Anna's turn to fly

I love having this one on one time with each kid. I love watching them see the world.

We went straight to Grandma's. And Ethan came straight over after work to visit us! Grandma stopped him at the door with a broom. Gotta brush the snow off those boots!

Anna fell in love with the snow. 

We went to visit Heidi and her pups. She has a new little girl, Gretel. She was so nervous and piddly! But she got brave with a few chunks of cheese in the right hands. 

Heidi and Anna had plans to repair her hair. Anna has had a busy year of hair bleaching an coloring. I has left her hair a bit damaged all she wants is her original color back. Heidi knows what she's doing!

I volunteered to hold Gretel...it was a sacrifice!

And check it out! She loved her new (old) hair. Sometimes it takes a journey to appreciate what we already have. 

We popped over to the aquarium to see the fish and I somehow only got three pictures: 

We spent the rest of the day visiting and making dinner plans. Mom hasn't been feeling well lately, so mostly that means picking somewhere to eat out. The smell of cooking doesn't help her stomach. These two are always down for fast food! And mom loves a Frosty. 

Our last day, AJ got to hang out with Jim and Ameli. She's been texting back and forth with them and they invited her to spend the day skating and feasting on treats. They are the funnest! I dropped her off with Jim and Mom and I went to have breakfast with John and one of his favorite spots. I had the most delicious french toast with raspberries and sour cream. Sounds weird, but it was heaven. 

Back at the airport, Anna did her best to assert her independence. She went on long "walks" up and down the moving sidewalks. I would start to panic when I hadn't seen her in while and just as I felt like I better call the police, there she would be....

The flight back was the worst of my life. The turbulence was relentless. And it wasn't the bumpy, shaky kind. It was like free falling over and over. My stomach was on the verge for over an hour. I truly considered using the barf bag. Sweet Anna was experiencing the same flight, but she was a trooper. She was rubbing my back and asking me how I was doing. I've never been so grateful to land in my life.

 

All in a day

 A tour of the KU campus!

A haircut for Everly

And a band concert for Laney and Meg!

Not pictured: the kids I had to lecture through the doorbell camera while Megan was in a freshman Q&A session. You know you've got it going on when your mom voice convinces a couple teenagers to stand down from 35 miles away. 

Maren's 47th.

My family.

My family and some maraschino cherry cake. 

My family, some maraschino cherry cake and a BLT. 

That's all I need to finish off my 47th year on the planet. 

 

Those candles are screaming "mushroom cloud"

I love getting homemade and hand-drawn cards from the kids. 

It's great to live in the Kingdom

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl!

We think it was the house lights that tipped the scales.

Apartment hunting

Megan is moving! 

In 6 months. 

We figured we better get a jump on finding a place for her to live during her freshman year and KU.

There were options very close to campus...those were EXPENSIVE. 

So we widened our search and found some cute ones we could afford.

We went away feeling a lot better about finding a good place. I reminded her that her apartment definitely wont be as cute as the ones we looked at. Those nice decorations will be replaced by unwashed dishes and unwashed laundry. 

We celebrated with a yummy lunch in Lawrence. 

She's growing up!