Kansas City: Day Four

Tyler and I slept in a bit after all of our traveling but the kids were up bright and early for some cousin time. I think cousins are such a huge blessing in our lives. I love my cousins and always had so much fun with them growing up...still do...and my kids love their cousins just as much.

Seriously...Jordi and Ramon have some ADORABLE kids!!

By then the Johnsons were seriously in need of some KC BBQ STAT!! The whole city smells of BBQ. It is unreal and it makes you very hungry. I have two favorite places: Gates BBQ and Oklahoma Joe's. We decided to go to Oklahoma Joe's first. It is famously housed in a gas station. You will see cars in the parking lot from all different states and they aren't there for the gas. 

 

This is the original location...and the pictures are from last summer. THIS summer we went to the new location that is closer to Jordi's house...there are now three locations. I have to say this about Oklahoma Joe's...they do have the best meat. Seriously fantastic. But...Gates still has the best sauce on the PLANET!! Oh yes they do!! Plus, I still enjoy the sticky...little bit grimy...yet fun atmosphere of Gates. My favorite location is the one off of Stateline. So many good memories were made there.

 Yesiree!! Gates BBQ reigns supreme!! We brought home multiple bottles of their BBQ sauce and we are down to only one remaining bottle. We need to order some online immediately. 

But back to Oklahoma Joe's...

Kameron giving it the thumbs up!!

Now this may shock you...get ready to clutch the pearls...but my kids ate meat at Oklahoma Joe's. If you are EVER going to eat meat this is the place to do it. Each kid partook of a rib. I know scandalous right? 

 

 I couldn't find the original picture so here is the Instagram oddly cropped one. But it is seriously too cute not to put on the blog. These three girls had THE BEST time together!! They played and played and played.

 

I love my sister!! Here she is looking all studious. She is in Nursing School and just about to head to class after lunch. So cute in her glasses. :)

After lunch we decided to give Ramon (he had the whole week off...woohoo) and kids a break and let them have some naptime so we headed out for some sight seeing...or more like a trip down memory lane.

First stop my old house:

 

Someone planted these crazy trees right in the front yard completely blocking the view of the house and the pretty view of the golf course across the street. Who does that? So weird.

Front of the house...completely blocked by weird trees/bushes?

Pretty golf course across the street

More golf course

 

 My high school...Shawnee Mission East!! Go Lancers!! Even though I did go to four different schools in four years of high school I went to this one for two years... my Junior and Senior years. I went to two schools for my Freshman year (one in Utah...and one in KC), another school for my Sophomore year (which I hated) and then I transferred to East and felt right at home. This was a great school to go to...one of the top in the country. The Shawnee Mission School District is still one of the top school districts in the nation. It was also a very affluent school...lots of richie rich kids...but fantastic teachers...great classes...fun kids. I really enjoyed my junior and senior year there (despite my hatred of KC at the time). Another bonus was that it was really challenging academically. I was a an honor student and did well there but I worked my butt off!! When I got to BYU I thought it was EASY compared to my high school. Less challenging...less homework etc. Crazy huh? (of course that was not factoring in the social aspect of college which took a toll on my grades that first year!!)

Shawnee Mission East High School

 When we were looking at my school it was registration day and there were a bunch of kids coming in to pick up their schedules etc. Reilly LOVED IT. She said "I would love to go to school here." (Not so much of the Spokane riff-raff types that go to her school.) I also had the odd experience of actually running into someone I went to high school with at Hobby Lobby while I was in town. THAT NEVER HAPPENS TO ME!! I never see anyone from my high school...not even LDS kids.  My junior year I was one of three LDS kids at my high school and by my Senior year I was the only one. I also had the added fun of getting to lord my school's superiority over people who went to "other" schools. ;) Jordin and Ramon's friend, Chris, was a good sport and teased me right back. His famous quote..."Ahhh yes...while the kids at Shawnee Mission East were eating Filet Mignon for lunch the kids at my school were eating chicken nuggets!!" My kids got quite a kick out of that. We also once made the national news because in attempting to put a big peace sign on our school we inadvertently put up a big Mercedes symbol. Oh well. What can you do?

 Still proud to be an SME Lancer!!

Here's the Health Club that I worked at when I was in high school. I loved that job. Free gym membership, cute boys, and a super easy front desk job...and close to my house. It was the best job!!

After all our running around we met up with Jordin, Ramon and the kids.  RJ needed to go pick up his tux for the wedding. His little tiny tux!! These pictures are a little blurred but they were way too cute not to be included.

Oh Yeah!! He knew that he LOOKED GOOD!! He loved looking at himself in the mirror.

That evening my Mom and Ken finally arrived in town and we headed to Culver's for dinner. Here's a little something you might not know about Kansas City. It is clearly the frozen custard capital of the world. Frozen custard!! Spokane doesn't have one single solitary frozen custard place. How sad is that? We always pull right into Nielson's Frozen Custard as soon as possible after arriving in SLC when we are traveling. What is wrong with Spokane? Don't they love their frozen treats? No shaved ice...no frozen custard. But we do FINALLY have Fro-Yo here. Anyway, Kansas City has a frozen custard shop on nearly every corner. Delightful.

We were big fans of Culver's...how could we not be...home of frozen custard and ....wait for it...butter burgers. Oh. Yes. Those are burgers cooked in BUTTER. Oh my. It was delicious. We went there at least five times during our stay. Family, Fun, Good Food, Good Times. :)

Trip to Kansas City: Day Three

We woke up in our luxurious Sioux City hotel after a wonderful night sleep. Tyler and the kids were thrilled that the hotel provided a full complementary breakfast and I enjoyed a shower and getting ready in peace and quiet.

We met up with the Grandparents that morning. My mom and Ken had arrived in Sioux Falls several hours behind us and stayed in a different hotel. They were taking a different route to KC than we were but wanted to say hello.

After we parted ways we got the heck out of South Dakota and into one of my VERY FAVORITE states. Iowa. I LOVE IOWA. I would live there in a heart beat. Iowa is not what you would expect. It is green with rolling hills. I have told Tyler for years that Iowa is not what you think it is going to be like. I love those deep green hills with white farmhouses. It is an extremely beautiful state. Pictures don't do it justice...so I didn't really try. Go to Iowa people. It is awesome.

We took a very long scenic route. I wanted Ty and the kids to really SEE Iowa and to truly experience it so we traveled the back roads and drove across the state. We saw Ames and Des Moines...because seriously when will we be back that way? Might as well see it then. Tyler didn't get to see my favorite town of Ottumwa. Bummer. It was a little too far out of our way.

Guess what these pictures are of?

Iowa!!

Not what you expect huh? Of course there are cornfieldy areas but it still isn't flat and nasty. It is still really really pretty...in a quiet and peaceful way.


One of my favorite stops was in some random little town in Iowa to eat shaved ice. Spokane is seriously lacking in the shaved ice department. It was heavenly to eat some in Iowa. Did I mention how much I love Iowa?

One of our favorite areas was Madison County. I had never been there before. It is stunningly beautiful. The books don't lie. It is a magical place. Well worth checking out if you are ever in that area.

One of the Bridges of Madison County

Inside one of the bridges

 

We saw the birthplace of John Wayne that was also in Madison County

Then it was onto Missouri. Yet another place that is stunningly beautiful. The closer and closer we got to Kansas City the more excited I got to show my old hometown to my family. We came in on the other side of the city (the Missouri side) which was fun so the kids could see the downtown at night. KC has a really cool downtown...and the Missouri River is spectacular. We drove around the downtown and to the Kansas side...into Johnson County. The music of the cicadas greeted us. I forgot how much I missed that sound.

By the time we got to Jordin's house it was close to midnight. It was so good to see Jordin, Ramon,  Jaylah, and RJ. We miss them so much and hate living so far away. Once we arrived the party got started. Even sleeping RJ and Jaylah were awakened to join the fun.

Seriously?! How could you not wake up this cute boy? Jaylah moves too fast to try to get a picture of her...but...suffice it to say she was too cute not to wake up too. 

We eventually went to bed and got ready to enjoy our KC adventures!!

Iowa: BIG THUMBS UP from the Johnsons

Missouri: THUMBS UP as well.

KC: They loved it!!

(Ailey even forgot that we were in Tornado Alley and stopped fretting and looking up at the sky and enjoyed herself!! That's how much fun we were having.)

 Trip to Kansas City: Day One/Night/Day Two

I am finally doing it peeps. Writing about my trip to Kansas City. Somehow I just keep putting it off and last year I neglected to do it all together which was unfortunate. So here it goes...

We left town around 4pm on a Friday afternoon...riding in a brand-spanking new mini-van rental. No it was not maroon. It was white and, yes, it made a difference. The curse was lifted and no one puked the entire trip. Woohoo.  After a quick run through Sonic (for the kids) and Noodle Express (for me and Ty) for an early dinner we were on the road. The kids were armed with new travel journals and we were ready for the adventure to begin. The scenery is so beautiful through Northern Idaho and Montana that we were quite content to just soak it all in. Around the time that we hit the "less-than- picturesque" part of Montana the weather kicked in to provide a beautiful light show for us.

(Let me preface this by saying that Ailey is our little worry wort and really hates thunderstorms. This storm came on the heels of watching all kinds of Discovery Channel shows about Storm chasers and Tornado Alley (where we were headed...during Tornado Season) and Yellowstone and it's Super Volcano (which we were going to drive by.) Her nerves were already on edge. The tears were flowing at the first sign of lightening. But eventually she calmed down and fell asleep.)

By the time we rolled through Bozeman, MT at around 11pm the city was hoppin'. There were so many people roaming around the historic downtown area. Awesome restaurants and open-air clubs...music pounding...great shops. So much to see. We wanted to stop and get out and have some fun!! The kids woke up and looked around and we drove through the downtown twice. One particular dance club looked like serious fun. Tyler and I hadn't been dancing in forever. Just as we were lamenting our lack of fun care-free days we rolled up in the ol' mini-van to a stop light right next to the dance club. There was a limo right in front and all kinds of fancy people were climbing out. We had our windows rolled down to soak in the atmosphere and were looking longingly at the people having fun. The limo driver looked at us sympathetically and said "Wanna trade?" Be careful what you wish for. :)

On we drove through the night...the kids did great as they always do. They are wonderful travelers. Remember our Ode to Norman Rockwell? Well here is a middle picture...middle of the night more like it. This was around 3am somewhere in Wyoming.

We are slightly glassy-eyed and crazed. But the kids are sacked out!! Check out Kameron's face plant right behind us. So even though we get tired and slightly wacky it is so much better than endless fighting, "Are we there yet?", never ending "I'm hungry" and "I have to go to the bathroom" etc. Usually Tyler and I put this time to good use and have great talks and discuss our plans for the future. We also were driving during the Meteor Shower and made quite a few wishes on falling stars.

I have been to South Dakota three times now and I can't fathom how each and every time it has coincided with the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD. Seriously. Once in high school, last year and then this trip. Believe me I am NOT A FAN!! The motorcyclists were annoying and they stuck with us like glue all the way through to Kansas City...filling the highways, gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and tourist sights all along the way. Ugh. Tyler had never been to Sturgis so we took a little trip through town. Since we were there super early in the morning most of riders were still asleep after long nights of partying.

Due to our early arrival we missed most of the debauchery. My mom and her husband who were a few hours behind us were greeted in town by topless women. That may have topped the sights (aka creepy  couple doing the deed ) that kicked off our trip to the ocean in June.

By breakfast time we were in Rapid City, SD (the town near Mount Rushmore). We stopped for breakfast and then up the mountain we went. Our kids were super excited...Tyler too. They had never been there before. It was my third time but Mount Rushmore doesn't disappoint. Before we left on our trip we watched a National Geographic Special on Netflix about the making of Mount Rushmore and I would highly recommend watching that before going there. It was so interesting. Also, our Bishop is from Rapid City and he had some suggestions of things to see as well.

When we got there the weather was kind of cold and gray. Not the ideal time to see it but definitely better than broiling hot like it was when I was there last year. I actually had to whip out the old jean jacket. It really was spectacular and I love the mix of humanity that you find at National Monuments. So many different languages and different people. I loved it.

I didn't take as many pictures this time as I did last summer so I will post some of those because they are better...and you haven't seen them. So if it is cloudy it was this summer if it was sunny it was last summer.


Here we go:

From a Distance

Closer

The Entrance

Inside the gates

I really loved the "Avenue of Flags" where there is a flag that represents each one of the states. The kids had fun finding Washington. It is really so pretty and so well done. It made me proud to be an American. Seriously patriotic.

Close Up

 Our bishop recommended that we hike (I use that term loosely... it was more of a meandering walk) the Presidential Trail. I had never done that before and it was well worth it. There were park rangers all along the trail with all sorts of interesting information and places to take pictures from interesting perspectives. It culminated at the Lincoln Borglum Visitors Center and Museum. We also checked out the Sculptor's Studio. All of it had so much more meaning after watching that National Geographic show. The Museum and Studio were about ten times more interesting due to our background info and held the kids attention. So if you are going to Mount Rushmore watch the movie...watch it even if you aren't. It's good. It has so much information on what Mount Rushmore was SUPPOSED to look like and all about the hidden vaults...yes there really is one. Good stuff.

After the hike and seeing all the sights...the lack of sleep was starting to make us all a little weary and grumpy. It was time for fudge. Bring on the fudge!! It is a Johnson cure-all.

Then it was back to sight-seeing again and everyone was happy.

Washington's Profile

Then it was onto the Crazy Horse Memorial which is not far from Mount Rushmore. I went there in high school and there was barely anything. There also wasn't much of a visitors center either. Things have changed in 20+ years. Although there is still a LONG WAY TO GO.

What it looks like now.

Model of what it will look like...eventually

By the afternoon we were back on the road again. I have to say that I am NOT A FAN of South Dakoka. I enjoy the little corner that is the Black Hills, the Badlands, and the Mount Rushmore area but after that...I pretty much hate it. It is the worst area to drive...miles and miles of nothing...without any significant places to stop...all the way to Sioux Falls. It is horrible. After driving it last summer I was totally dreading doing it again. I was right. It was as horrible as I remembered...maybe worse. Wikipedia describes South Dakota as "Overwhelmingly Rural". They aren't kidding. If you live in South Dakota bless your heart. It is a hell-hole to me. For reals. Worst state ever.

There are only two other sights to see from Rapid City to Sioux Falls: Wall Drug and the Corn Palace. Wall Drug is advertised pretty much every mile all the way from Wyoming. Last summer my mom and I stopped just to see what all the hoopla is about...it's about nothing. This summer we just drove on by. It is a lame tourist trap. The Corn Palace is a tad bit more interesting. It is a building covered in corn. My mom has a weird love for this...I don't. I scratched it off our list this summer. In case you don't find yourself in that little corner of South Dakota (lucky you) here is a picture:

That's all corn people

We arrived in Sioux Falls around 8pm and I have never been so happy to see civilization...and a bed. Tyler and I decided early on that this trip wasn't going to be a "budget trip" we were going to travel "right" as in no cheap hotels. We ended up getting some great rates and the nicest hotel we stayed in for the entire trip was in Sioux Falls. Go figure.

So... Mount Rushmore: Awesome

Crazy Horse: Cool

The rest of South Dakota: Sucks the Big Wazoo

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!!

And so it has... School has started, Dance Team, Cross-Country, and Ballet are going full steam ahead with Piano and Seminary beginning next week. The crazy nights and early mornings are here again. Summer was a blur. Seriously. But this is the first year that I really felt that it was time for the kids to go back to school. Usually I love the schedule-free...do-whatever-we-want-summer. This year was a little crazy. I love summer but I am loving the structure Fall brings even more right now.

First Day of School pics...including some full-length photos...since I know "some" of you wanted to see shoes and all. :)

What does it feel like having a Sophomore? Better than having a Freshman and not as traumatizing as it must be to have a Junior. Not too bad. This year Reilly is on the Dance Team so it will be interesting to see how that goes. She will get to do some traveling with both the Dance Team and with Symphonic Choir. She is super excited about that. She has some honors classes that she is going to need to stay on top of and she has started taking French...which I am excited about. :)

This year Kameron "Rules the School". He has a great class. Finally he and his best friend, Jonathon, are in the same class. That hasn't happened since 1st Grade. They are definitely stoked about that. In fact, nearly all of his best buds are in his class. Perfect way to end elementary school. Having Kam in 6th Grade is the thing that got me most choked up this year.

Here he is mocking Ailey's pose below!! Such a typical brother. This year he is running Cross-Country and playing the trumpet again. He will run Track in the Spring too. He is very excited to get out of 11 year-old Scouts which he hates and into Young Mens. (He turns 12 in November.)

 

Walking into school

 

Ailey is excited about 3rd Grade. She has a really nice teacher who knows both Reilly and Kameron and a very nice class. The school did a great job of splitting up the big gaggle of girls (Ailey was sad about that) but it will give Ailey a great opportunity to get to know some new girls.  She was so worried that none of her BFFs would be in her class. Luckily when she walked in she saw Emma.

(Emma's Mom and I were both taking pictures at the same time hence the looking every which way.) Emma's mom told Ailey that all summer Emma had been saying "I hope Ailey is in my class!!" That made Ailey feel great!!

Emma, Ailey and Karin

The last couple of years Kameron has been a real stinker about letting me take pictures of him in his classroom EVEN THOUGH all the other parents are doing it too. This year he promised me I could take a picture of him at his desk since it is his last year in elementary school (and the last year I get to take a picture of him at his little desk...sad) Kameron kept his word and even gave me a nice grin. I think he grew about three inches this summer. No joke.

Bryn didn't want to be left out of the picture-taking fun. Here she is in front of the school. Her preschool doesn't start for a few weeks.

Then we were off to one of our favorite breakfast spots, The Cottage, for our little back-to-school tradition of going out for breakfast with Bryn. We started this two years ago. She does not like being left behind when her siblings all go back to school and somehow pancakes with Mommy and Daddy make it all okay. :)

We are sure glad to have Brynnie home for another couple of years. The kids are growing up too darn fast. Life moves at a lightening fast pace these days.

Later that night...later than usual since there was a Ballet Open House and a Cross-Country Practice... we had our back-to-school Ice Cream Bonanza at Baskin Robbins. Good times. :)

Happy Back-To-School!!