Kanopolis State Park -- Day One....

This post should've been done several weeks ago, but hey -- life gets busy. At least all of you faithful readers will see this post now.

Before Luke, when I too was working full-time and money wasn't as tight (which I'm not complaining about at all since I am honored to stay home and be Luke's full-time Mommy -- a decision we do NOT regret).....we traveled quite a bit.

But, since Luke's birth, sadly, we really haven't traveled. I think it's for several reasons -- a) we're slightly whimpy about venturing away from our comfortable home with Luke b) sometimes it's just easier to stay home c) Many of the places we'd like to go and have life goals to get to are not places we want to take a small child d) we have some financial goals we're trying to attain and until those are attained, we're not spending too much money on travel.

Anyways, we wanted to go somewhere. Thanks to Marc's extreme long-distance running, we've had the opportunity to learn about some doable "stay-cations."

Marc has always enjoyed running in Kanopolis State Park -- in Central Kansas -- a little over an hour from where we live.

From some of his running friends, he knew of some cabins recently built in quite a few state parks around Kansas.

We thought it would be a great little trip for the Friesen Family.

These cabins are only a few years old...They're affordable...But, you do have to provide linens, etc. And, there aren't restaurants nearby (especially this time of year -- the off season). So, you have to take all food that you'll need.

Yes, there are fully stocked kitchens in these little cabins.

So, back in the middle of October....Here's Day One of our trip (the other two days will come in a future post).

First, getting everything packed at home....



I have NEVER been a light packer -- it's really something I did not learn in the 10 years I traveled on business. Plus, it was our first time traveling with Luke. We have a lot to learn about traveling with a child. And, we weren't completely sure what all would be in these cabins. We didn't want to get there and be missing something -- there certainly was NOT a Wal-Mart close.

Our Trail Blazer proved to be EXTREMELY handy. It was full.



Just for fun -- a photo of Luke on the way to Kanopolis State Park.



Our first 1 1/2 days of this trip were cloudy and very cool. But, here is what the cute little cabin looked like....



Currently, there are only two cabins in this particular park. However, when we were there, the state park officials were actually working on more cabins (we thought they might possibly be building four more or so). There is a state prison nearby, and some of the minimum security inmates actually do quite a bit of work on these cabins. The cabins are located in the "Little Bluestem Cabin Area" of the state park.



And, here's the view from the front porch of the cabin (better photos will follow when the sun was shining -- in a future post)...Stay tuned!



Luke had a good time exploring a new "home."



I did take some of Luke's toys along, and I'm soooo glad I did. He was very content on this trip.



I also took some balloons along -- you know, one of those "special" treats you get on certain occasions. Luke really enjoyed them.



Here's a photo of the inside of the cabin. It's rather cozy. There is one bedroom -- it's to the right of the kitchen. Luke got the bedroom. We slept on a pull-out bed in the living area. There's one bathroom behind the kitchen area. This cabin is fully climate-controlled. We definitely stayed plenty warm.



These cabins do NOT have television or radio. There is NOT wireless internet. So, it was a great opportunity for us to be unplugged for a few days. We did have cell service on both of our phones, but we didn't use the phones. But, in case of an emergency, I was glad our phones worked.

We did take a laptop -- for playing CDs and watching a couple of movies. That was helpful!

What did we do, you might ask??? Well, both of us, after Luke went to bed, got quite a bit of reading done. We both read a lot of God's word. We both read some other things as well.



We also took some games to play. Here is one of our games -- an American Trivia game -- trivia about our country.

Yes, Marc nearly always wins games. I actually was way ahead of him for awhile on this game that evening, but he ultimately did win, of course.



One thing I was VERY worried about was how Luke would sleep. Luke does NOT have a great history of sleeping well other places. He's very "trained" to sleep in his bed and his bed alone.

But, he does know his Pack 'N Play. Here at home, he does sleep with white noise in the background, and I took that "noise" along.

I'm very happy to report that he did VERY WELL sleeping on this trip. The nap wasn't the greatest, but the nights were terrific. He did his usual 12 hours of sleeping.

So, stay tuned for a future post about our relaxing trip....