KC Riverfest

For the 4th of July, we decided to invite the youth group to go to the Kansas City Riverfest with us.  I was excited to be in a new place for the 4th, and I just knew the fireworks were going to be beautiful right on the river!  The Radio Disney roadcrew was there, so the kids were ecstatic!  We love Radio Disney, so this was just perfect.  They also had moonbounces and other play things, but you couldn't do just one, so I didn't want to waste our money on wristbands for the kids (since we're going to Chicago this week!).  Dustin decided to spend his own money, and was glad he did. He had a blast!  And, surprisingly enough, the other kids didn't mind.   

A group of teens that rode together left early, so we just had 2 with us....I felt bad at first, thinking they were 'stuck' with our family, but at the end of the night they said they had the best time and that the others had missed out.  Made me feel better!

We had dinner there...nothing like fried pickle chips, nachos, and a gyro!  Whew....my body wondered what I was doing to it! But man, I love fried pickles!

About 9:00 that evening, it started POURING!!!  We were already by the stage with the Radio Disney people, so I was happy to stay where I was.  Another artist came on stage to sing after the roadcrew was done, and he was good, but not someone I would have sat and listened to for an hour!  It was the best audience I think the guy had ever had...but he knew why we were all there!  He was very appreciative for the rain!  Dustin and the two teens we had with us decided to go play on the moonbounces in the rain---they had a BLAST!!!  It was great!  Dylan, Jodee, Josh,and I just chilled under the tent, listening to music.

The fireworks still went off as planned....it did stop raining for a bit so we could enjoy the show.  But, as we walked to the car, it started pouring again! So funny...by this time I knew my car was going to be nasty, and there was nothing we could do about it!  Might as well make the best of it all, right?  

Here is Dustin dancing with the Radio Disney roadcrew:

He did an air guitar contest and WON!!

Dylan dancing:

Our kids with the cool road crew:

I have to give some credit to Jodee too....she did get up and dance the Macarena....and then she wouldn't do anything else.  When we got her home that night, she was running a fever! Poor girl..no wonder she didn't feel like dancin'!

Here is Dustin  jousting with Sam:

Love this pic:

Sweet Jodee...not feeling very good:

Beautiful:

Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Our life in Olathe

Here is a little glimpse into our life here....we keep very busy, but we are all having a blast up here!

Here is the sign in front of our 'new' church:  

We spend a lot of time at the church building whether its for worship, youth group activities, ladies bible study, lunch with Josh, ping pong.....the list could keep going!  

Something they have a lot of here in Olathe is roundabouts.  You know....no stop signs at the intersection, just a big circle you drive around counter-clockwise in until you get around to the street you want.  VERY interesting!  I go through 4 of them just to get to the kids' gym!  The signs are crazy....check this one out:

And this one...if you can see it:

Last week we got a chance to meet up with a good friend that used to live in Edmond, and we went to the Deanna Rose farm with her and her little boy.  It was completely free, and FUN!  Thanks for meeting us there, Angelia!

And, of course we have another fountain picture!!

We were lucky enough to get to spend some time with our Paw paw (Josh's dad) before he went back to Austin:

Fun times for all!!!

The "House"

I have had lots of questions about where we are living while here in Olathe.  We were given some extra money per month by the church in order to rent a place while we were here.  Little did we know, 3 month leases are HARD to come by!  I pictured a nice apartment with a pool, air conditioning, etc.  Well, the apartments here doubled the rent in order to do a 3 month lease....which left us very few options!  Thankfully, a man we go to church with here happened to own some duplexes in a decent part of town, and offered us one at a great price.  It is small, but we were just so happy to have a place to live!

Our duplex is two story, as most houses here are.  The kids were so happy to have stairs!  It is a split level, and the living room and kitchen are downstairs, while 2 bedrooms and the bathroom are upstairs.  We chose to not bring our nice, leather, newish couches because of the difficulty of getting them into the house (b/c of the stairs), so we relax in nice, comfy lawn chairs.  I know, I know....sounds lovely, huh?  We use a card table to eat on--better than nothing, right?  And, the kitchen has very little counterspace--and I mean very little, so I am using boxes as extra space for things in the kitchen.  It truly feels like a camping experience.  At least, that's what I keep telling myself!  The carpet in the living room is dark green, and will turn your feet black if you walk on it barefoot, so I wear my flipflops everywhere.  Kinda like camping, right?   The two bedrooms upstairs are decent, but trying to fit 3 kids on twin mattresses in a bedroom is a chore no matter what.  We didn't bring our bed frames....we're only here for 10 weeks, so we are on air mattresses.  The kids have theirs lined up across their bedroom side by side.  They actually enjoy it like that, so we're letting it be.  We are borrowing a nice air conditioner for upstairs and that has helped immensely!!  It's pretty nice at night now, with the a/c and fans on.

We do have a washer and dryer hook up, but really, why move those big ol' things for just a couple of months?  The kids got to experience their first laundromat trip last week--let me tell you, it was exciting!  I had no idea how expensive it was to use a laundromat!  I got $10 in quarters, and the kids' eyes got HUGE!  They tried bargaining with me--they each wanted 4 quarters.  I had to laugh and tell them we would probably use all of them on the laundry!  They got to had to help load and unload and fold the laundry.  This is SO good for them!  I also had them bring books to read while it was washing and drying.  Good times, huh?

We are fortunate to have a great setup with our Wii and Netflix and a good internet setup, so we feel a little better about living like this!! ha!

It has been a great time for our family to really learn to appreciate what we have at home in Edmond.  We get so caught up with what others have and I know we are all so guilty of coveting what our friends are able to have that we are not...so I think this is such a great eye opener for all of us to really learn to be appreciative. God has been taking such good care of us for so long, I feel like He is telling us to look around--we have it really good!

I will leave you with some pictures.  Please don't judge us by the messiness....this was the first weekend after trying to move into such a small place with all of our 'stuff'.
Here is the kids' setup:

And the kitchen.  See the counterspace in the picture?  That's ALL there is!!!  

And the living room.  

Once again....we are just thankful to be able to be here with Josh.  We will look forward to being in our luxurious Edmond home in August.  (HA.  That is a joke....those of you who have been to our house know it's no luxury!!! But it will be nice to be 'home'.)

KC Part 2

There is a place called the Crown Center in Kansas City-it has a big mall, outdoor fountain (that you can play in!), free stuff for the kids to do, etc.  We went to release some energy after the art museum, and it was incredible!  We had packed our lunches to eat out by the museum, so we went to the Crayola Cafe for dessert.  It was delicious!  And, the kids loved coloring while we waited.

Outside of the Crown Center mall, they had an art show going on to raise money and awareness for the importance of keeping art classes in schools.  They had a sidewalk chalk contest of sorts--and it was amazing!  These people were so talented!  They also had balloons, a girl doing the hula hoop, and dancers on a stage.

We went to find a place called Kaleidescope that someone had told me about.  We found it----10 minutes before it closed.  We will definitely be heading back here soon! 

It is completely free, and it's a HUGE arts and crafts play room!  The kids get to go in and glue, cut, paint, color, etc to their hearts content.  We cannot wait to go back!  

We continued our tour by driving around looking for some more of the 32 fountains we hadn't seen yet.  (We later found out there's more like 209 fountains in KC. Nope, I'm sure you won't be seeing all 209 on this blog anytime soon!)

What we found was Union Station.  They have a science museum inside with a dinosaur exhibit going on right now, so we saw the one outside, and  Josh took this pic:

Yes, he did that on purpose!

Union Station was incredible!  HUGE, beautiful building!

This is inside looking at the ceiling. 

Right outside the Union Station was the Bloch fountain:

Love this pic!

We have been enjoying our own little tour of KC.  There are so many things to do and see here!  Olathe has been fun, too.  The city pools they have are the best!  I will be posting on that later.  The kids can't get enough of the swimming in Olathe.  I feel so blessed to be here for the summer.  I will look forward to being back in Oklahoma, but thankfully we are in a place that is so nice, and the people are very friendly.  That makes it all a little easier!

Kansas City Tour..part 1

Well, we made it to Olathe!  (About a week and a half ago.)  I just got internet service last Wednesday, so I have some major catching up to do!  I don't want to start with Olathe, though.  I know, everyone (all 3 of my readers!!!ha!) is waiting to hear about our life in Olathe, and I will get to that, but we went to Kansas City this past Saturday and had a great time!  So great, that I will start with that as my first Kansas post. 

First, did you know KC is known for its fountains?  I hope I'm not the only one!  Apparently, there are SO many famous fountains here, that it is 2nd in the world after Rome!  We saw a few of them Saturday, and hope to make it to all of them by the end of our stay here.  

Here we are in front of a huge fountain (JC Nichols Memorial Fountain):  some nice girls from Iowa took our picture!!  

Got a kick out of this:

Yep.  This was posted in front of the 2 ft. deep fountain.  

This is a famous building modeled after a famous building in Seville called the Giralda Tower.  

This picture is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  Those birdies are about 30 ft. tall!

Had to do a 'fire power' pic!! If you've seen 'Night at the Museum, Battle at the Smithsonian', you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Or, if you're my cousin Taylor, you'll enjoy this picture:

This museum was incredible!  The artwork was beautiful, and sculptures were so cool.  If only it were more kid-friendly!!!  I was SO tired of reminding the kids not to touch ANYTHING....not even the walls, that we were ready to go after just a couple hours.  But, before we left, we saw the Egyptian display--it was amazing.  A real mummy, a real tomb, SO cool! 

And on our way out, the knights also caught our attention!

Walking in the rain with the statues.  Yes, we got too close to these outdoor statues....they told us to move away from the artwork.  Really.  They're outside!  And it was raining!!

We did even more that day...but it will have to wait for another post!  Gotta get our Monday going!  First day of summer, and our 13th anniversary!  Woohoo!

Free fun

I love finding a good deal for summertime fun with the kids.....and the sprayground is it!!  We have actually been going here for a couple of summers, but I'm just so glad they still enjoy it!

These next pictures crack me up....they are worn out and so serious looking!  

I love summer!  I just wish we were with Josh.....SOON!!  We miss you, Dad!

My 3rd Kindergarten Graduate!!

Wow...another school year has gone by.  What in the world?  Why is the time going faster and faster????  Seriously.  I now have a 1st grader, 2nd grader, and 5th grader!!!  I really cannot believe how fast the last 10 1/2 years have gone.  But, I have loved every minute!
 Orvis Risner did a kindergarten graduation this year (they have never done it before, because this was the first year to have all day kindergarten).  Dylan was adorable!  He sang the songs, did the movements, and smiled!  My precious boy....love him so much!


Hmmmm.....telling a joke??

Yeah!

Angel....look at that face!

3 good buddies--from church and school!!

Proud momma and daddy!