Kansas

Chris got an on-sight to Kansas, which is where my uncle Jeff lives. I hardly ever get to see them so I was hoping to go with him. Chris's work said if they didn't have to pay for Chris to stay at a hotel they would pay for me to fly out, and Jay is free. So we talked to Jeff and Anne and they said they would love to have us over. We got there at five thirty but by the time we got to their house it was about 7. They had diner all prepared for us. It was delicious! We got a tour of the house and then just talked for awhile. The next four days were a little boring because Chris, Jeff, and Anne were at work and Addie had school. So Jay and I mostly just hung out. Anne had two of those days off and she gave me jamberrie nails. They have a cat named Crockshanks, that had been declawed. Jaylee kept trying to touch it and the cat would get mad and hiss at her but she thought that was funny and would touch it more. Then it would try and scratch her but it felt more like a pat and Jaylee thought that was funny too. After day 4 it finally decided to bite her, she cried for a little bit but just went back to teasing the cat. As annoyed as the car seemed he wouldn't go hide or run away. The second night we were there Jeff and Anne took all of us out to eat at a Mexican restaurant that was pretty good. On the third night we went to the mall. We got Jaylee a stuff Stitch that is half her size, she loved it and we figured it would be a good Christmas present for her. One night we went to watch Jeffs team practice, Chris even helped at the line up even though he wasn't properly dressed to play. One night Jeff and Anne wanted to take us to a BBQ place so Addie watched Jay and we went out with them. We got so much food, mostly meat. It was really good, we braugth some back for Addie. We were only supposed to be gone from Sunday to Friday but Chris's company wanted two more days so we switched our flights and stayed from Sunday to the next Monday.  

Thursday was our first day that Chris had off. Anne had to work that day too. Chris and I took Jaylee to the Kansas Zoo. We really liked this zoo, it was a lot bigger than Hoogle Zoo. It is also more animal friendly but set up so that you can see them from almost every angle. Jaylee loved it so much! She was running around at pointing at the animals. They had a place to feed the deer, so they would lick Jays hand thinking she would have food. That kind of scared her though. They had kangaroos just roaming around in the Australian section of the zoo. That was pretty cool. The last thing that we did was see the bird show. Jaylee loved when they would fly right over our heads, one even brushed against Chris's head. Jaylee was so tired she feel asleep in the car despite how much we tried to keep her up. Then we had lunch at Chili's, it is a great place for Jaylee to eat because she loves the food and the kids menu is perfect for her. She loves the quasadias and the steamed broccoli, plus she gets chocolate milk.
Saturday everyone had off so we went to a different mall, except Jeff, he has a big game tonight. The mall had a place with a dinosaur restaurant. We didn't eat there but they had some cool things you could go in and look at. We took a picture by the yellow brick road that they had there. We also ate yogurt at a place called Sweet Frog. We decided to go there because they had a mascot that we knew Jaylee would love and we were right. She couldn't stop hugging it and giving it high fives. The yogurt was yummy too! That night we went to watch Jeff coach his football team at the championship game. It was pretty cool to get to be there for that. At first we were kind of worried because they weren't doing to good. It was only a few minutes in at the score was 0-6. However shortly after that we came back and actually creamed the other team. The final score was 60-20. Jaylee loved to watch the cheerleaders. Anytime that they would cheer she would get all excited and dance. It was pretty cold so we had gotten her a coat and beanie. She looked so cute in them. As soon as the game was over Chris and I left because Jay was getting tired.
Sunday we got up early to go to church, it was pretty neat though because we got to go to one of the wards that Hayden served in. I was really bummed that his mission president said no to letting us see him but it was probably for the best. I did get to talk to a few people that knew him. They all just loved Hayden. After church we went back home and waited for Jay to take a nap, then headed back out again. We went to visit some church sights, the first place was the visitors center. It was very peacful there. Then we went to Liberty Jail. That one was neat! I couldn't help but think of the trial we are going threw and relating to some of Joseph Smiths experience. The most touching part was we went around to the front of the Jail were they talked about the people that came to watch and mock Joseph and his friends as they entered the prison. Joseph was the last to go in and he turned around to everyone and tiped his hat saying "good afternoon gentlemen". It really spoke volumes of his character and I know that that is the same reaction my dad would give and is giving during this trial. It was really neat to experience and see in person. The other cool thing was there was a sister missionary there that arrived around the same time Hayden did so we asked her if she knew him. She said "yes, I flew out with him, and I get to see him at zone meetings". I told her he was my brother and she gave me a big hug and said she would give that to Hayden but in the form of a hand shake. She seems like a really cool girl and it was nice to have that connection to him. I loved even just driving around and getting to see the kind of places that Hayden was serving in. I really miss that boy, especially his hugs. We also stopped by and got pictures in front of the Royals and Chiefs stadium.  
The next day was Monday and everyone had work. We stopped into Annes work to say good bye and play basketball one more time with Addie. Then we headed home to get ready and leave. We stopped by and got some food and snacks and went to the airport. Both there and back Jaylee did pretty good. She got a little fussy because of bordum but other than that she did really good. On the way back she even fell asleep for the last 15 minutes. Ranae and Sam picked us up and we went out to eat and Pei Wei of course. It was nice to be home but I am sure going to miss Jeff, Anne, and Addie! I love them all so much!

November 2-9, 2014