Christmas Fun

So pretty much this is a great big THANK YOU to everyone who fed us, let us sleep at their house, adjusted their schedules, and went out of their way in any way to make our trip so great! I loved seeing all of you that I spent time with, and am sad that I missed the rest of you that I didn't get to see. We are back to Kansas in June of 2009 for a triathlon in Lawrence so I plan on catching the Eastern part of the state then since we were primarily in the middle to western part of the state this time.

We spent most of our time in Lindsborg and Hill City with a quick stop over in Manhattan overnight for New Years Eve. I hate being this far away from everyone especially around the holidays, but I realized this last time home that I would never normally get to spend that many consecutive days with everyone if we still lived in KS. It would have been a bunch of quick little trips or broken up in some way because of work. Interesting.

Things that made me giggle:
1. Officiating- Jake and his dad got to officiate some basketball games together. I think Jake really enjoyed it. If you happen to get the Hill City paper there is a nearly life sized picture of him and his dad in their referee gear ready to get to work. It was fun to watch them work together as Jake's dad is a very laid back official and Jake is a crazy high strung one. Hysterical. I also got to eat the world's most delicious yet bizarre beef jerky from the concession stand. It was actually the size of my head and got dug out of a box and handed to me with a little sheet of waxed paper. Very lady like and fantastic.

2. Windmills- If you don't ever drive out on I-70 past Salina you won't have any idea what I am talking about. I will do my best to explain it. Envision GIANT windmills stretched as far as the eye can see over the windy pasture land. There. Hard to explain why it is so amazing unless you see it. If you haven't seen it get out there and take a look. It's probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen...and confirms that Kansas is STUPID windy.

3. M&M butt- I was rearranging some things in my back pack on the way to the airport when we were leaving and decided to eat some chex mix. Apparently at some point between Abilene and Gypsum I dropped a M&M onto the car seat. So I spent the next 100 miles warming up the M&M with my rear end and smearing it into my seat and my "seat". I got out at the airport and found the train wreck on the rental car seat. Folks in Wichita, Memphis and Greenville airports got to try and solve the mystery of "what is on that lady's rear end?"

Anyway, I left out a million stories and fun moments but I am tired and those are the ones that stick out tonight! Hope you all had an excellent holiday season and are doing well in this first week of 2009. Again I want to thank each of you for everything!