Missouri

Happy New Year!  We spent New Year's Eve with my sister, Judy and her husband Dave, in Kansas City, MO.  Our celebration of the big event included relaxation and football.    Come to think of it, that is what most of our time in KC was!  We did do a little shopping and found some really good deals at the New Years sales.  We also went to our favorite bbq store where we bought our smoker last summer, called Backyard Bash.  A fun place!  We had a few smoking questions to ask them, stocked up on our favorite rubs (seasonings) and picked up some more bags of wood for flavorings.

Dave's brother, Jon, and his wife Deb, daughter Hannah, and a former foreign exchange "daughter" stayed on New Year's night.  I hadn't seen them since our nephew Mark's wedding several years ago, and we hadn't visited since we were kids and our siblings were married in the mid-1970's.   We enjoyed getting acquainted again and visiting with them all - fun family!

Sunday, January 3rd was Warren's 50th Birthday!  We went to church in Liberty with Dave & Judy, then went to Texas Roadhouse for a birthday dinner.  Warren made the mistake of going to the rest room when we arrived, and I asked the waitress if they do anything special for birthdays, and told her it was Warren's birthday.  I had NO IDEA what was coming.  I thought they would come out, sing Happy Birthday, or do a little chant like Applebee's, maybe a free dessert, etc.  NO!!!  Out came this dorky saddle he had to sit on, and they make a Big, Embarrassing deal out of it.  I was SO SORRY!   (I'm hoping her forgets all about this before my birthday...)

Warren, being Warren, took it pretty much in stride.  He did get the waitress back by showing her his famous napkin folding tricks.  She was a good sport too.

 

Our trip was coming to an end, and it was time to pack up and head for home.  It had been pretty cold for that area.  They had snow and temperatures below zero.  Warren called his sister, Shirley on her birthday on Jan. 1.  She and Duane were in Phoenix.  She was sitting by the pool, enjoying +70 degrees, and pretty tickled that it was 90 degrees warmer there than at home.  That sounded pretty nice to us too.  We had planned on coming home through Fargo, but didn't really want to go into -30 degree wind chills, so decided to head back another way.