Friday-Saturday, September 25-26, 2021 - Spending Time with Family in Wichita, Kansas

Friday-Saturday, September 25-26, 2021 - Spending Time with Family in Wichita, Kansas

Friday, September 25, 2021 - Breakfast with Friends; Happy Birthday to My Baby Sister, Jody; Travel Day to Wichita; Emmy Spends the NIght

Happy birthday to my baby sister, Jody.  I sent her a note and told her she was my favorite baby sister, and hoped her last "50's" birthday was super extra-special.  Of course all of my sisters are special to me.  

Since we were not in a hurry to leave this morning, we went to breakfast at Saddlerock Cafe in Council Grove.  Drena and Keith rode with us and we met Carolyn and John there.  Carolyn was able to snatch a table for six before we arrived.  It was a good thing as the place was PACKED.  We had a nice visit between us.  As busy as it was, we were surprised we had our meal as quickly as we did.  The time probably passed quickly as we were still visiting about our campout.  The food was quite good.  Dean chose his normal breakfast, fried eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and sourdough bread, with coffee.  I had two over medium eggs on toast, with a slice of cinnamon toast.  Yum!  The bread reminded me of Grandma Long's cinnamon bread.  It's funny how my sisters and I were just talking about it last time we visited my stepdad and remembering how good that bread was.  

I hope you enjoy this video of the pelicans.

We said our goodbyes and returned to the campground where we began our packing process.  We made a stop to empty our tanks and at 11:25am we were on our way to Wichita, KS.  We usually stay at All Seasons RV Park in Goddard, Kansas.  I called two weeks prior and every site was reserved.  That has not happened in the past.  So this time around we are staying at Air Capital RV Park, which means it's a little farther drive to Heath and Jarred's homes, as well as the soccer game we plan to attend.  (We will be going back next week for more games and All Seasons was already fully booked that weekend as well. - I hope that's not going to be a regular happening as our travels to Wichita are sometimes spur of the moment.)  

A couple of pictures of the Flint Hills as we made our way to Wichita.  I never get tired of driving through this area.  While some people see it as boring, I find it exhilarating!   Such wide open countryside.  I wonder what it was like when pioneers reached this part of Kansas.  Wide open spaces of rolling hills.  

Another beautiful rock barn, and of course the flag was a great addition to the picture!

We arrived at Air Capital at 1:47pm.  One thing we really like about Air Capital are the concrete pads and pull through sites with grass areas outside the door.  We were placed on the end which gave us a little more yard, although we didn't spend much time there.  It was all about the grandkids this weekend.

We met up with Jarred at his house after he picked up Emerson at school.  Emerson asked me right away if she could spend the night, and of course we said yes.  She took us downstairs where she has some gymnastic equipment and she showed us some new gymnastic moves.  She's really doing a great job.  We are so proud of her!

Dad brought Hayden home a short time later and she was full of energy.  I wasn't sure how she would react to Dean and I as we haven't seen her since June.  We didn't need to worry.  After a nap, she is such a cheerful little girl and if we made her laugh she liked us even more.  

After Andrea returned from work, we decided to have dinner at Jason's Deli, one of my favorite sandwich shops in Wichita.  I chose the salad bar tonight since I've ate way too much food that is not on my diet this past week.  It's time to cut back for the next three weeks before our camping group meets up one last time in the year 2021.  

Hayden and Emerson were hamming it up while we waited for our food.

Look at that smile.  She's trying to cross her arms in the second picture...it takes concentration!

The many faces of Emerson!

What a beautiful sunset we enjoyed as we walked out to the parking lot.

After dinner, we returned to Jarred and Andrea's.  After visiting awhile, we gathered up Emerson's pillow, clothes, her bag, I-pad, etc. and headed back to Bentley.  She has a loose tooth and she's having a hard time leaving it alone.  Once she laid her head down she was out almost immediately.  I think it was all about laying still for just a minute or two.  Dean and I watched a little TV before finally heading to bed ourselves.  Tomorrow is another busy day.

Saturday, September 26

I did not sleep well last night for some reason.  I woke up around 11:30, 1:30, 3:30 and again at 5:00.  I woke up a little after 6 and laid in bed for a bit when my phone went off.  It was Marc calling me.  He was surprised I was still in bed.  He was on his way to a golf tournament - which is when he often calls.  I appreciate he takes the time to call and visit with me.  

All of a sudden I hear Emerson squealing, and she comes running upstairs - Nana, I lost my tooth!  She was so excited.  She'll always remember losing her tooth while staying with us and in the RV.  We had told her we would get donuts at Quick Trip, so we all got dressed and headed the block and a half to QT.  Em had 2 donuts and Dean and I each had a apple fritter.  They were so good.  We haven't had one for quite awhile - sometime while we were on our trip west.

Emerson called her mom and dad to show them and she was excited to get home so they could see it.  We dropped her off after visiting with Andrea for awhile.  I needed to do some laundry, so we'll be back a little later.  I did a load of shirts and was able to partially dry them and hang them to finish drying while we are gone.  I went ahead and put a load of jeans in and I'll take care of them when we get back later.

(I thought I had finished this and posted it.  While in Wichita this weekend (Sept 30/Oct 1-2) I thought I would work on a post for this past week and realized I had not finished it.  Then I remembered why.  I was having problems with getting my pictures to download again.  I had to stop working on it at the time.  )

We went by Jarred's, transferred to his truck since the girls were going with us to a nearby park.  We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for some lunch, then drove to a nearby park to eat it.  Dean and I rarely eat here - and we wondered why we don't more often.  It's really good.  

We enjoyed watching Emerson and Hayden play at the park for an hour or so. 

After the park, Jarred took us to HTeaO where they provide many different flavors of tea.  It was packed and the drive through was busy.  Dean and I chose peach sweet tea.  It was good.  HTeaO is a Texas company.  Dean and I wondered if it would be such a big hit come winter...maybe they'll have hot tea?

After returning to Jarred's we left to go to Roman's soccer game.  We finally found his mom, Casey.  We parked at the wrong end of the field and had to walk to the other end.  It didn't hurt us, as we could use the steps.  It ended up a tied game, 2-2; and we enjoyed watching Roman play.

Roman is in the white shirt fighting for control of the ball.

Afterwards, we picked up Heath's boys, Abram, Gideon and Roman, then met Jarred, Andrea and their girls Emmy & Hayden at Pizza Ranch for dinner.  It was very busy.  Fortunately, they put us in a meeting room.  It was great that we could all visit without so many people around us.  The pizza was quite good and we had a nice visit with everyone.  I guess we were all so busy eating and visiting, someone forgot to take any pictures.

We will be leaving tomorrow morning to return to Oswego, so we said our good-byes to Jarred and his family.  We dropped Roman and Gideon at home.  Abram was going to an ice skating rink with friends, so Jarred dropped him off.  

It's been a great two days seeing everyone.  We'll be back again next weekend to see Abram play football, and Emerson play soccer.