A long, sad vacation.

Hello my loyal blog readers,


I bet you are all thinking that I have fallen off the face of the Earth. Close...I just returned from spending the last two weeks back home in Indiana which is so vastly different than SW Kansas that it feels like another world. And I already really miss Indiana. I've only been back in Kansas for a day! 


DR and I didn't plan on being gone for two weeks. No, we planned on leaving on the 18th of May, visiting my family in northern Indiana and then seeing DR's family in southern Indiana, attending a high school graduation and being back home on Memorial Day, the 28th. But our stay was extended, unfortunately, and we didn't make it home until the first of June.


While we were in southern Indiana my Grandpa Asa passed away and we stayed the few extra days until his funeral. What a time it has been, both wonderful and terrible. It's terrible that we lost our grandpa but wonderful that he was promoted to Heaven and no longer suffering from the effects of Parkinson's. It was wonderful to see so many of my family and friends that I rarely have the chance to see on our short visits home but terrible that it had to be a funeral that brought us all together. 

We'll miss you Papa Asa. He was buried in his bibs and seed hat too. He wouldn't be my grandpa without them :) 


Our family packed in a lot in two short weeks. Two weeks that felt as though it went on forever but also went by in the blink of an eye. Although it was sad that we had to attend a funeral, all of my siblings were together. That rarely happens. 

I think it's been a couple of years since we've all been together. 

We visited Grandpa just a few days before he passed away and were able to steal Grandma away long enough to enjoy some time to the zoo. 

Some AWESOME shooting time with Papa Doug. The boys shot muzzleloaders and shotguns for the first time and boy, are they hooked! No matter that their shoulders hurt a bit...they weren't going to stop. 

Yahoo terrorized a couple of kittens who finally learned to hide from her! 

Attended a graduation! Congrats Cousin Evan :) 

We couldn't make it out of Indiana without visiting DR's alma mater, Purdue University twice! We spent sooo much money on Purdue clothes because, as DR puts it, "I'm just dang tired of seeing all the Kansas State purple!"

Oh, we are posed holding our town paper. They like to publish photos of people traveling with a copy. Funny because the owners are University of Kansas fans. 

DR and I even managed a couple of date nights. 

This isn't a great picture of anything other than being a good reminder that we were kidless :) 

Uncle John Deere was awesome enough to rustle up a bunch of sparklers to play with. This was especially appreciated by the kids since they couldn't have fireworks last summer. 

This is just a sample of the tons of photos from our trip home which I'm trying to load up on Facebook right now for you family but I'm not sure how successful I'll be. There are a LOT of photos. 

Our trip was great. Long and sad but great nonetheless. I'll be forever grateful that we were able to be home and say goodbye to Grandpa Asa. I have so much to be thankful to him for. He was a wonderful grandpa not just to me but to my kids too. He reinforced the value of hard work and to deeply enjoy any and every moment to the fullest. I love you Grandpa and we'll miss you terribly.