You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Missouri’ category.
Back in college I was in a little group called A Cub Bella. Yeah we were a female acapella group and yeah we were pretty good. :) Ok so anyway…since we lived out of the state for nearly 5 years I missed out on a lot of reunions and get-togethers of the group. That all ended when I went to a Bella Baby Shower in St. Louis. One of our alum, Lacey, was the mom-to-be but so many years have passed that many other girls now have babies and there were others who were pregnant! It’s kind of crazy how so many of us are at completely new and different stages of our lives. Anywho…
That Saturday I hopped in the car (by myself!) and made the 2 1/2 hour trip to STL!
Once at Lacey’s house I was able to catch up with so many Bellas! It was crazy but I haven’t seen some of these girls in almost 10 years!
Amber (due any day now!), Alyssa (with one of her two darling babies!) and me (minus Owen…I was actually kind of sad I didn’t have him with me since it would’ve been so neat to have them meet him).
Lacey unwrapping all the gifts…
All the Bellas…
Me with Lacey who has now welcomed little Mallory into the world!
It was so great to see some old friends and to welcome a new Baby Bella into the world!
-Shannon
It had been almost a year since we saw our friends, the Smiths (Spencer, Abby, Grace and their newest little one, Eve). Lucas had a trip to southwest Missouri and we convinced the Smiths to drive up from Tulsa so we’d all meet in the middle! We actually ended up crashing at Spencer’s parent’s house in Joplin which made our time together wonderful. We could put kids down for naps when needed but still spend time together. It was so good to see them and to finally meet the little addition to their family. Grace was happy to show off her little sister…
And with Owen and Grace being only 3 months apart, we had plenty to keep us busy. There was bath time…yes, I know my son is holding a razor…it was quickly removed from his hand. :)
We were too busy chasing the two toddlers around to take many pictures, but we managed to snap a few outside as we were loading up the car.
Owen kind of started getting upset at the end of the photoshoot and I guess it’s because we had him perilously perched on the rock…
Oh wait…no we didn’t! The two inch drop to the ground was just a little too much for him.
Back to happy!
It’s been almost two months since we saw them hence the fall tree but I’m still so glad we were able to work in some time with close friends!
-Shannon
During a recent trip to KC Owen was able to spend some time with his favorite cousin, Eli! Ok so Eli is his only cousin but he’s still his favorite. :) I think Owen likes Eli so much because Eli calls him by name. It sounds more like Ewan but that’s close enough for us.
Grandpa had to get in on the fun!
They even spent some time rocking together…
And with Uncle Todd. Owen things Uncle Todd is #1!
It’s always nice to see family…
-Shannon
A few weekends ago Lucas and I dropped Owen off with his parents and headed down to Springfield for a weekend away. Lucas had to go to Springfield to attend the Annual Conference of the UMC. We decided to make a weekend of it and spend some time together. On our way down to Springfield we decided to pass through Lucas’ hometown of Joplin, MO. This is the city that was devastated by a tornado and continues to rebuild. Since our quick trip through Joplin Lucas also helped to organize a large group from CMU to go down for a workday. I know it felt good for him to be able to help out in his hometown and even help some friends of his.
I appreciated the sense of humor these people had…
Lucas’ high school…
It really was crazy to see it in person. The devastation was tremendous, but the people in Joplin are also tremendous. Hopefully in time the city will rebuild and I hope that we can continue to be a part of it.
-Shannon
I really have no idea where to start. The past few weeks have been a bit crazy for us so to start the ball rolling I’m going to list everything in bullet points. Hopefully many of these bullet points will turn into their own blog posts but we’ll see…
Let’s start at the beginning of June…
June 3 – Lucas and I travel to Springfield by way of Joplin to see his hometown after the devastating tornado
June 3-5 – We spend the weekend in Springfield where Lucas attends Annual Conference for the Missouri Methodist Church
June 5 – I drop Lucas at the airport where he flies to the east coast to chaperone a trip with high school students interested in theology
June 5-11 – Lucas is gone and my mom comes up to visit and keep the Os and I company
June 10 – Owen has a pediatrician appointment and we find out he is lead free!!!
June 11 – I go by myself to pick Lucas up at the airport. On the way home he says he has something crazy to share with me. While on his trip to the east coast he connected with several students from LPI (the school we visited on our spring break mission trip). They tell him some heartbreaking stories about college plans falling through. He feels a stirring in his heart to bring them to CMU. In the 2 hour drive back to Boonville we decide to open our home up to as many students as we can!
June 17 – Five days after feeling called to bring students here, Lucas has already raised over $45,000 in scholarship money for the students! One student is ready to come and we’re seeing about others! So this fall we will have a student living with us full time. We will be her room and board and Lucas raised funds to pay for her tuition! We can’t praise God enough!
June 15-25 – We realize that it would be best if we lived in Fayette instead of Boonville.
June 14-28 – We find a property in Fayette (a loft on the square) that could work for our situation. We visit it several times.
June 26 – We put an offer on the loft (several days later they counter with full asking price plus more earnest money)
June 26-29 – We have a work crew of my mom, Lucas’ parents and our friend Gaby who help us do several projects on the house to get it ready to sell.
June 30 – We put our house on the market!
July 1 – We have our first showing with calls for others!
July 2 – We look at another house in Fayette that would need major renovation but we could finish it how we like it.
WHEW! Do you see why I haven’t been blogging?!?! :)
So, dear friends, the biggest thing I ask from you is for prayer. We need lots of discernment during this time as we have many decisions to make especially with the housing situation. Our goal is to be in Fayette by the start of the school year but the worst case scenario is we stay in our current house a bit longer. And really we love this house so that wouldn’t be too bad. :) So there is our life in the past month.
We’ve felt kind of nervous sharing our plans with others because to be honest it’s a bit crazy. But we feel God’s leading in all of this and we’re doing what we feel called to do. It might not always make sense but when did Jesus say following him would make sense? I’m sure there will be many more posts to come about all of this stuff but at least now we have it all out in the open. More updating to come…
-Shannon
We live right along a wonderful thing called the Katy Trail. This “trail” is actually an old railroad track that has now been converted to a bike path across Missouri. Boonville is one of the many towns it passes through and we’ve been able to take advantage of it with evening walks and the such. But we haven’t been able to use it to it’s full capacity because I haven’t had a bike. When we found out what our tax return would be this year, Lucas decided to use part of it to buy me a bike! We looked at a few places and only found new bikes. But lets be honest…the only thing I really care about with a bike is that it is comfortable and fun to ride. I really don’t need a $500 bike to get me around. At the same time we weren’t willing to go with the Wal-Mart special either. So bike hunting we went…
Friday Lucas came home from work and took me to a little bike shop over in Rocheport. This place is more known for bike rentals but they sell their rental bikes as well. We checked some out and found we could purchase a year old bike for $175 less than it was new! We were all for it! I could get a nice-enough-for-me bike and we wouldn’t be out $450-$500. While we were there Lucas also noticed that they had some Burley bike trailers to haul Owen around in. These were also used and also for sale. We had lots of thinking to do so we slept on it and yesterday morning went and purchased these beauties…
My bike was originally $460 and we got it for $290 and the Burley trailer was originally $495 and we got it for $85! Granted the trailer was new in 2006 but it still works and for our use it will be perfect. After getting it all ready to go we headed out on the trail. (The following pictures were taken while riding my new bike so no action shots of me.)
The trail stayed in the trees for a bit and then came right alongside the Missouri River.
It even crosses under I-70!
After a short ride we headed back to Rocheport and then home.
We checked with Owen to see how he liked his first ride. While we were out on the trail he was all smiles and very content. When we finally stopped we found him happy but a bit dirty! It turns out the screen covering him only stops so much dirt from getting on him. :)
And in true Missouri fashion we loaded our bikes onto our trailer…not bike trailer, just trailer.
We’re now in the market for a bike rack.
-Shannon
Last Sunday we decided to head to the mountains for a hike. Ok there aren’t really any mountains around us but we had seen a conservation area that we wanted to check out so we decided to give it a go. First we had to get ready and Owen was dressed in his hiking outfit…
Next Lucas had a talk with him about how he had to be tough if he was going to make it in the wilderness. Here they are trying to be tough…
Finally we were out in the wilderness.
Owen seemed to love it!
This conservation area is right along the Katy Trail and it goes up into the surrounding “mountains”. Actually there were quite a few hills and a nice view at the top…
It was a little windy and the camera strap almost took us out…
We all enjoyed the leisurely afternoon hike…
At the end of the hike we crossed a little creek and decided we needed some pictures with Owen. So one with mom and one with dad…
Yay for time with our little family! And for having lovely areas nearby to explore!
-Shannon
A few weeks ago Owen and I headed down to my parents to stay for five days. Lucas was off to a conference in Oregon and there was no reason for the Os and I to sit around our lonely house with no one around. So off to the grandparents we went! Plus I realized we hadn’t been down to West Plains since May when we stayed there before we moved into our house…so the visit was definitely needed.
During our time there we enjoyed lots of great food and I was spoiled by shopping with my mom. We waited until I was down there to celebrate my birthday so she took me shopping and bought me lots of great things. And of course we couldn’t shop and not buy stuff for Owen. We found several new outfits for him including this one which says “Rockstar Academy”…
My mom and sister also bought him a little toy doggie but Owen was more enthralled with the leash. He loved to chew on it…
And show it who’s the boss! He’s not afraid to get mean when he has to! :)
There were lots of great times with Owen and Nonnie…
And we even met my sister’s new cat Suki…
Of course Owen had to have some “man-time” with Gramps…
But then it was back to Nonnie…
We had a great visit and I’m so thankful my family lives close enough for us to come down whenever we need to. I still wish they lived a little bit closer but I’ll take 4 hours away over 20+ hours any day.
-Shannon
A few Saturdays ago we headed over to Kansas City to celebrate our nephew’s 1st Birthday! Eli turned one on July 13th and we had a big celebration shortly after.
His mom, Angie, made this wall of photos of his first year…
…and the entire family was there to celebrate!
After enjoying some wonderful food it was time to open presents. Eli started off strong…
But he was easily entertained with one of his new gifts!
Everyone else continued to open the presents and he had lots of cousins there to help.
After presents came the cake. First Eli enjoyed his small cake before everyone else enjoyed the big cake.
Here is dad, Todd, bringing out the cake…
And we’re off!
We had a great time seeing family and wishing Eli a happy 1st birthday!
-Shannon
Last week we headed down to Bennett Spring State Park to stay in a cabin with my family. We left on Father’s Day and met my family at the lodge for lunch. My Uncle Paul, Aunt Shirley and cousins Chris and Carrie even came up for the day! We tried to enjoy some time outside but only lasted a little while before we got too hot…
To cool off we had to enjoy the big pool! Owen even tried to enjoy it, although he was a little sleepy and just kind of laid there…
Some afternoons we went fishing…
And Lucas even caught a few! I am normally the one to catch more fly-fishing, but this time Lucas caught two and I caught none. But yay for Lucas and his fish…
After spending Sunday through Tuesday together we headed up and came back home on Wednesday morning. We had a great time with family and I’m so glad we were able to enjoy some of the outdoors.
-Shannon
