This post has been a long time in coming because it's a little overwhelming to share all the feeling that I have felt over the past few months. We have been blessed in so many ways but still change is hard for me and we've had a lot going on.
When Scott found out that he got the job in Utah and needed to start in two weeks we decided that it would be easier for him to go out alone and we would stay in Kansas and take our time packing up and let Spencer finish Kindergarten and then meet him there. It was a perfect plan but we greatly underestimated how hard it would be to be apart for 9 weeks. It was hard and we will never do anything like that again but we made the best of it. One of the hard parts was that Scott was going to miss my sonogram and finding out if our baby is a boy or girl. Spencer was given the title of "Man of the house" while dad was away, which he took very seriously, and one of his duties was to accompany me to the appointment. He was so cute about being there for me. The nurse wrote the gender of the baby in an envelope so we could open on video chat with Scott and share the moment as a family. Terrible picture but the only one we got. We couldn't be more excited about the news that we are having a baby GIRL!!!
What better way to wrap up our time in Kansas than a good tornado scare. It was a Sunday night when the sky got eerily dark and we decided we better turn on the news. Sure enough a tornado touched down about 5 miles west of us and was heading our way. I had just finished making french toast for dinner when the sirens started so we grabbed out dinner and headed to our safe place to eat. Spencer was so brave but Owen was really nervous about it all so we tried to make it feel like a party in the pantry. I thought I better call and let Scott know what was going on and unfortunately he was right in the middle of family dinner with his whole side of the family. I think we gave them all a pretty good scare but we were safe and no tornado hit our house.
We made sure to fit in as many of our Kansas favorites before leaving. The Deanna Rose Farm was one of those. Owens first time being old enough to ride the pony's. Of coarse he got the biggest one and I was worried that he would freak out but he loved it.
Feeding the goats
Lunch break
Another one of our favorites were all the great river trails. We spent a lot of time running, biking and taking long walks on these beautiful trails that are all around Overland Park. This is a relaxing Sunday stroll after church.
It seems so silly but I am really going t miss running these trails. It was so pretty and shady and I could go for miles without dealing with crossing roads or traffic.
I was really good about bring my camera with me everywhere we went in those last few weeks. Unfortunately I kept forgetting the battery was dead so many of our outings were not photographed. We loved every minute of time with our Kansas friends.
I was so spoiled by my friends in the Red Bridge Ward. They threw me a baby shower where we ate great laughed together and talked as we made hair bows of every variety for our little girl.
I was lucky enough to have a friend watch the boys for me one morning so I could go do a session at the new Kansas City Temple and what a great experience that was.
We went with our dear friends to the coolest dinosaur restaurant ever. Almost too cool because Owen was terrified of the huge T-Rex in the entrance and took some major coaxing to get him in the restaurant. He warmed up too it all and we had a great time.
We spent one last afternoon poolside with our favorite pool buddies.
I left Kansas overwhelmed by how much I had grown to love it there. We made great friends and we miss them already but are grateful for the time we had with them and are glad that many of them have family they visit in Utah so hopefully we will still get the chance to get together. We had some great neighbors who we loved getting to know and who took great care of me and the boys while Scott was away. I thought I was making the ultimate sacrifice to move to Kansas of all places for Scott's job. I did not expect that two and half years later it would be hard to leave. We will always cherrish the memories and friends made.
