So there you have it....

And now my friends, we have reached the end of our Kansas Vacation 09 pictures. Breathe a sigh of relief, because it's over now. I didn't take quite as many pictures as my parents did in Europe, and for which I teased them mercilessly. But I nearly did. You should count yourselves lucky that I only showed you the few that I did. {wink}

Tractor Time

Papa's new toy became everyone's favorite toy. He loves riding it, and so did my kids. Sariah only liked riding it if it wasn't on, but that's okay. They had fun with Papa!





Blowing raspberries at each other here:



They were catching flies in this last picture.

The Many Faces of Sariah

And Sariah's a fabulous model, too. Just so long as it's her idea.

The Many Faces of Caleb

Several of my children were pretty obliging with pictures that night:

The Many Faces of Rex

One of my very favorite-est things about Rex is that you can have real photo sessions with him. He will attempt everything you ask of him. In this case, however, I let him do what he wanted. And, as always, he delivered!

Warm Remembrances

For some reason, I love this picture of my boys. It somehow sums up the essence of this campfire experience. My parents just moved out to a few acres, and the kids had spent the day helping them clear branches and such from around the place, so that Dad could mow more. Daddy or Papa, one of the 2, promised them they could have a fire to burn the wood as a reward. And of course, somewhere in there, marshmallows got negotiated (and elaborated on when the guests showed up with what else but chocolate and graham crackers). Meanwhile, it wasn't exactly freezing cold outside (although it was unseasonably cool), and the fire burned really hot (but I'm sure that has nothing to do with all the other things they burned with the wood).

Here's my other favorite boy playing with fire. That just warms a mother's heart, doesn't it? Who knows? This could be the record of Sariah's glasses slipping from Bob's pocket, unbeknownst (my spell checker says this isn't a word! isn't it a word?) to him, into the fire and melting into nothing more than 2 little wire circles.
Bob was so devastated. It made both of us a little sick at heart. Fortunately, the day after we returned home, Sariah had an appointment with her eye guy, and we were able to get her new glasses within a week. Good news! Although the difference between the vision in her eyes is not lessening (which is why she wears glasses), her vision is improving, and she has a much weaker prescription now. Yeehaw!

My Honeys

Don't my kids take great pics?

Indian Cave State Park

Since we were only 4 miles from Nebraska, I felt compelled to add another state to my list. I was trying to compete with Bob, but he decided to come, and now we just canceled out our additions, I guess. Anyhow, Mom & Dad and my aunt & uncle took us to Indian Cave State Park in Nebraska.

It was a pretty awesome little place. They had a working village of sorts, with a soap maker, a candle maker, a blacksmith, and a broom maker. There was also a school house with a merry-go-round out front which entertained my children for a long while.


I think I mentioned that Grammy got to come. She was such a great picture poser!


Sariah worked hard, darn it. Check it out!


This is the Indian Cave that the park boasts. It has ancient petroglyphs carved on these walls, things like bison and eagles. We had to punish Hannah though, because we thought she made her own carvings. They read HANNAH + JUSTIN. I don't know how she got up so high to carve it where she did, and I'm still wondering who Justin is.... {wink!}


The views were breathtaking.
And of course, we had to take some pictures by the Missouri River. Where we come from, rivers this big are ... well, nonexistent.

Hannah's so awesome!

Independence Visitors' Center

While in Kansas City, we visited the Independence Visitors' Center for our church.

Sariah really liked the statue of the Christus. She kept asking to "be c[l]ose to Jesus."


Outside, there was gorgeous landscaping, and it was just the right temperature, with light drizzle, until we got into our car and zoomed off to Grammy and Papa's house. The kids humored me and posed for lots o' pictures.


Inside, they had not only some life-size representations of LDS pioneer life in Independence, but also a children's area where they could play and test things out. Sariah was thrilled!


We visited 2 other ares there. One was a photo gallery called Reflections of Christ. The pictures were amazing, and gave me all sorts of new things to ponder and contemplate.

The second was a presentation called "God's Plan for His Family," and it was also most awesome. It was a gentle reminder to me of how important family is to Heavenly Father, and how important it needs to be in my life. I walked out with a mental list of things I need to prioritize and work on, so that my family can be as important to me as the Lord wants it to be.