END OF SUMMER

Another Family Visit

August started out with our Daughter Crystal and her family coming out to visit us and the Church History Sites.  They made a great road trip to us by visiting Yellow Stone Park, then Mt. Rushmore, and on over to us.

Our first day was planned to be a shopping day into Kansas City.

On our way into town we stopped at Bird's Botanicals, where Orchids are grown in a cave.  This is one of our favorite places to visit because it is so unusual.

Here is our cute family

"The Bartletts"

          Mark      Corban     Crystal      Matthew    Sydnee

From here we went straight to Kansas City and to the "American Girl Store".  Sydnee had been saving her money for months, knowing Kansas City had an American Girl Store, which she had never been to before.  Of course, she brought her doll all the way from home to visit the store with her.

I have never seen so many dolls and accessories for dolls before.  It was a sight to see and I enjoyed how excited Sydnee was and all her shopping plans.  There were lots of Mothers and Daughters in the store.

Sydnee had made up her list of the things she wanted to buy for her doll before she arrived in Missouri. We spent a good hour or so in the store finding the items she wanted.  When she had everything, Sydnee checked her list off with her Mother, and then up to the cashier to pay for it herself.  It was a great shopping experience!

After the doll store we took the boys to Moon Marbles company, a marble store where they put on a demonstration on how handmade marbles are made.

This is Bruce Breslow making a marble.

We all enjoyed the demonstration, and afterwords, the whole family, and especially the boys, enjoyed shopping to buy some marbles with money they had earned and saved for this trip.

We finished the afternoon, walking around the "Country Club Plaza" looking at all the fountains and statues and the great shopping area that it is.

After a hard day shopping, off to Oklahoma Joe's, a BBQ restaurant in a gas station.  They say it is the BBQ in the Kansas City area, and I would agree.

With in our two and a half days, we also visited the Crown Center Area of Kansas City, which include the Hallmark Visitor Center, Kaleidoscope, Union Station, The Money Museum, and the World War 1 Museum.

A drive around our Kansas City Temple was a "must" on our list.

We spent the rest of our time together seeing all the Historical Sites in our area.  This is our favorite thing to do when our families come and visit us.

 Independence Visitor Center is where we spend most of our time.  Of course, we are not in our dress up clothes, but rather in our P-Day clothes, but we still enjoyed taking them ourselves around the center.

At the end, we gathered at the Christus, and the Sister Missionaries sang us a song.  They always do a beautiful job. 

 When they were finished, the Bartlett Family (VanTrapp Family) sang a wonderful rendition of "I am a Child of God" to the Sisters, with parts and the optional descant.  It was wonderful and the Sisters were really impressed so they have been practicing it so they also can sing it with all the parts and descant to guest with children.

What a wonderful time we had with our Daughter Crystal, Mark her husband, and our three enjoyable Grandkids.  It was a blessing to have them came and enjoy a part of our mission with us.