Tuesday

Tuesday morning, I finally felt better. We all went down to the pool. It was so much fun getting to watch the kids show off after being stuck inside!

While I was sick, Jarrett did some shopping. He saw an ad for a car on the bulletin board at the hospital and went to look at it. It ended up being an amazing deal on a car that he's always wanted so he bought it.

Jarrett's mom and sister had been visiting Grove, OK and were about to head back to California so they agreed to drive car back to Parker. Jarrett's mom loves old cars so she had a good time driving it.

In the evening, we left for St. Louis. We arrived late, around 10:00. Our campground was directly across the river from the Gateway Arch. When Kelly saw it, he thought it was a rainbow. We're excited to visit it tomorrow.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday

Apparently, the heat really doesn't agree with me during this pregnancy. I wound up in the hospital on Saturday. Luckily Jarrett is wonderful and took the kids swimming and fishing and took care of me while I was sick in bed. He sent me fun pictures like this. The kids LOVE swimming!

There was a fishing pond at the campsite and the kids had a great time fishing. It was an amazing little pond. Everytime the kids cast, they caught a fish within five minutes.

There was only one problem with their catches...they were tiny!

Friday

We left Friday morning and drove to Miama, Oklahoma. Jarrett's aunt and uncle live there. Jarrett had fun catching up with his uncle, he hasn't seen him for years.

Jarrett and I stopped by his grandmother's assisted living home. She was doing better than we expected.

We drove on and into Joplin, Missouri. Jarret's cousin rides BMX bikes and brought everyone to the indoor park where he rides. James and Kelly (and Jarrett) all really wanted to try it.

We drove through town and saw the tornado destruction. It was so sad to see.

This is the local high school. There was supposed to be a gratuation here on the day of the tornado but they had moved it to the college. It probably saved hundreds of lives.

We drove through the evening and pulled into Springfield, Missouri for the night. We took the kids down to the pool for a late night swim.

Thursday

Yay! We have AC!! We're not sure what the repairman did but it's working!

We woke up late today and went into town to see Cars 2. The kids have been so excited to see it. They all loved it but Jarrett and I weren't impressed, the first one was definitly better.

In the evening, Jarrett took the kids down to the lake to fish. They didn't catch anything but they still had a good time.

We watched the sun go down over the lake. It was very pretty here but the heat is just to much. I've felt sick since we first arrived. We're going to change course and head towards the Great Lakes instead of Louisianna, We're hoping for some cool weather!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we met Jarrett's step mom and sister at his cousin's house. She lives on Grand Lake. The kids went out on her paddleboat with their cousin.

We spent the day there, swimming in her pool and trying to stay out of the heat. The kids really want a pool now!

While we were at her house, we had a repairman out to look at the air conditioning on the RV. It's just TOO hot. We're planning on going through Louisianna and Texas but I don't think I can do it without better AC!

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we went to Jarrett's favorite restaurant from high school. We have to stop every time we're in Wichita.

After that, it was off towards Grove, Oklahoma. On the way, we passed through the little town that Jarrett lived in when he was a kid. It's definitly a small town. There was a baseball game going on near these signs and when we stopped to take pictures, everyone waved.

This is their old house and barn. When Jarrett was a kid, none of the trees were here. It was a really cute little house.

As we drove on, the heat was crazy. It was 107 outside but inside of the RV it was a balmy 99. It was miserable. I had contractions through the entire drive, the baby doesn't seem to like the heat.

Jarrett stopped near our campsite to fill up the RV and came back with these.

Monday

Monday morning, the kids and I went exploring through the RV park. The Concordia RV site is also their airport and veterans center, so there are a couple of old tanks on the site. The kids had a great time climbing all over them.

In the afternoon, we headed to Wichita to Jarrett's mom's house. We bought more fireworks on the way and the kids were excited to set them off.

Jarrett's mom lives on a lake and the kids always have a great time in the water. They can't swim in it but it's fun for wading.

Midnight sat on the dock and watched.

As we were playing, a tiny duckling swam up to shore and started waddling towards us. Just as I got done telling the kids not to touch it and scare it, it walked into Riley's hands. Apparently ducks don't scare as easily as you'd think.

The boys held it also and then we tried to return it to it's duck family. We found the family and brought it down but it was obviously the runt of the family. The other ducklings were twice it's size and could swim much better. The mama duck tried to bring him with but he couldn't keep up and kept coming back to shore.

We kept him with us through the fireworks, ducks really don't like loud noises! Actually, neither does Kelly.

James doesn't have that problem!

We looked up baby duck diets and found out that they eat mostly worms and soft bugs. Unfortunately, we didn't have either of those. We had no idea what to do with him!


As we were looking for the duck's family, one of the neighbors had told us that the geese will sometimes adopt abandoned ducks. After the show, we took the duckling down to shore near the geese. He must have been really hungry by that point because he squeaked like crazy! Sure enough, the geese swam up as soon as they heard him. We're looking forward to checking on him when we go back to Wichita again.

Sunday

We pulled into Concordia, KS around lunchtime and met up with Jarrett's family. This is the little town where his mom grew up. a lot of his family is still here. The kids played for a little while on the playground and then came back for a nap, we wanted to make sure that they could stay up late for the fireworks.

Every year, Jarrett's family does a softball game as a fundraiser for the fireworks in honor of Jarrett's grandpa. The show is always on the third of July in a local park. The family sets off tons of fireworks before we go to the show. Riley and James LOVED setting off the fireworks. Kelly was pretty nervous about it but had fun watching.

One of the rockets tipped over accidentally and grazed Riley's leg. We were so thankful it wasn't worse, she ended up with just a tiny scratch.

The show was wonderful. You're able to sit so close to where they set them off that the fireworks are directly overhead.

Saturday

On the road again....

We started off this trip a full 24 hours later than we had planned. So we ended up staying where we had planned, we just stayed there a day later. We left Parker around 5 on Saturday and stayed the night in Colby, KS. It was another Wal-Mart stay, the kids think it's funny that we stay there because I hate Wal-Mart.

We have a new addition to the RV this trip. Pepper is very confused but finally seems to be enjoying herself. She spent the first hour of the trip with her hair on end and a wild look in her eyes, laying on Kelly's lap. If she doesn't do well, we're going to drop her off in Kansas with Jarrett's mom but so far she seems to be okay.

Our plan for this trip is to start in Concordia, KS for their 4th of July Celebration (it's actually on the 3rd). Then it's off through Oklahoma, Louisianna and Texas. Jarrett is excited to go to Corpus Chriti. After that we'll be back in Kansas to help Jarrett's mom move and then on to Arizona for a trade show for Jarrett.