Third Date: The Extended Version

 I'ts normal to move in together for 10 days on your third date, right?  

Especially when your first date is via FaceTime?? 

Here's the re-cap of Scott's visit to Kansas City (ie our very long third date), that started out with a road trip from Denver:

Friday night we went to First Fridays down in the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City.  I hadn't been in a long looooong time, so it was fun to see how much it has grown.  

We ate some great food from a Cuban food truck...

...and I found a piano to play the ONE song I know how to play.

I couldn't really walk around much (bum foot), so after we checked out a few art studios and listened to some street music, we raced to Kaw Point Park downtown to try and catch the sunset.

Sometimes KC has the most amazing sunsets, but that night was just not one of them!

My good friends, Angie and Luke, were in town that weekend from Boston, so we met up with them at Cellar and Loft in the River Market.  Good friends, good pizza, good wine...that's definitely a good night. :)

On Saturday, we drove to Tallgrass Prarie National Preserve so Scott would run.  You have to get creative with running locations when you're training for a 50 mile race.  I mean, you can only do so many loops on smaller circuits.  So I found him a nice, long trail out in the middle of nowhere.

(We traded sunglasses for the run.  Mine fit him better than his did!)

He was gone a few hours.  Ran in to a rattle snake, ran through a stream, and got stopped by an angry herd of cows...but he made it back in time for sunset!

Of course he was hungry after that run, and we had a 2.5 hour drive back home.  I didn't expect to find any food  - let alone any GOOD food - close to Strong City, KS - population 450.   

But did we ever luck out.  Who knew the hidden little gem of Ad Astra was in a nondescript building on Main Street there?! 

The food was delicious AND healthy.  The atmosphere was cool.  Just a perfect spot for dinner that night!

Sunday was a more relaxed day to show Scott around KC.

He was my resident doctor and wrapped my (gross) foot for me every day. :)

We started out with the plaza, had lunch at The Mixx, dessert at Glace, and then hit the Nelson Atkins for the afternoon.

He played some drums in my garage that evening, and we had dinner out at Tony and Christas that night.  I have some pretty funny videos of Scott attempting to do a front flip on the trampoline.  It didn't happen.  And neither did mine!  Turns out flipping off one foot isn't easy.

I had to go back to work on Monday, but that afternoon, we picked up Hadley and Hunter and brought them down to my house for a little jam session on the drums.

It was a little too loud for Hunter (who skipped nap time that day), but Hadley absolutely LOVED it!  And she was shockingly pretty good at it!  I mean she definitely stayed on beat with her Taylor Swift and Frozen songs, which I thought was impressive for a four year old!

Tuesday was Cinco de Mayo, so we went out to Taco Republic with Jason, Kelli, and the kids for some Mexican food.  Because that's what you have to do on Cinco de Mayo!  

Unfortunately, every other person in KC also decided to go to Taco Republic that night!  There was over an hour wait for a table, so we snuck around to the other side, ordered from the To Go window, got drinks from the bar, and sat down on a retaining wall with tacos galore in our laps.  It was kind of a disaster, but it was fun, and the kids loved being able to run around / dance with the live music.

We look like naturals  with those two kids  ;)

Hadley couldn't go back home without putting on a drum show for her parents.  Apparently it was all she had talked about since playing the day before!  

Hudson really wanted to join in, but Hadley kept swatting his drum stick away.

On Wednesday, two giant boxes showed up on my door step.  Scott had ordered some inflatable stand up paddle boards and had them shipped to my house.

I couldn't wait.  We opened the boxes and blew up the paddle boards right there in my family room.

We went out to eat that night at my favorite restaurant in KC, Beer Kitchen.  I think I could eat there every night.  Mmmmm.  

And after dinner we finally were able to get in at Manifesto for a drink.  

Well, he had a drink.  I just drank water and teased him the whole time for getting a drink with a paper umbrella and rose petals in it. 

As soon as I got home from work on Thursday, I walked in the door and half jokingly said, "Want to go try out those paddle boards?" And right then and there I learned something about Scott: turns out he's always up for anything.  

He shut his computer down, got right up, and said let's go!

Had to wrap the foot up in a plastic bag and packing tape before I could get out on the water.  

Hey, whatever works, right?

I was impressed by how much the inflatable boards felt just like a regular ones.  I thought they might be softer and not as firm or stable as the hard plastic ones, but you really can't tell a difference at all.  And these are much more transportable, not to mention cheaper.  Score!

Only down side was that the pink and turquoise one has a more rounded tip and is way harder to paddle and steer.  I couldn't keep up with Scott for the life of me.  I thought I was just being a wuss and was that much weaker than him, but when we switched boards, he agreed.  It's just harder to get going on that one!

Stand Up Paddle on Shawnee Mission Lake

As I was trying to snap a couple of pictures before we got out of the water, apparently I dropped my paddle and didn't even know it.  I stood up and Scott said, "Uuhhh, where's your paddle?"  

HA! Thank goodness those things float!

Scott had his Go Pro out and took some really cool pictures.

We seriously just have too much fun together...

We had planned on cooking that night, but we spent too much time out on the water and we were too hungry to bother with a grocery store run and food prep...so, Panera for the win!

On Friday, we shopped after work.  And not for me.  For HIM.  

He needed some new trail running shoes and some new running shorts.

After a couple of stores (and an hour of trying on shoes!), he found some that he liked at Gary Gribbles, but no luck on the shorts.

Looking good in that new KC Royals shirt!

We made dinner that night, and then went out for a little night paddle session.

If that doesn't look like a California surfer boy, I don't know what does.

It was so quiet and calm out on the water at night.  A little creepy, but not as scary as I thought it was going to be!

Saturday's are long run days.  He had been running during the week around town, but it's just too much to run 20 miles or more on the streets.  So we took off for Perry Lake, about 45 minutes away.  They have a 29 mile trail that looked pretty good.

He took off, I drove to our arranged meeting point (which took some searching to find), an waited...

...and waited and waited.    And waited.

I was on the verge of being worried when he was an hour and a half longer than he should have been.  

But then there he came.  Running through the trees...with bright red poison ivy inflamed legs.

He had lost the trail, ended up in a neighborhood miles off course, ran through a stream, through open fields...and apparently through lots and lots of poison ivy.

Oh, and let's not forget the twenty ticks he pulled off, too.  TWENTY.

So much for that good trail I thought I had found him!  I felt terrible!

Needless to say, that run got cut way short and we went back to KC to clean off his inflamed legs.

I guess we got it cleaned off soon enough, because after a shower and some lotion, he was looking and feeling way better.  Thank goodness!

Now I couldn't let him leave Kansas City without eating good barbecue.  And I couldn't choose my favorite between Oklahoma Joes and Jack Stack. 

So we hit both.

Oklahoma Joes for a Z-Man appetizer.

Followed by the main course at Jack Stack.

I thought we would go somewhere fun for dessert, but we were too stuffed after all that food.

So we went back to the house to finish up some projects on the van and pack everything up before he left.

Using the screeching loud saw at 9pm.  Sure my neighbors loved that!

We finished everything up a little later than planned, but got a couple of things checked off the van to-do list and got it loaded back up for the second half of the trip out east.

Admiring our work after we finished.  And by "our work" I really mean "Scott's work" - because I didn't do anything but stand there and watch. 

He left early Sunday morning (Mother's Day) to go home to Illinois and surprise his mom.  But not before giving me what might be the best departing gift I've ever received:

A picture collage of our first three dates..in which we hit five states.  Not. Bad.

I think I'll keep him around.  For a long time.