The Journey to Joplin

One weird quirk about the Shaffers: if we're on a vacation, being "near" something suddenly takes on a different perspective. If I'm at home and need to go to a store that's across town, I'm pretty likely NOT to go, because it's alllllllllllllllllll the way across town. That's like fifteen minutes! But we've been known to venture two hours off course on vacation to see someone just because we are near them.

So that's how we ended up leaving my sisters' house to travel to Joplin, Missouri. It's about a five hour drive (that gave new meaning to boring, by the way), but it was totally worth it! In the last couple of years, both couples from our wedding party moved to Joplin. WHAT?! How does that even happen? We wanted to see them, so we made plans to go. We were sad that Sara (the wife of Ryan's best man) ended up being out of town for a work conference, so she wasn't there with us, but the rest of us planned to get together! More on the whole trip in a moment, but let me give you the group shot. (I really should have done better on this picture. I hit a panic mode of not wanting to Bekahrazzi our friends to death and now I regret it.)

ANYWAY!!!

So we left my sister's house and began our pilgrimage to Joplin. I know Kansas can be kind of a desolate area in parts, but this was the least populated part I'd seen so far! Lots of this for miles:

(Ryan and I couldn't get over how brown their corn was already! It was still 3/4 way through July. At home, the corn was still really green, but out there it looked like fall already. Sure didn't feel like fall, though.)

We made the best of the trip, despite the lack of towns/places to stop/things to see:

When it was time to start thinking about lunch options, we checked the GPS for places coming soon. "Soon."

And that is how we ended up eating in a Subway inside a Wal-Mart.

As we made our way toward Joplin, with a better idea of what time we would actually arrive, we realized we were going to be there before any of our friends were off work. Lynnette had suggested we go see the scenic point where Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri converge in one nice, neat little point, and I thought that sounded VERY Shaffery, so we hunted for an address. I found one, but when I tried to enter it, our GPS would not take the numbers. Said they didn't exist. SO I put in the closest numbers it would take and that's how we ended up somewhere in the middle of nowhere, on a gravel road....at a dead end.

Time to start over.

We sat like this on the side of the road for the longest time, eating up precious data, trying to find a valid address. For an attraction, it sure didn't want to be found!

FINALLY, Ryan found an address the GPS approved of, and we got back on a real road toward this marker. On the way, Lynnette called and noted for us that the marker is actually found just inside the entrance to a casino, down a gravel road with only a tiny sign to let you know you're in the right place. BLESS HER. We may never have found it otherwise. I didn't take a picture of the sign at the gravel road because the security guard for the casino was parked under it and I didn't want to ruffle him, but I am convinced it was painted on an old ruler. I'm not kidding. Smallest sign ever.

We drove down the lane and found it!

Or wait. Was it this?

Apparently they decided the original marker (the rocket-ship twin) was actually in the wrong spot, so they redid it. We did pictures with both just to be safe:

After we made our way back into Joplin, following this adventure, we met up with Lynnette, who took us shopping around town. We went to her favorite used bookstore (DELIGHTFUL):

Visited a couple of boutiques and a really cool old hardware store that had just about everything ever invented. Ryan and I found the coolest treasure there. Never seen one of these before. It's a folding bistro table. You know - like the folding lawn chairs everyone carts to games and such? That! Except a table and chairs.

Yeah I had to have that. Too cute to pass up.

Joplin is also on Route 66, so we found a couple of fun murals for the scrapbook:

THEN we had pizza with our friends. They took us to one of their favorite local places, and it was indeed delish.

 Next door? Their favorite coffee shop. So of course we went there. I noticed on the menu that they had a drink called the Marilyn. They also had The Skinny Marilyn. So in honor of my mother, I got The Skinny Marilyn. :)

After we parted ways, Ryan and I went to Adam's house (his best man) to stay the night there. Adam and Sara have a big basement that their families use when they visit from out of town, so it was spacious, comfortable, and a lovely blessing in our lodging adventures. :)

Thanks for a great tour of town, friends! We love and miss you!

Success!!

We had two days left in Kansas, and therefore two days to hope that baby Caroline would decide we were pretty cool people after all!

I think most of you know my brother-in-law is a pastor (he actually officiated our wedding!) and we were in Kansas on a Sunday, so we were able to go to church with all of them! My sister worked in the children's department in Sunday School, and I helped her with some of the things she did that morning. (Kids are so funny!) 

Ryan sang a solo during the church service:

He did such a great job! (He sang my friend Brent Vernon's song The God Who Brought Me Back.)

Kasey, Cassie, and Caroline all came over to Lori and Jeff's house for lunch. I was off duty for this meal, but my sister made some pretty fantastic enchiladas! 

Caroline tried sweet potatoes for the first time and gave us very mixed reactions:

It was a pretty restful afternoon, and that night, Lori, Jeff, Ryan, and I went on a walking tour of town. (AKA: Bekah gets in most of her 10,000 steps in one session.)

Monday was our last day in Kansas and finally we convinced Caroline were the coolest in the world. 

It started by taking a backyard tour together, in which she let me hold her while Lori gave the walking tour. She did some Superman flying (Caroline, not Lori) and thought that was pretty fun. She needed baby sunglasses. It was bright out there!

Then we broke out the bubbles!

I was determined to get one good picture of the three of us:

And a few more for good measure:

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ryan and I made taco salads in bowls for lunch:

After lunch, Lori and Jeff wanted to take us to the only coffee shop in the whole county, and Caroline went along. We felt it was extra appropriate that we were with her for her first coffee shop experience!

I think she liked it. I mean, there were books:

But when you're too young to qualify for caffeine and froofy drinks, you lose interest quickly.

We came back home and...I got to rock her to sleep!!!

She slept for just over a half hour, which was apparently a really good run! :) YAY!

When she woke up, she played with Uncle Ryan the Great:

I did a couple little photo shoots:

And got a quick picture with Cassie...

And that was our day! We packed up all our bags that night so we could head out first thing in the morning for our next adventure. 

We were so happy she warmed up to us. What a little sweetie! :) 

Cute Baby and Fun Days

Like to eavesdrop? This is the podast episode for you! We were busy trying to teach you things and ended up in these discussions in which we learned things about each other that we didn't know - and having some communication quandaries in the process. My favorite Spill the Beans moment to date is right here in this episode. I'm still laughing at us! ENJOY!

 Listen here

Yesterday was my niece's second wedding anniversary, so it feels appropriate today that I get to tell you about getting to meet her new baby for the first time!

It is the worst to live 850 miles away from a new baby. My parents went to visit right after Miss Caroline was born. My other sister went to visit right after my birthday. I was the only one who hadn't been there, and I'd cried buckets of tears over it. I was also 100% terrified that I'd get out there and she wouldn't like me, because I remember well from my babysitting years that little ones hit that stage where if they don't know you, they don't like you. I told Ryan I'd rather just stay home than go and make her cry.

We went. We made her cry. :( The good news is, by the end of our trip, she liked us. The bad news is, you don't get to see that part of the trip today.

It took us about half the day to get from Kansas City over to the part of the state where my sister lives, so we arrived about mid-afternoon. Here is the moment I met Miss Caroline for the first time:

(As you can see, Murphy remembered me! He was ready for some love!)

Shortly after we got there, Lori needed to make Caroline's bottle, so I got to hold her for the very first time. It lasted about 20 seconds before she cried, but Ryan moved quickly, so at least our captured memory is good:

So that was the end of the holding attempts for that day, but we did get to sit near her and watch her play!

After Cassie and Caroline went home for the evening, Lori took us out to eat. (My brother-in-law was out of town for the night at a conference.) We went to one of the few restaurants in the town where they live. DELICIOUS salads for us. Yes! We finally found a place that serves salad!

And then...Lori took us to see a movie! They actually have a one-screen theater in town, and though I'd been past it, I'd never been inside for a movie. It was really nice! We saw Oceans 8. (I'd seen Ocean's 11 and 12 years ago and convinced Ryan to watch them both recently. We hadn't yet gotten to Ocean's 13.)

Saturday morning, we got up and went over to visit Cassie and Caroline at their house. (Cassie's husband was at work all these times we saw them...he really is around, I promise!)

The dogs were very excited to see me. (Murphy and Abby...it was my first time to meet Abby.)

Caroline preferred to just watch me. :)

I uh...don't know if you noticed or not, but Lori and I were twinning:

Yeah. We own basically the same shirt. So we wore them together! And see that striped shirt in my hand? I chose it at the local thrift store. Know who donated it? My sister. Shaking head.

One of the nice things about our trip was that Lori offered to let me do quite a bit of the cooking while we were at their house, so I could eat the things that were helpful to me on my eating plan. (And as you can tell, it was a rough start in the eating out department, so this was a very welcome blessing.)

Ryan helped me make low carb grilled cheese an avocado sandwiches for lunch, and we also cooked the okra and squash our first Airbnb hosts gave us from their garden!

That afternoon, I tried again to hold Caroline. We thought maybe if I gave her a bottle, she'd like me. I mean isn't food the universal peace offering? She made it almost all the way through the bottle and then realized she didn't know me and cried again. I felt horrible!

But we did get a few pictures before the tears:

Ryan and I cooked dinner, too - a breakfast casserole:

And then we went for a walk because we were very behind on steps. It was a gorgeous sunset walk all around town!