Santa's New Space

After moving into our new apartment, Santa made it clear that he likes the patio area we have. This picture shows about half of our patio, which is fenced in.

Far West, MO

As we drove out of Kansas City on our trip back to Michigan, we took a short detour and stopped by Far West, MO. Back in 1838, this town had about 5,000 people. An ambitious city plan was put together and is posted there today:

The plan included a temple and lots for many families. The roads were laid out in nice square patterns. Brigham Young must have loved the layout since Utah is laid out in a very similar manner.

The up and coming town was abandoned in 1839 after it was sieged and church leaders were arrested. The siege was not long after the October 30, 1838 massacre at Haun's Mill only 25 miles away (on today's indirect roads). Most of the church members left Missouri and moved north to Illinois.

Today, most of the area is farmland. The LDS temple plot and a Church of Christ (formerly Reorganized LDS) building are still there.

LDS Temple plot

Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) building - still used!

RLDS Temple in Independence, MO

After a bit of a hiatus, it's time to start trying to catch back up with the blog. Just before we left Kansas City, MO this summer, we made a short trip over to Independence, MO to see the (formerly RLDS) Community of Christ temple. It certainly looks different than LDS temples. I tried to go inside, but the doors were locked and nobody was there. When it is open, anybody can enter.

"Huffin' for Healthy Hooters"

That was the name of an all-male team of runners at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Kansas City. hehe

I was a bit inspired by all my athletic friends, like Natalie, and decided to give running a go. Now my family isn't really a "running"/"cardio" type family so all published race times are to be viewed with that in mind. That said, I was really proud that I ran in my first race on Sunday August 9th. The Race for the Cure 5k was the perfect opportunity to test the waters for my new hobby because the cause means a lot to my family. There is a whole legacy of breast cancer survivors on my maternal side so there's no time like the present to start fighting it.

Here is how it all started:

A couple weeks ago I decided that I'd attempt to start running as my main form of exercise. I bought the book "The Complete Book of Running for Women" and a new pair of running shoes and started hitting the park paths about 3 or so days a week.

After I discovered that I could run at least 3 or 4 miles without stopping it was time to try a race. Boy was I nervous that I would end up finishing with all the grandmas...not that there aren't some grandmas who could still kick my rear!! I saw some amazing people out there.

I joined 28,500 people in downtown Kansas City at 7:30am for the big race. I was amazing to see that many people out supporting the cause. There were people running with tags to mourn and celebrate friends and family who had fought breast cancer. It was hard not to both smile and get choked up at the beginning of the race.

(I know it looks like I'm speed walking in the picture...trust me...i runnin'!)

After the gun shot it was a struggle to get started at a decent pace with this many people but i somehow managed to run the entire hilly/windy 5k without stopping. And.....I was only 3 seconds from breaking 30minutes. The pic above is just before the finish line. All in all I would consider it a successful first race and I will be much less nervous for the next one!

Christie Goes Hair Trendy

Well, I gave into to the trend and got bangs....that's right...bangs. Like when i was 10 yrs old, lol.

Since growing out your hair is a painfully slow process (esp. when it was hardly longer then a boy cut) I decided I needed some sort of change that would keep me interested in my hair so that I wouldn't cut it again.

This is the fun result of my hair boredom.

I think my dog is a cat?!

Exhibit A: Dog sleeps on window sills just like a kitty. He has also been known to stand on them on all fours (does he think he has nine lives or something?!).

Exhibit B: Cat-dog has been known to lay on his back and swat at your hand if you move it toward his face....however this may be because your hand so too high for proper belly scratches and he is trying to reposition it...silly doggy. Or even more likely, he is trying to use his paws to catch your hand or toy so he can try and gnaw on it.

Either way I'm most certain he is a male...DEFINITELY nothing ladylike about the above!!

The Edwards and Hoopers head to Branson!

So the best description we heard about Branson, MO is that it is the old people, non-gambling, christian version of Vegas. hehe kinda true. We had a good time though. While we were there we saw a ventriloquist/magician act (of which Bruce got to be the magician's assistant for intermission, lol). Probably more exciting though was the Chinese acrobats. Check out how tall Bruce looks compared to the acrobats!

They were fantastic; spinning 5 plates at once while doing balancing tricks, sending themselves flying rear end first through tiny rings that are 5' in the air and holding eachother up in contortionist poses while balancing on one arm...incredible things like that.

While we were there we saw a great fireworks show, Hayden got to see the inside of a fire truck and a lot of trucks (even a helicopter and a dinosaur!!), we caught up on our Hand and Foot, and we ate tons of frozen custard mmm!

Now we're just waitin' for the Hoopers to come visit KC so we can have a card game rematch!