Kansas City Round One - August 3rd-4th, 2012

I'm back with another post!!  I'm still playing catch up, but I'm on August now so I'm doing pretty good!!  :)

We went to Kansas City to visit our relatives.  It was nice to visit with them again and share our adventures from Europe as we had not seen them since before we went to Germany.  Our visit was unexpectedly cut short because of the terrible wild fires that swept through the eastern part of Oklahoma and our need to get back and support our church families.  Part of that adventure is recorded at the end of this post...

Three sisters in the middle 

Seth and Sayer

I was desperately trying to finish some slideshows that we wanted to show grandpa.

Sabrina fell asleep - her general solution to a long car ride! :)

On arriving at the nursing home, Shenandoah got to carry the cookies in for Grandpa!

Cochran sibling shot outside.

Car inspection - We were going to be staying with Uncle Joe, Aunt Teresa, and our Cousins that night and when we do so, it is a common occurrence to go get frozen yogurt.  As the van had just been cleaned before the trip, and it is a little difficult to not eat on a road trip, daddy made the rule that everyone could have food as long as they picked up thoroughly after themselves - or else forfeit frozen yogurt!!  Needless to say, the kids did a great job picking up and were much relieved after van inspection when daddy announced that everyone did good!! :)

Visiting with Grandpa.

Shenandoah gets a ride!

Visiting at Uncle Joe and Aunt Teresa's.

Frozen Yogurt!

It's great to spend time with our cousins!  It was nice to be able to see Jacob one last time before he went off to college.

Jack, Seth, Shenandoah, and Sayer.

The second day we were there, we made the decision to get back to OK as soon as possible so that we could see about giving help and support to our church families.  We made our round of goodbyes as fast as possible and got back on the road to OK.

It was great to see you all again (you too, Jacob!)!! Thanks so much for letting us stay with you!!!

Matching in our greens.

Grandpa and Mommy.

After the five hour trip back to Oklahoma, on the way to one of our church families house, a drive that would normally take one hour took four because of all the highways and roads closed due to the fires!!  We didn't think we were going to be able to make it, but thankfully we did.  We had several church families in the path of the fire and the Lord preserved them all.  We are so thankful for that!!  Everyone had gathered at the Norwood's home, so we finally arrived there and had a time of prayer before heading off again.  One of the families that had been evacuated followed us home and stayed with us for a few days.  It was quite the adventure driving home that first night - we didn't make it home until about 3:00 in the morning!!  I broke a record after we got everyone settled in, visited, and bedded down of going to bed at 5:00 in the morning - wow!!!  Below are some pictures we got of the fire.