Another One of Those Trips

A couple of weeks ago hubby and I made a trip back to the Midwest. As we were driving along Interstate 35 somewhere in Kansas or Missouri or Iowa, I told Hubby I felt like we have two lives, one in the Midwest where our family is and another in South Carolina where people just know us as the two of us. It's weird for me to know that the people we interact with here don't know our kids and don't know us as a family.

Anyway.....back to our trip.

We flew to Wichita, Kansas late on a Thursday. Wichita is where we lived when we were first married. It's where our first born was born. While being there is quite nostalgic for us, we flew there in order to be able to visit hubby's aunt and uncle who are living about an hour from there. They have spent the last 51 years on the mission field in Peru and a few months ago retired and moved back to the USA because of health (aging) issues and to be near their two children. It had been 25 years since we last saw them. We had a really good visit with them even though Uncle was in the hospital. Thankfully, he was having a pretty good day and we were able to talk and catch up with each other for several hours. Aunt was very sweet and I got a kick out of seeing her similar mannerisms as my mother-in-law. We also enjoyed a fun dinner out with Hubby's cousins. We haven't seen them much over the years, but the family bond and the common faith in Jesus makes it easy to connect. We found out later that next week that Uncle has serious cancer and we are even more grateful we were able to spend some time with him.

We hopped in the car and headed north on Interstate 35 to spend some days with our son and daughter-in-law. On the drive, I was quite struck by the beauty and expanse of the Kansas countryside. Funny how I used to think it was a boring drive. But somehow living in South Carolina where one doesn't see the countryside when driving because of the trees and hilly terrain, I have a new appreciation for the expanse of the Midwest.

We had a great few days in Kansas City with our son and daughter-in-law. Hubby worked on painting (he's good at it -- he painted the stripes and hexagons in the nursery),

I helped sort baby clothes and played with their puppy.

I learned through Facebook that my cousin and his wife were in Kansas City, so I invited them over to my son's house the morning of the 4th. It had been a couple of years since we had seen them. She has always been one of my favorite people. She married my cousin when I was 11 years old and I remember trying to sit by her whenever the family was together. She always talked to me and made me feel important. As the youngest, that meant a lot to me.

We spent the 4th of July with another aunt and cousin of Hubby's.

Can you believe she's 84? Me neither. We always enjoy our time with this aunt.

We did a little sight-seeing at Union Station in Kansas City. The history of this place is so interesting. And it's huge.

We had such a good time with our son and daughter-in-law. It's always hard to say goodbye. But we were super anxious for our next stop.

We were headed to Iowa to spend five days taking care of our granddaughter!!! Her mommy and daddy went on a vacation to Seattle to visit friends.

Next post: lots and lots and lots of pictures of Lydia.  Wheeeeee!