A First Birthday Party and Visiting in Kansas City

After we left St. Louis we headed to Kansas City for Tom’s granddaughter Evelyn’s first birthday. We arrived a couple days before the party in order to spend some time visiting with Evelyn, daughter Amy, and husband Brian before the craziness of the actual event. In between preparing for the party – Amy went all out making a bunch of really cute decorations and making food while Brian was getting the house and yard ready after work – we did some catching up, party shopping, furniture assembly, and spent time playing with the adorable birthday girl.

The party was a lot of fun. In addition to watching Evelyn tear into her cake and enjoying the typical birthday traditions, we all played lawn games, chatted, and ate a bunch of food. Later in the party Brian and Amy broke out the beer pong table and Tom and I proceeded to beat the three other teams. I mention this proudly because a) this was Tom’s first time playing and b) this was the only time I believe I’ve been on the winning team since college which is due to this being the first time I have not been in competition against my friend Brian. In all seriousness though, the party was truly a great time and I enjoyed meeting Amy and Brian’s friends and family.

We had actually stopped in Kansas City in May but due to my failure to take many photos – which, to be truthful, I barely improved upon during this visit despite my resolution of the previous week – I didn’t blog about it. We were there for 4 days on our previous visit and mostly enjoyed family time though we also brought the dogs to a lakeside park for a swim (in the case of their dog Harper) and a bunch of running (both Harper and Abby). The biggest outing was to Boulevard Brewery, located just over the river in Missouri, which was the beginning of a love affair for me. Boulevard makes a fantastic pale ale, multiple good IPAs, two year-round mellow wheats, a fantastic farmhouse ale, and much more. When we we first visited in May they had an amazingly-tasty lemon-ginger radler on tap and on our return in August Tom and I fell in love with a fantastic black pale ale – malty, rich, slightly hoppy, and no sweetness. We absolutely brought Boulevard with us on our trip around Lake Superior and we absolutely stocked up to bring some back to Utah with us. We heart Boulevard.