Saying Goodbye

I hate, hate, hate this part of our life right now. :( We have met so many great families on our Army adventures and then we always have to say goodbye (At least for now). We met 2 great families while here and fortunately the Burges' are coming with us to Leavenworth, but the Hintz's are about 2 years behind us. It is so hard to find people that you know will be there when you need them, understand the situation you are in and are just there to listen. I feel like I found that with these ladies. We had weekly play groups with the  kids during the day, started doing monthly Girls Nights Out or Crafts nights and even took turns watching the kids so we could have date nights. I just have to tell myself, it's not goodbye, it's just until next time. The Army really is a small, small world so I know we'll see them again.

So tonight, we went over to the Hintz's for one last Missouri get together. It was nice to be in a house that wasn't complete chaos!!

Pulaski County Fair

We attended the Big Pulaski County Fair again this year.  I grew up in 4-H and taking exhibits to the fair each year, so I've been around the county fair before. Well this is hardly a county fair. It's actually pretty sad. I was never able to find any exhibits but there were a handful of animals. I understand that this county is quite transient but goodness, it's sad. The carnival was even pathetic!  Either way, we went with friends and that always makes it more fun. The kids enjoyed riding the high priced, go around in circle rides and we all ate some semi decent carni food.

Chow time!

The kids all did the mirror maze, but it was a huge waste because the carni worker showed them the way through the entire thing. What's the point?!?!

Making their way through

Liam, Katelyn and Katy waiting in line for some ride that probably cost $4 for 2 minutes of circle time

The hot air balloon ride. This ride was actually kind of cool. They turned the black handle and it would send the balloon around in circles while it was going up and down. They were really laughing on this ride.

2 besties!

They are so cute together!

Riding the train around this small oval track. The mall train is 10 times better!

Will was a great sport. He didn't complain too much and was pretty much content just watching. I'm pretty sure the county fair next summer is going to cost twice as much because he is going to want to ride the rides too!

Being silly!

"Are you done yet, Sissy?! I'm ready to go home and go to bed."

Family Pictures - Fort Leonard Wood, MO

Family picture time before we leave! Supposed to be sunset pictures; glad sunset and a few regular. The bugs were atrocious and it was SO hot and humid! It's a wonder any of them turned out!

The Jones' come for a visit!

Our good friends, Ken and Tiffany and their kids Sami and Matt came to visit us for a long weekend! We were stationed together at Ft. Riley and Tiffany helped me make it through my first deployment as an Army wife. Ken and Jack worked closely together and were also roommates for a while in Iraq. They have quite the bond (Tiffany and I often joked that they were dating because they did everything together). It's so nice to have such great friends that you can just get together with and it's like old times. It was a wonderful weekend!!

Matt building with Katelyn and Will

We couldn't just hang out at the house all weekend so we did one of the few things to do with the bigger kids in Ft. Leonard Wood - Go Cart riding.

Even Momma got to drive! We kicked some booty too :)

Poor Will wanted to partake in some of the fun, but he just isn't big enough yet.

Sami and Katelyn

Even though we had plenty of packing that needed to be done, it was nice to step back from the impending move and have a little fun time! Plenty of food was eaten, beverages consumed, and skipbo games played. Couldn't have been a better weekend!

Ha Ha Tonka State Park - Memorial Day Weekend

 Fine Print: Picture overload :)!!

Beautiful overlook of Lake of the Ozarks

A KC business man bought this land in the early 1900s and started building a "castle." Only a year after he started building it, he was killed in an automobile accident. His sons finally completed the castle in 1922 and in 1942, the castle and stable were burned by a fire and in 1976 the water tower also burned.

Here are the remains of the castle.

Mommy even snuck in on a picture!

Our map reader

One tired lil dude!

A natural bridge

She found some bugs crawling on this limb and was very fascinated with them.

Posing for a picture on own way to the springs

Beautiful blue/green water

Checking everything out

Look at that hair again!!!

We found some wildlife! And we even had a snake cross the path in front of us too.

Walking back to the car

She had a blast exploring everything and wanted to go even further, but lil man was done for the day and starting to make life miserable for everyone else.

I can't wait to go on more of these fun adventures with the kids! It's so fun watching them take everything in!!