Going to Arkansas, part 1

The week after visiting our daughter in Colorado, we took a trip to see our son in Arkansas.  It is nice that they are both just one state away, and not on the coast.  The drive is do-able either way.

The sunrise was beautiful.  We had just gotten in the car and were beginning to drive out of the driveway when our daughter Jill called.  She was on her way to Wichita for the day.  "Where are you?"    She was close to passing our house.  We pulled onto 135 and got right behind her.

We followed her all the way to the big city (and we talked on the phone the whole way!) and we met up at Starbucks!

Guess who else was at Starbucks?  

You can't tell from this fuzzy photo.  I was in a hurry to snap it so he wouldn't notice.   Jill thought I should have gone over and asked for a selfie with him.  

Larry Hatteberg, long-time news anchor for KAKE-TV who had the segment “Hatteberg’s People” is a frequenter of this Starbucks I understand.

After a sweet time visiting, we said our byes and she went on to her shopping.  We had one item to pick up at the store by Starbucks and then we were off to Arkansas.

At Webb City, we HAD to stop at Culvers, of course.  And who should we see but Jill and Kyle!  They used to live in our town and we went to church together, but they moved to Joplin many years ago.  This birthday boy (they were taking him out to celebrate) was just a baby back then.

They lived through the Joplin tornado.  This is from an article from Extreme Makeover.

"Kyle, the father and a Joplin fireman, was at work at the fire station during the storm and spent the first two hours after the tornado not knowing if his wife and kids had made it out alive. He made many stops along the way home, through the rubble, rescuing trapped victims and tending to injured members of the community. Meanwhile Jill and their children, Konnor, Korbin and Kaleb, huddled in a closet. A door landed on top of them, which they used to deflect the debris. This ultimately saved their lives. After the storm, they had no idea if Kyle was alive, but eventually the family, along with older son Keenan, who was out of town at the time, was reunited. Jill sustained minor injuries, but their home was completely destroyed."

Extreme Makeover redid their home, along with the entire block!  She said that they have since then sold the home and live in the country but what joy that they have no mortgage!

As we went further south into Missouri and then into Arkansas, we noticed that web worms were taking over trees and destroying them.  Very sad.

Many trees were gonners!

Five and a half hours later, we made it to Fayetteville and to our sweet little punkins!

Sunday in Colorado

When we get a hotel, we always try to get one with breakfast included.  We do LOVE those breakfast buffets!!

We met Mindy at church.

Claire did not want to go to a "strange" Sunday School class so when she wasn't up to sitting still any longer, I took her out to the lounge.

I listened to the sermon on-line this past week.  

EXCELLENT!!  Very worth listening to.

Click HERE!

(Sermon title "Neither do I condemn you")

Adam grilled chicken for lunch.  Mmmmm.

Al was stretching his back as he was having some back pain.
"Claire, can YOU touch your toes?"

"I can touch my nose!"

nap time

After rest time, we went to the pool.  It is the end of September in Colorado and it is warm enough for swimming??  A little unusual.

Papa and Hannah decided to have a race

 Hannah pulled away with her fantastic flip turn

 After the swim, we headed to the park

 Sophie met a girl there to play with

 Back to the apartment to celebrate Papa's birthday

 We like birthday pies!

Bryan had never heard Papa's alien abduction story before so it had to be told! 

Beautiful sunset view from Mindy's place.

We said our good-byes as we were leaving in the morning to return to Kansas.

As we were headed back to the hotel, the eclipse of the blood moon was just beginning.

(Not a good shot from a car with a phone camera)

Here is a photo someone else took.  It was so beautiful! 

In Denver, clouds came and went so we couldn't see it always.

We were so glad that the girls could see it before they went to bed!

We could see it from our room!

We older ones stayed up until it was over.

(Except Adam who was less than enthused)

On Monday, we headed home.

We spotted all but 5 of the states' license plates!

 This is a fun game to play!  Locals, you can get this at Anderson's.

We arrived at the kids' house after many hours in the car. Not as fun to drive home as to head to the mountains!   We had to entertain a lot!!


The kids were sure ready to be home though!!  We unloaded and then we still had the drive to make to our house.

The silly wave goodbye to us.

 What a great time with our Colorado kids.
The following weekend, we were headed off to see our Arkansas kids.