After a week and a half on the farm, we said to good bye and traveled one hour to Syracuse, our old stomping grounds. We took Kenneth straight to the airport to catch his flight to Brazil for work. Then the kids and I went to Kenneth's sister Diane's house to spend a couple of days with them. They have an awesome backyard and the kids had so much fun playing there. Then it rained some more, but they still had fun playing inside with cousins and toys.
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| Diane with Kate |
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| Diane's kids and our kids watching Gilligan's Island in the basement of Diane's home |
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| Arianna zonked out during the show after playing so hard. |
After staying with Diane and her family, we went just 20 minutes away to my brother's house. He is actually in the same ward we used to be in when we lived in the Syracuse area! It's too bad we weren't there at the same time. We had so much fun staying with them! We were there for my sister-in-law's birthday. I watched their kids so they could have a well-deserved night out. (I felt like the traveling babysitter on this trip! I watched kids for 3 different families as I traveled around. I was so glad I could. Sometimes I feel like I am so involved in the daily care of my own family, I don't serve others very often. So, it felt good to do something for someone else. Although, they were all such good hosts to us, we are still so indebted to them for their kindness!)
While visiting with my brother, we were able to go to a horse farm for a special open house, where they had horse rides for the kids. We also were able to go to church in Liverpool, our old ward. That evening, my brother and sister-in-law hosted an open house for us to be able to hang out with our old friends there. It felt like the goood old days, even though we've been gone from there for four years! It was so much fun to see everyone! We all agreed we wish Kenneth had been with us. I did not do a good job taking any pictures of my brother and sister-in-law or any of our old friends.
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| Emma on the horse |
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| Arianna's turn |
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| Arianna snuggling Kate on the couch at my brother, Karl's house |
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| Dressing up the dog, Baxter |
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| The cousins all together |
After a few days in Liverpool, we started the trek back to Kansas. Because we were on our own, without Kenneth at this point, we took it very slow. We drove just over an hour to Ithaca and made our first stop.
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| Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, NY. a.k.a. The Center of the Universe |
Oh how I miss this place! When I lived in Ithaca before Kenneth and I were married, I worked at a Bed and Breakfast at the base of these falls. My boss, who had lived there most of her life, considered it the Center of the Universe. Good times. Unfortunately, she was out of town, so I didn't get to see her, but I did get to see. . .
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| Holly!!! We met Holly at the falls. She drove up from northern Pennsylvania to see us. She was a BYU roommate of mine. It was so good to see you, Holly! |
It was raining for a good portion of the time we were at the falls, so we spent some time under umbrellas and in our separate vans with the doors open so we could still chat. Even so, I am so glad we both put forth the effort to stay connected.
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| My children to the left (minus Kate) and Holly's children to the right. What a crew! |
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| Here is another shot. They were told they must not touch one another (hence the separation of children). Holly's son threw up in the car on the way up to meet us. |
We said goodbye and drove 5 1/2 more hours to the Cleveland area. Our last stop before we got to Cleveland was at Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I had promised the kids a treat earlier that day and I needed a place to nurse Kate, so we went there. I could not have made a better choice! This particular Krispy Kreme had leather couches in a nice sitting area where I could nurse and still see the kids watching the doughnuts being made. It was a nice break in our trip that day. We stayed near Cleveland, actually in Kirtland, that night with my sister-in-law's sister. She was kind enough to let us stay on the way to New York as well. We were so thankful for her hospitality! The kids had fun playing with her kids for the short time we were there.
The next morning, we packed into the van again and made the drive from Cleveland to Cinncinati. It's only four hours, so that was a nice easy day. We stayed there with Kenneth's cousin, Phil and his family. When Kenneth and I were dating and engaged, they lived in Ithaca as well and Kenneth would always stay with them when he came up to see me. They are so wonderful!
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| At a park with a water feature in Cincinnati with the Baldauf family. The kids had so much fun! |
After a week and a half without Kenneth, we were ready to be reunited. From Cincinnati, the Indianapolis airport is only 2 1/2 hours away. So, we had a short drive to make to go pick Kenneth up. It was so good to see him!
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| Horses and girls romping in the fields. |
The above picture cracks me up! The girls were given those humongous horses by the Baldauf girls in Cincinnati. The girls were so delighted. So, we piled them in to our already overfilled vehicle and traveled the rest of the way home. This shot was actually taken right near the cell phone lot at the Indianapolis Airport. We were waiting to pick Kenneth up from his business trip to Brazil. The girls were playing in the grass while I nursed Kate and took care of a diaper blow-out.
After we picked Kenneth up, we drove a few hours to St. Louis and stayed there overnight so we could take turns going to the temple. It was so nice. The kids had a ball eating pizza (except that Daddy ordered 2 pizzas BOTH with anchovies on them. Who does that?!?!), jumping on the beds, watching a movie and swimming in both the indoor and outdoor pools.
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| Jumping on hotel beds. Hooray! |
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| Swimming time with Dad |
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| Gorgeous St. Louis Temple |
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| Swimming in the indoor pool the following morning. |
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| Grant was having a rough morning. Lack of sleep? Too many anchovies on his pizza? Who knows. |
At least he cheered up enough to cooperate for a picture:
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| Our whole family in front of the temple on our way out of town |
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| Sweet sisters |
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| Sweet sisters times 3! |
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| Mom and the girls |
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| Flowers on the temple grounds. |
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| Arianna asleep with her new horse on the last leg of our journey. |
During our drive home from St. Louis to home, we ran into a bad storm. At one point I was nervous it was a tornado. Pretty wild. It soon passed and we had beautiful sunny skies as we arrived home. We even had a little while when all 4 children were asleep at the same time. Amazing! It was fun to see the wheat fields all ready for harvest.
