My time in Missouri wasn’t over yet!After Arkansas Camp, I went back up to Kirksville, MO to have time with my friends there :D.The first day, The Kellys, Amanda Webb, Buddy Bowles, and I joined some of their relatives in Hannibal to go see the Cameron Cave! We all had to bring flashlights because there were no lights mounted inside; it was fun :D.

Afterwards, we went to a park to have a picnic lunch :).

Here’s Kaitlyn Kelly making Buddy look beautiful. Haha :D.

Meghan Kelly :).

The Kelly family has a family of Camelbak water bottles. Hehe :D.The odd one out belongs to me ;).

Ryan Kelly! 😀

The Kellys’s great grandfather from Arizona was in town, so they wanted a picture with him :). He’s Puerto Rican, by the way :D.

Amanda and Hannah Lebron telling each other “bye” :).

Back at the Kellys’s house :). Buddy is great with the kids :D.

Buddy, Amanda, and I picked up some frozen pizza and baked it at their church building, so we could eat it while watching the Kellys play baseball outback :D. This is the church building’s kitchen window; I just had to capture the lovely warmness the sun was sending in :).

😀

They got to ride home the fun way :D.

The next day, I was able to spend time with my friend Elizabeth Blum while she babysat Charlie Vann…

and Bethan Vann :D.

“Miss Liz” let us drink juice boxes!! Ooooh, memories of childhood :D.

Bethan is SO PRETTY! And so sweet and calm :).

And Charlie is such a cutie :D.

Here’s the beautiful babysitter! :D. And hey, you may be wondering what she was doing in Kirksville since she lives in Sedalia. She was visiting her family :).

Sword fighting. Hehe :).

Wittle shoes!

Elizabeth also let them play in her car :).

Elizabeth, you’re just so pretty. You are :).

While I was watching them play, I noticed how nice the grass looked. It was too inviting not to resist :). So, I went and lied down on my back and this was my view :).

And this is what I looked like. Hehe :).

My great friend joined me :D.

Then the kids took advantage of it. Hehe :D.

She’s seriously the best babysitter ever. Haha :D.

Little beauty!

Look at those smiles :D.

Back at the Kelly’s :). While they were finishing putting the net on their new trampoline, little Allison asked me to take her picture. Hehe :).

They were so excited about this :D.

They live in a beautiful place :).

The day after that, while Amanda was at work, I got to be with my friend Melissa Thompson! We hadn’t hung out in a long time, so it was really nice :D.

The next evening, I was invited to join Elizabeth and Mrs. Mona Leiter at a coffee shop downtown. Mrs. Mona talked with us for a little while then she had to leave. Then Elizabeth worked on dental-hygiene-studying-stuff  …

while I worked on pictures :). You may notice the-drink-that-doesn’t-look-like-coffee. It’s a smoothie :). I don’t like coffee.

Then we went back to the Kellys’s because it was Asa Julian’s last night in Kirksville (he moved) and we were all going to have dinner together :). As you can see, he is dressed up as an Indian. He was playing with that feather the kids showed him and then they got this idea. Haha :D. He’s half Italian and half Portuguese but he could pass off as an Indian, don’t cha think? Lol :).

Playin’ the guitar (which he’s very good at, by the way!) and playing chess with Meghan.

After he had to go, Amanda took up the guitar and started writing random songs. Hahaha. It was great :D. We helped her with words and stuff :).

She’s pretty much the best ever 🙂 :). And doesn’t she look pretty?!

After sing along with Amanda, she and I headed back (picking up her sister Paige [girl in pink] on the way) to the house she was house sitting. The Thompsons live right across the street, so Melissa came over and then we called Rebekah Gates and told her to come too :D. We were getting ready to watch a movie over at the Thompsons’s.

But Rebekah couldn’t stay long enough ’cause she had to head for Iowa the next morning :'(. Love you, Rebekah!! It’s always so cheering to see your happy little self :).

The next morning, David dropped off the kids to spend the day with us, so we watched Mega Mind on the owners’s 3D tv!!! It was actually really cool!! Way better than movie theater 3D. Mega Mind is awesome anyway :D.

The owners have two dogs a Whippet named Dutch and a Greyhound named Sooner. This is Dutch. They’re nice dogs, but they’re just so weird!! Lol. It’s like having living statues of dogs roaming the house. They don’t really smile, they just stare. Haha.

Here’s Sooner. He’s the older one. His coat looks like a Tiger :).

The kids playing in the tree house :D.

Amanda and I had to hit the road that late afternoon because we were going to spend the night with our friends the Leiters in Sedalia. We were going to our friends Richard and Amanda Lange’s wedding in southern Missouri the next day, so staying in Sedalia broke up the trip :). On our way to Sedalia, we were able to stop and have dinner in Columbia with our friends Taylor Steele, Helena Kowalewski (they’re engaged :D), and…

Jase Ely! I let him have one of my chicken strips. Lol.

Taylor’s eyebrow really makes this picture. Haha.

Helena and Amanda are really close :D.

Hooray for sisters in Christ!! :D.

Fun :D.

All of us before we part ways :D.

I love them :D. God is good to His children :).

And we made it to the Leiters’s! They have a beautiful home (and garden as you can see! Bro. Clint keeps it up 🙂 ).

And here we are the next day at Richard and Amanda Lange’s wedding! :D.

Pretty woman :).

Hey. Hehe 🙂

They got married, all were happy, and it was time to hit the road again. Back to Sedalia! BUT this time my family and the Brunsons came with us!! :D. (my dad officiated the wedding 🙂 ). Here’s Allix B. and I sportin’ her shades :). And look at cute Amanda in Allix’s aviators!

My family and the Brunsons rode together and I rode with Amanda. They first had to drop off Bro. Ryan and Mrs. Darla Brunson at the Hagraves’s house while Amanda and I went back to the Leiters’s to change before a young people’s get together that night. We were almost there when we had a wreck. We’re ok, praise the Lord!!! We called Mrs. Jenny Leiter and she came to help us make decisions and stuff (Bro. Clint was on a run).

We were driving through this intersection, but so was another car :/. Amanda and the other driver both assumed the other one had a stop light (Amanda also had a bush to her left that covered up the car partially, so she didn’t see it right off). We collided and hit the curb. The lady was fine, and she was able to drive her car off, but Amanda’s car was pretty much totaled.

By the way, they have very nice police cars in Sedalia. Lol.

The nice wrecker man came and towed her car.

Amanda on the phone with her Uncle David looking cute. Hehe.

We actually were able to attend the get together at the McNews afterwards! Haha. (some friends picked us up 🙂 ). Here’s the sweet family who hosted us :D. Seth, Cora, Mrs. Kari, Levi, and Alice (not pictured).

Here’s Angela Rages and her brother Joseph Newland :).

Amanda! She recovered really well. I recovered too well, I think; taking tons of pictures and almost being excited about it. I’m so sorry, Amanda! lol.

Here’s Alice and she has a friendly firefly with her!

Allix held baby Levi to keep her warm. Haha :D.

Zack Jennings, Chris Rages, Evan Jennings, and Jesse Ogalsbee.

My brother Jay and Zack :).

Zack’s friend from work, GP, and Seth.

Evangeline Jennings and Amanda played with the girls :D.

Bonfire!! And isn’t this awesome?! 😀 We had good fellowship that evening :).

Last day: Sunday :). Dad eating lunch with a family from the church :).

Elizabeth and Mrs. Kelly Hargrave talking :). They’re both such awesome people :D.

Pretty, Mrs. Kelly :D.

I told them they looked alike, so I had to take their picture :D. Two of my favorite people in the whole world! :D.

And so ended my 2 and a half weeks away from home :). It was an incredibly wonderful time, but I was ready to be home :).

With a smile,
{ Rachel Leigh }