Road Trip Through Brent's Mission

The day before we left on our road trip, our pool opened. I think these pictures show how excited Ava was about it:

Since Laura came home from her mission at the end of April, my family planned to meet in Nauvoo for a vacation so we could see her. Since Brent served his mission throughout Kansas and Missouri, we left a few days early to have time to trek through his mission so he could introduce me to his favorite people and show me where he served.

I counted 16 families that Brent had contacted that we visited with on the trip. SIXTEEN! There were a mix of converts, members, and non-members. I kept asking him, are you sure they are going to remember you after so long? (He completed his mission 12 years ago, and as you know, lots of missionaries come and go!) But all of the families were so excited to see Brent and told me, "he's just so memorable, how could we forget him?" Brent was so excited to show me everything and I got lots of reports on what an amazing missionary he was. I fell in love with him a little more :)

The first day we drove to Wichita, Kansas. We visited a few friends, then went out to dinner with some others:

Brent took me to the first ever Pizza Hut. A video:

We slept at a friend's house, and then the next day drove to Iola, Kansas, which has a population of about 5,000 people. This was Brent's favorite place to serve and we met with a lot of families here. We visited the Smeeds who live in the middle of nowhere, in a 100+ year-old school house turned into their house. It was so unique, I took lots of pictures. She also makes soap in a little shop behind her house.

We ate dinner and stayed with the Taylors, who were the sweetest family.

More friends, but I forgot to get pictures with some:

 This man taught art at the community college and gave us prints of his artwork:

Driving around Kansas, this place is FLAT!!

The next day we drove to Kansas City, and visited with my cousins who live there:

Singing Let it Go :

That night we went to the Kieffers from the mission and had dinner and slept there. Ava had a blast playing with all their fun toys and Brent had lots of fun talking about memories. No pictures, oops! They live really close to the temple so we went there the next morning and walked around and took pictures.

After this, we just had a short time until we were meeting a friend for lunch. So I took Ava into a little farm for kids while Brent waited in the car. It was a Friday, and apparently the missionaries in that area volunteer at the farm every Friday! It was fun seeing missionaries everywhere. For example, one elder sold us a bottle of milk to feed the baby goats:

After the farm we went to lunch with Brent's friend, and then we went to Kaleidoscope, which is a craft center for kids run by Hallmark. I remember going here when I would visit my aunt, and I was excited to take Ava. She loved it! We also got to meet up with my cousins there too, which was fun to see them again.

After this, we started heading toward Nauvoo. We stopped in Marceline, Missouri, which is where Walt Disney was raised.  Here is the wishing tree, where Walt would lay under and day dream and come up with ideas. It's nearly dead now, but kind of cool still:

 A barn re-built in the spot where Disney held his first performances as a child:

Main street at Disney land is patterned after downtown Marceline:

After this, we were on our way to see Laura in Nauvoo and I was soooooo excited!!!  I will save Nauvoo and the drive home for another post.