Missouri Madness

July 12th is my sister/friends birthday. So as a very last minute idea Greg decided that it would be fun to fly the kids and I out for a surprise birthday visit. I was SO excited to go since it had been over a year since I had seen Melinda and her family. It was even more exciting that Melinda had no idea we were coming. I was a little nervous to fly with CAiden and Maci all by myself, but then I thought of Greg's Grandma who had to fly with 4 little boys all by herself to France! I knew I would survive. Our flight left at 6am on the 12th. We were able to stay at Jalaines the night before so we didn't have to get up extra early. The kids were excellent at the airport watching cartoons and eating cereal. Caiden was so excited to go on a plane because this was his first time that he could remember. Luckly Maci slept the first flight to Denver and Caiden was content to just look out the window the whole time. Once we landed in Denver Maci woke up but she did awesome on our next flight to Kansas City. When we landed Caiden commented on how hot it was. It was very hot and humid. Melinda had the best reaction when we walked into her house. I love surprises! We had so much fun there. We spent some time at the pool, many late nights at the park because of the heat, movies, good food, and games. I was able to go to the newly dedicated Kansas City temlpe with Melinda and some of the youth from her ward. It was so nice to have a week to just hang out and relax. Caiden and Maci had fun playing with all 6 of their cousins all day long. We were also lucky enough to go to Liberty Jail. That was an amazing experiance and it was fun to see Caiden's reaction since he mostly understood what they were talking about. There is a lot of church history out there and I hope we can go back and see it all. We were very sad to see Friday come and have to say good-bye and return home. We had a really late flight and the kids did great until I had to wake them up at 11 to get off the plane. They literally cried until they saw Greg waiting for them. We were all very excited to see him. We missed him so much and we can't wait to take back there with us! We are so blessed to have oppertunities like this!