We moved to Kansas City a month ago. I have very mixed feelings about this. My childhood causes me to have major Kansas City pride, and yet I also have a lot of pride that I left home and never came back.
Except now I am back. The good--fun visiting my old haunts and pointing out nostalgic places to my kids. Seeing old friends and picking up where we left off. We live in the most convenient corner of KC in the world--right next to Target, Walmart, Aldi, Sam's, AND the temple. I live 10 minutes from the temple! Me!!
The bad--it is 938247293 degrees with 2893423984 percent humidity every day. So much has changed that I really don't know as many people as I thought I would. I really miss Pennsylvania a lot. We had a great setup there with wonderful friends.
Shortly after we arrived here, June went to FSY knowing ZERO people and being one of the only teenagers left on the planet without a phone. But she had a marvelous time and grew her testimony.
Right after she got back, we left for a family reunion in Colorado. We left at 5:30 AM with the goal of arriving at 3, but then our car broke down TWICE, and we needed to get a new alternator. So we didn't roll in until after 8 PM. We were supposed to take our big family pictures that night, but our family ruined that. Side note: Heidi's flight also was canceled the day before and Steve's car broke down 20 miles outside of Granby. It looked as though the reunion would be cursed, but we all made it eventually (our family was the last).
If you haven't stopped for gas in Wilson, Kansas, you haven't really lived.
One of the places we broke down was right outside this farm supply company. It was actually kinda perfect because the owner is a huge hunter and while Dan and the guys looked at the car, the kids and I looked at his stuffed animals. I mean taxidermized animals. You know, the animals he KILLED.
And the office had a dog. So there's that.
At the reunion, we had fun whitewater rafting, swimming, bowling, eating, and hiking. Okay, not so much fun hiking because it was hot.
My brother Mark and his wife Shayla went to town making up a Jeopardy game about our Beck family childhood. I don't want to brag, but I did very well.
And we finally did have time for a family photo session. What can I say--Becks really take good care of themselves.
Since coming back, we have gone to the neighborhood pool A LOT. One day, Harris passed out there from heat exhaustion, and it was a day that we decided to walk so some nice random lady had to take us home. We also go to the neighborhood library a bunch. It is an excellent library!
We received free tickets to the zoo. The Kansas City Zoo was a PIT when I was a kid, but it's very nice now.
You might detect from this photo that Harris was unhappy, and you would be correct. I ended up dragging his tantrummy body out of the zoo right after this was taken.
Our amazing stake also had a huge Pioneer Day celebration, complete with crafts, butter churning, prairie diamond rings, costumes and photos, and square dancing. I ended up dancing with my new stake president for half a second, and I was extremely awkward and just stared at the ground the whole time. In some ways, I am still a beehive.
The only pic I have of the occasion is this pic of me with my bff Linz's co-worker, who I have been trying to run into ever since moving back.
Do I look like I was melting? Because that would be accurate. It was in the 90s, outside, and as muggy as could be.
The End.
