Utah, Utah, Utah!!!

 This summer, in between our move from Missouri to Japan, the kids and I lived with my mom for a month!  Even though we have lived all over, Utah continues to be my favorite place on earth! We had such a wonderful time with family and so many friends!

The kids and I went on a small hike with my childhood best friend and her kids! It was so fun to see well our kids got along!

 My mom was so kind to allow us to invade her life for a month! She was so fun! Here she is with the kids making slime! What a super fun grammy :)

 Christina and her kids came to see us several times which was very nice since its two hours away for her! But our kids got along so well and cried every time they had to leave each other :)

 Christina and I brought our kids on a rather traditional outing one day.  We have, for many years,  gone to the Bean Museum and the Creamery afterwards.  Our kids are growing up so fast.

 We also wet the a wave pool in Price together!  It was fun to have a new adventure!  The kids didn't get out of the water for hours.  They loved it:)

 Ah these cute kiddos hated to say goodbye over and over again!

 I loved visiting my high school best friend!  She is so fun and I was reminded why I love her so so much!

I was able to hang out, several times, with my dearest friend from when we lived in Delaware.  She lives in Utah now and it was so nice to see her and her amazing family again!

 We enjoyed hiking all around Utah and enjoying the many beauties of Utah in summer :) The kids and I hiked up the front of Bridal Veil Falls and the kids thought it was amazing!

 We also hiked all around Rock Canyon!

 I took the kids up to  Squaw Peak and it was so beautiful:) I loved seeing my kids awe!

 And hiking the Y was by far the most challenging hike we took- but also the most rewarding!  I was so proud of my kids for making it all the way :)

One of the most special moments of my time there was when we were able to spend time with my Grandpa.  He recently passed away, so the time we were able to spend with him was precious!

We also visited my sweet Grandma Pats grave and put some flowers down.  I love her so much and miss her everyday!

We also went to see a Annie at the Hale Center Theater with my mom and Grandpa Metten!!

 One day we drug my mom up Provo Canyon with us to Sundance to eat a nice lunch and hike around Cascade Springs!

The new splash pad at the  Cascade Golf course was so fun!  We visited there several times.  Here we are with Christina and her girls!

 I love my sissy!

 My brother Bryan came into town during our stay in Utah as well. It was so nice to spend time with him and his wife and their family!  Bryan was nice enough to let us come with him and Wendy's family to Thanksgiving Point.  The kids loved the Children's museum there.

 And here are the kids with their cousin Jack at the Dino museum.

 We also got to spend a lot of time with Ryans family.  They all came into town and it was so nice to see everyone!! We got to do fireworks several times with their cousins and they were in heaven.

 We went bowling!!

We all went to Mirror Lake and went kayaking!

 And jut hung out together! Seeing all the cousins was so wonderful!

 Jean and Kelly also took is to a concert at the Scera Shell which was so much fun!

We had to not only our house in Missouri, but also our two cars/  Saying goodbye to our trusty car of so many years was harder than I thought :(

 We also had an evening of chatting and hanging out with some of Ryan's best friends from High school! It was so fun to see them all.

We also got to spend the 4th of July in Utah which is amazing in Utah! The parade in Provo is so neat and the kids were in awe of it all!!

 I loved my time in Utah so much! And I am so so far behind but I with my posts and will try very hard to catch up.  We have had so many Japanese adventures!

Long Over Due...Saying Goodbye to Warrensburg:(

 Sooooo much has happened since my last post and I am way way behind...but I am determined to catch up.  Before I get to all about recent adventures, I MUST mention our last amazing summer in Warrensburg!!  We were so sad to leave our home of 3 years, so we decided to do as much fun stuff as we could before we headed off to Utah and ultimately, Japan!

Naturally we had to visit Powell Garden one last time!

They had some pretty darling and amazing displays for summer :)

 We also happened to stumble upon a patriotic orchestra concert there!  It was lovely and I enjoyed every minute!!

 These huge soccer balls were a lot of fun!

 We, of course, had to head up to beautiful Kansas City again!  This time we really stopped to admire the many fountains of Kansas City.

 The kids and I went on a hike to Cave Hollow in good old Warrensburg.  It was so green and beautiful!

 We spent a lot of time with as many buddies as we could.  The kids were so so sad to leave all their great friends. Here we are with a few buddies going to the magic show at the library.

 Our fabulous neighbors moved not too long before we did.  We were so sad to say goodbye to these two cuties:(

 We decided to visit a Carousel museum and it ended up being super fun!

 We rode on a carousel that was over 105 years old.

 Beckham had his very first scout camp! He loved every second of it.

 As a last hurrah on the last day, Jane and Elsie and I got to go with Beckham to camp.  The fire department came and gave the kids a real thrill :)

 We knew we HAD to visit St. Louis before moved and I am so glad we did.  It is a beautiful city with so much to do!  The very first thing we did was hit up a delicious restaurant with the oldest soda bar in America to get some malts!

 The St. Louis botanical gardens were gorgeous.  It was a perfect day to be outside, too.

 The Japanese gardens at the botanical gardens were particularly interesting to us once that is where we were headed.

 Visiting the arch was probably the neatest thing we did.

 It was absolutely harrowing for me, to ride up to the top of the arch in the tiny elevators.  But I am glad I didn't chicken out because it was so cool!

 Going back down wasn't nearly as scary for me- haha!

 Next, we visited the City museum.  It was crazy fun! Here are the girls and I riding a ferris on the top of a very tall building...eeek!

 There were all sorts of cool slides and climbing structures and things to explore.

 Inside a cave...

 Elsie was the only one who was able to ride this little train and she felt so special.

 The while museum was amazing and confusing and just a lot of fun to explore.

 We ate some AMAZING BBQ!

 We visited the St. Louis Cathedral which was quite stunning.

 Here's Jane in the confessional- hahaha

 The Magic house was another super fun museum for the kids.

 The kids got a dose of what it would be like to live in Africa.

 They went down a slide made entirely of tape!

 And got to play make believe in a lot of different ways!!

 Warrensburg provided many ups and downs for Ryan at work, but things ultimately ended up so well.  Ryan is amazing at what he does and impresses me every day! Here we are at a banquet  where Ryan was up for a big award! We got to walk under a caber drawn arch while being announced in front of the whole room along with the other candidates.  It was a pretty neat experience.

 Saying goodbye to the many amazing friends we've made in Warrensburg was so so hard.  We love this family!

 Beckham had to say goodbye to his best friend :(

 I played volleyball with these lovely ladies for nearly the full three years I lived here.  I will definitely miss these wonderful gals.

 I watched this little girl weekly for over a year.  And I just love her and her mom so much!!!

 We took some family pictures in our neighborhood and in front of our much beloved house.  We took them ourselves and I think they turned out pretty darn good :)

 Jane had two besties that she had a very hard time saying goodbye to:(

 And Beckham made some pretty amazing Missouri buddies as well :(

 We had to stop by and see our sweet and darling Skittles one last time.  We just love this pup so so so much and were heart broken to give her up.  But we are so thrilled that she has a loving and wonderful family to take such good care of her. She will always hold a very special place in our hearts :(

 Our sweet Bishop and his amazing family had us over for dinner on our last night in Warrensburg.  We love love love this family and will miss our dear friends so much.

Our time in Warrensburg was absolutely amazing and we will always love the friends and memories that were made here.