January in Kansas

I spent the end of December and the first week of January in Kansas City ... not enjoying the cold.  I can't complain too much though.  I'm heading to the Caribbean (Aruba first) January 9, and plan to be in the warm island region for a couple of months!  2016 will be off to a great start.

Anyways, here are the few random pictures I have from the last couple of weeks back home:

• It snowed.  Or more so, it iced.  Is that a thing?  It did.  Freezing rain first, and lots of it.  Then an inch or so of snow on top.  And lots of cold.  THIS is exactly why I'm leaving Kansas next week:

 

 

• I spent a lot of time down at Jason and Kellis house, soaking up every minute with Hadley and Hudson.  I mean, how cute are these two?

 

•  I found the perfect little rain jacket for my travels.  I'm not sure if it's ever going to rain, but if it does, I'll be covered.  It's light weight, so I won't get hot, but it will keep me dry. And it folds up in to a pocket and fits in the palm of my hand!

•  When I was in NYC a couple of weeks ago with Angie, I saw how she curled her hair with a big curling iron and decided I needed to try it.  I usually leave my hair naturally curly, but on the rare occasion I actually straighten/curl it, this 2" curling iron is going to be my new go-to.  I love it, and it really wasn't that hard!  (So behind the game, I know.  I just don't mess with my hair much.)

• I was just sitting on the couch one morning and it looked so beautiful outside through the window.  The sun was starting to shine, the trees were covered in snow (mostly).  Just a good memory for me.

• I put my mom to work the past couple of weeks on the fire book (the book of all of our contents we lost in the fire).  We FINALLY finished it.  I was pumped.  Mom was apparently completely worn out.  She fell asleep on the kitchen table!

• I have some weird obsession with the sky and clouds and sunrises/sunsets.  And I take pictures of them all the time.  This was after the storm, and the sun finally decided to peak out from the clouds on an afternoon walk (with the dogs). 

• I had a big bag of organic flax seed that was about to go bad, so rather than throw it away, we put it out for the birds.  Well fed birds in our neighborhood!

•  This kid.  I don't even know what to say about these pictures.  He's too much! 

 

•  If I was going to go out on New Years Eve, maybe I would wear a fancy bedazzled dress like this.  Maybe. ... Okay, probably not. But I felt like a mermaid in it!

• I got to see some of the pictures from Shannon's wedding, and grabbed this screen shot from the video.  I remember this moment so vividly and am so glad they snapped a picture of it. (Pretty sure I jut told her to get her shit together and stop crying...but it looks like a nice heart felt moment.) 

Here are a few others of me from her big day:

 

(My hair will never look like that again...)

• Another sunset picture.  I think this was on January 1.  I've said it a million times, but when the orange fades in the the blue, it just mesmerizes me.  

• My mom and I had just finished a long day of house shopping, and had to stop in the parking lot to take this picture of another gorgeous Kansas sunset. 

• Packing.  Ugh.  And packing for an unspecified amount of time is even harder.  I had everything shoved in to my big backpack, but it was just too heavy for me to carry around for so long.  So I broke down and put it in the carry-on size suitcase.  I'm not a fan of luggage, but I'm going to give it a shot for this trip.

 

• I finally started doing some research for Aruba, and took a screen shot of the exchange rate just so I can have some idea what I'm spending down there.  After a little mishap in Sweden with mixing up the exchange rate and currency, I am pretty good about memorizing this before I travel to a new country. (I spent $250 on a pair of jeans I thought were $25.) 

• Hadley loves to come over to "Gram's" house, and especially loves walking the dogs.  Well, she likes it for all of 2 minutes until whichever dog she has pulls on the leach and then she drops it.  We're working on it...

•  It was cold and snowy/rainy in Kansas City for days.  So over it.  But I did get a few fun pictures, despite the gloomy weather.

 

My next post should be from Aruba sometime this weekend or next week!  I think the daily posts are unrealistic to keep up with, but I'll try to do shorter updates every few days.  

Maybe, just maybe, there will actually be something interesting on this blog again once I start traveling! ;)