table. Then we went and saw XMen Origins.
Saturday, we went to Powell Gardens.
It is a botanical garden and a food garden out in the middle of nowhere. They had a quilt garden, where all the plants were planted to look like a quilt. We walked around and saw the fountains and lillies and other pretty things. Then we headed to the boss' bbq, where kids set off tank fireworks. This cracked me up, especially the fireworks that were parachuters! We had brought some hotdogs, and I had insisted we get real beef ones, and my sister said, wow, these taste really good! Then we went and saw the Independence fireworks. They had some really spectacular ones. We also put together the dining table, which was pretty hysterical. It has a leaf built in, so the top is really heavy, so we were having a tough time flipping it over.
Then Sunday we got to eat pancakes on the new table, and we went to church, and brought breakfast enchiladas to break the fast, and then we saw a jazz concert. It was once again gorgeous weather, so the outdoor concert was fabulous. It was also in a pretty ritzy part of town.
Monday was again a work day, but I stayed home this time to do laundry and pack. Then we went to an old house and toured the inside. They spent a ton of time restoring it! It looked pretty amazing, except where the dogs had peed all over the floor.... then it was time to fly home. Sad. And my planes were all delayed.