Kansas Trip!

The first weekend in May our family (except Ike) took a trip down to Kansas to visit the Ulmers. Elizabeth and Aliisa have been penpals and friends for 6-7 years, but our two families had never met. We'd been trying for quite some time to get together and finally something worked out!

We left on a Thursday afternoon and stopped at a hotel in Des Moines, IA for the night. On the way down we missed a turn and ended up going through downtown Madison! Not quite the route we had planned, but we enjoyed seeing the Capital and going through a "tunnel".

The Capital.

The tunnel, which the girls and Jake loved!

Our brave driver, who drove through downtown Madison with the big van.

While in Iowa we got to visit with a dear friend, Miss Kathy, who we hadn't seen for several months!

The girls also enjoyed swimming the hotel for a couple hours before we got back on the road to finish the trip. We had about 5 hours to go, and also had a stop at Sam's Club, which took much longer than any of us wanted it to!

Zack and Jake, who was thoroughly sick of the van!

Emmy!

Anja, who was ever smiling!

Grace!

Aleks helped keep Anja and Elsie amused during the long trip.

Elsie isn't a big fan of traveling, but we got a smile out of her!

Dad drove most of the trip.

Hiding from the camera :)

Jackson did so good in his car seat on his first long trip!

Mom! She rode shot-gun the whole trip to make sure we got where we were supposed to!

We finally got to the Ulmer's a little before supper Friday evening. Everyone was a little "shy" at first, but that didn't last long! After dinner we headed outside and played several games of volley ball - or tried to at least! Us Klahns hadn't played much volleyball before, and the Ulmers had lots of patience with us!

Jackson is a good "teddy bear"!!

Micah!

Jackson and Seth.

Snuggling with Mrs. Ulmer.

Tabitha!

Late-night conversations are always interesting!

Something was funny!

Maybe a lot of somethings were funny!

Esther and Jack.

Then, strangely enough, all the kids fell asleep and the parents talked late into the night (or maybe it was early morning?!)

Jake and Silas with their cute little masks!

Silas and Elsie were buddies, and played together a lot!

Aleks and Charity!

A little R & R.

Cheerful cook!

We even got Zack to help clean up!

This is what happens when you mix pudding with an older brother!

A Geography lesson.

Bathtime with Esther!

Tabitha and Aliisa!

Noah!

Aliisa and Elizabeth!

The fabolous photographer!

Jake absolutely LOVED all the boys!

Playing house.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the many volleyball games, or the football game we played. It's way more fun to be playing than taking pictures anyway!!

Thank you SO MUCH for having us, Ulmers!! We had such a wonderful visit, and it went by much too fast! Next time you'll have to come up here!