Missouri Trip Day 2

We were still on Arizona time a bit so we slept in until 11am and headed down to Springfield for the day.

Missouri trip Day2

Friends in Buffalo, MO

Cindy and her little girl, Isabel

The whole gang together!

When we were in Buffalo, MO we were able to meet up with a couple of old friends that Chad went to high school with. We met up for pizza at Hip Pocket pizza (the local pizza place) and had a great time catching up with Cindy and Bethany...Chad's former bandmates in high school. Cindy and her husband, Jason, have three beautiful well behaved children. We learned so much about them just watching them interact with each other! "Brother" is always so kind to his younger sister Isabel. It was very cute how they played shy for a bit, then warmed over pretty quickly! Bethany and her husband, Clint, showed us a little bit of downtown Springfield later that night on our way to a great dueling piano bar. We had fun belting out lyrics to old songs from high school days! It was a good thing we got there early and left before all the craziness took over. Overall, it was a fantastic evening spent with great friends!

Missouri Trip Day 1

We finally made it!!!! It's been 8 years (as long as I've known Chad) that he has been wanting to visit Buffalo, Missouri. From the time he was 11yrs until about 16yrs old, he grew up in this small town in southwest Missouri. He told me stories of how the high schoolers would cruise from the local Sonic Drive-In to the nearby Dairy Queen down the street. He has so many great memories from their 100 acre ranch where they spent time exploring the Ozarks! So this morning we boarded a flight and in no time (our flight was an hour early!) we arrived in Kansas City. After a beautifully scenic 3 hour drive (and I'm not one for driving) we arrived in Buffalo. Yeah! Here are some pics from the ranch and the town's middle school where chad went to 8th grade. It's also the place where he broke is leg (the first time).

Oh, then we stopped by Dale Brown's Eastside Tavern for the most deleicious juiciest cheeseburgers we've ever had. Seriously fresh and yummy! Sorry no pics of them yet...more coming!

Missouri Trip

River crossing anyone?!

So a couple weekends ago we went camping with some friends, Dean and Kristi. We went on a couple good hikes involving a bit of river crossing. Well, in all honesty it was more like a small stream of water leading into the lake, but for all intense and purposes of this story...let's call it a river. Remember, we're assuming the water level is fairly deep (it really was about 6inches deep...maybe more in some places). Anyways, us girls stood back and watched as the guys so kindly gathered rocks from the river bed and put them in the stream so we could cross. They did a great job and ultimately were the reason we were able to cross. It was funny watching them almost fall in as they teetered on the unsteady rocks with the stream gushing by under their feet! Even the video captures the fast moving water!

camping trip w/ Dean and Kristi

It's not what it sounds like!

So my niece,Ally (2yrs old in June), has been learning all kinds of new words. She even acts out what a turtle does and makes a cute face for a fish. It's the cutest thing. Well, she learned what the word "ocean" meant and started saying it in the grocery store one day. I guess my sister didn't really realize what she was saying because Ally left off he last letter making it sounded like a naughty phrase (use your imagination on this one). In the name of all that is funny I just had to get some video of it! She'll laugh about it when she's older!

Family