Family trip back to Oklahoma and Kansas 2008

Okay there are a ton of pics posted mostly for my memory of a great 12 days with family and friends in the Midwest. Above is Helen, Greg's mom and her dog Sadie. She lives alone in the country on a farm. She still watches out for her cows each Spring and Fall and overseas some harvesting. I think she is an amazingly strong well-grounded lady. We are glad to call her mom and Grandma.
On her porch. We had been running around and watching some very unusual looking hummingbirds.
These are some very close friends in Topeka, Doug, Torrey, Jennifer and Lori. Thanks for Dinner, Doug.
The Kids. It all started with Matt who is 14 then Aubrey who is 13, then Gentry who is 11 and Morgan who is 10. Crazy us, each of our families had one more to add. The Hutchinson's have Jack and we got Tryce. It is always so fun to get together with them. We really miss them and love them all tons.
Jack was getting ready to go to school. He is in Kindergarten this year and was struggling when we were there but I have heard he is now doing much better. We are proud of you, Jack!
We got creative and took several pics of Tryce as a little cowboy on the farm. The farm has always been a very special place for the girls and I think with these pics, you can see it is for Tryce as well. He's wearing and old hat that Grandma found and daddy's old boots.


Had to add a sunflower...after all it is Kansas


Here is Grandma with all her grand kids. Blain is the girls only true blood cousin.
The whole Grensing family at Nancy and Larry's house. They live in Mulvane, KS now. It is a really nice neighborhood. They have a pond nearby where we were able to take Tryce and feed the geese. Nancy is always so fun with the kids. She played some mean badmitten.
Tryce really loves Blain and Blain was really great with him. I just wish we were closer so we could see him more.
A few more farm pics
The girls just love to get to the farm and run and jump on the hay. I think they could do it for hours. Love the simplicity of it all. Beautiful sunsets out in the country.

Time with my grandparents is truly priceless. They are both in their 80's and are doing so so well. They both still drive. My grandma has always had a servants heart and does a lot through her church. My grandpa still goes fishing whenever he can and can still fix just about anything. They take really good care of themselves obviously and are two people who exemplify the benefits of a simple life, love of family and friends and proper nutrition.
Tryce really got connected with his great-grandparents. PaPa has always had a knack with young kids.
Such sweet kisses
My grandpa pulled out this toy that he probably made in the 50's for his own children. He made everything by hand. It has a cowboy riding on a horse. It is electric and still works. I should have gotten a better picture to show off the craftsmanship of his carvings of horse and cowboy. Toys R Us has nothing on this craftsman.

So much love.
Gentry went fishing and these are the fish they caught that day. They were delicious. There is nothing better than eating PaPa's fresh caught fish prepared by MeeMee and eating it at their house.
Looking great!!
If only Tryce really could learn to enjoy fishing with PaPa. Such a precious photo.
They really had a time playing with the fake bunny in the front yard.

This is very special. This is my mom and brother's tombstone. Tryce is named after my brother. We just changed the spelling a bit.

These are my grandparents with their kids. Uncle Gary, Aunt Kay and Aunt Diane
This is my cousin Ricky with his three kids.
Here is my Aunt Diane with her two grandsons, Jacob and Tyler. I appreciate them all so much for taking time whenever we come into town to see us. It really means a lot. Love you all.

The girls always look forward to going up to Edmond to see my cousin Nicole and her kids. They have such a great time together and seem to really know each other which is amazing due to the little amount of time they have actually spent together. Nicole is my youngest cousin and we really have a lot in common. I respect her a great deal. She had a wonderful dinner for us, too. Ava is with Gentry and Cole is with Aubrey.

Houston is chasing the ball.
They had a motor scooter that the girls could ride. No no that is not Ava, that is Tryce wearing Ava's pink coat. He makes a pretty cute little girl, too.
Here is the whole family with us. We love you guys.

We began our trip in Guthrie at my dad's house. Alina and family were there, too. I really can't explain how much fun we had. Alina has 4 girls and they just love each other to death.
Sleep-over in the living room.
Sophie is one year older than Tryce. She made the trip for him. He followed her everywhere and they got along really really well. Wish I would have gotten more pics in Guthrie. Thank you so much to the Silvey's for making the drive to spend some time together. It was very special.
My Aunt Pat and Uncle Paul and cousin Tony and his son Seth drove over to see us. It was unexpected and so great to see them. As a young girl I used to spend a lot of time with this Aunt and Uncle and they still to this day love telling some pretty embarrassing stories about me.
Here we are with My dad and Pat. They are just incredible. They own their own health-food store in Guthrie. It takes a lot of work, dedication and faith to own a small business in a small town and make a go of it these days. I am so proud of them. I just can't wait until they retire so they can travel and see us more. We miss them so much and love them dearly.

It was obviously a very special trip. It started with a rain delay in Vegas while stuck on the airplane for 3 hours with no air conditioning for part of the time. Of course we made it and packed up and moved 6 times in 12 nights to make the most of every minute with as many loved ones as possible. I know this is a very long post but I just wanted to be able to document some of the memories from a wonderful trip. Love to you all!!!