I Lost July

Once upon a time there was a Mommy who loved taking pictures of her beautiful children.  She captured nearly every moment with her camera and then revisited the photos over and over again until many fabulous memories were engraved on her brain forever.  She loved doing this so very much and lived a happy life with her family.
But one day Mommy's whole world was changed when an evil computer decided to erase her photos from the hard drive.  For no reason at all and with no real order or sense, the computer destroyed thousands of pictures, shattering Mommy's perfectly ordered folders and leaving Mommy with random files here and there.
Mommy quickly studied her folders and discovered that she had lost many precious files that she would never recover again.  While some months were only missing a few folders here or there, the entire month of July was gone forever, and all that remained was what she had already saved onto her blog.  Normally Mommy would have been grateful for what she had left, but July was such an important month.  July was life changing for her family.
So although Mommy cannot illustrate the joys of July in her usual way, she can pull together a few tidbits from here and there, so that it will not be forever lost.
I combined photos from my phone and instagram to put together one long moving-from-Kansas post.

Our last drive to Manhattan...  Oh boy did we spend a lot of time these last six months driving back and forth between Kansas and Colorado.  It was a good feeling to know this drive was the last one, and it was nice to look in my rear view mirror and see Daddy driving behind me.

Monga and PawPaw and Grandma and Grandpa paid us a visit on our last weekend before the movers came.  Thanks to them, we have a few photos from that weekend.

The last few days in Manhattan we did some exploring and revisiting.  I took drives with Monga to see sculptures and old graves, we all went to Dale's favorite place, the mall, we studied the architecture of the courthouse, and we drove all over town, making sure we said goodbye to everything we ever laid eyes upon.  We felt happy and ready to go.

We were packed and loaded by a great company, so we barely had to do a thing.  We could instead focus on our future, and it felt so good.  It was, however, strange to see our house empty.

Last night in their Kansas beds.

Once all our visitors had gone and our furniture had been loaded and driven away, we became Manhattan tourists.  We decided to visit the Mariana Kistler Beach Museum of Art at K State.  Dale liked the cow bones, and Rose liked the giant ball hanging from the ceiling.

"Mother and Child" by Henry Varnum Poor and "Happy Birthday Baby" by Jessie Manuel Montes, which is made out of corrugated paperboard.

Our last night in Manhattan we stayed in the new hotel by the Flint Hills Discovery Museum and let our kids splash in the fountains one last time.  And since it was our last night in town, we finally discovered our favorite restaurant called the So Long Saloon.  Go figure.

We woke up the next morning and drove straight to Lucas, KS, a town I've always wanted to visit.  I'm crushed about losing my pictures from our Lucas trip, because this town was awesome in so many ways.  All I have left are a few pictures from our lunch at the Backstreet Bakery and a few more from the giant toilet.  Did I say giant toilet?  Yes, I did, but I cannot possibly tell you any more, since my heart is broken.

Why am I so happy?  Are you kidding me?  I'm inside a giant toilet!

In Colby, KS we said goodbye to the gorilla and wheat Jesus.

Then we said hello to colorful Colorado.

And that's all I have from one of the most important events in our lives.

Mostly I'm just upset about losing those last few days in our Kansas house.  I know, I know, it's not like I don't have thousands of pictures of our kids at that house, but still.  It was different.  The house was empty, but it was swarming with precious memories.  After all, it was the house we brought Rose home to.  It was hard to say goodbye, and I took a million pictures of the house and the city, so that I would remember it all forever.  Maybe it's for the best that it's all gone.  It's time for a fresh start for us, and there is no better place than Colorado to begin anew.

Here we go!

Kansas Backroads


The few.  The proud.  The Kansas backroads drivers.

Because there are things like this to see...



I could tell you where it is, but then I'd have to kill you.  Just kidding, it's near Beloit, KS.

How much emptier my life would be if I hadn't seen that happy, somewhat creepy, old barn.  The birds like it.  The llama likes it.  I need one.  In fact, I need birds and llamas too.  Why not?  Happy barns make you want all of those things.

Farther down the road is Cawker City, Kansas, where we thought there was a pretty good possibility of being eaten by Zombies.  Nonetheless, we risked our lives to get of the car and behold the world's biggest ball of twine.

Would have been totally worth fighting Zombies for.

Cawker City's population peaked at 2,000 back in 1880, but there are still some residents living there today.  It's a deserted looking, yet somewhat humorous town, and even though most of the buildings appear to be abandoned, they all sport hilarious paintings in the windows, each one depicting its own ball of twine.  Gotta love that the town's website says, "Cawker City is a small town with around 600 people, but still has all of the qualities you would expect in a town."  Yep.  That about sums it up.

 

The real reason for taking the backroads that day was to visit the historic town of Nicodemus.  Nicodemus is the oldest and only remaining African American town west of the Mississippi River and exhibits the involvement of African Americans in the settlement of the Plains after the Civil War.

 

 

Once the Civil War ended, Kansas seemed appealing to many freed slaves for its "soil washed by the blood of humanitarians for the cause of freedom." (S.L. Johnson, 1879).  People came to Kansas with big hopes of abundant farm land, but when they arrived, they found a harsh prairie life awaiting them.  Nonetheless, Nicodemus was settled in 1877 and thrived for many years until the railway bypassed them in 1888.

 

A.M.E. Church

If you look closely on the front of the building, you can find a brick proving this building was once the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.

 

Less than 50 people reside in the town of Nicodemus now, and there isn't all that much left to look at, but the history is rich and interesting.  It was fun just to picture this town 135 or so years earlier, but even the buildings that remain are near collapse, and there doesn't seem to be much hope of resurrection.

 

Nicodemus school

 

We already know how much I love Colby for its I-70 Oasis,  but a little farther off the road is the rockin' Thomas County Courthouse.  It's purdy.  I made Mark pull over so I could stand in the middle of the street and take a picture.  You can do that on the backroads.  Stand in the middle of the street, that is.

 

Thomas County Courthouse, 1906.

AND, this 24' x 32' Van Gogh replica has been standing tall in Goodland, Kansas since 2002.  You can see it from I-70.  Mark and I knew it was our chance to see that baby up close.  Yep, it's big.  Real big.

Painted by Cameron Cross as part of his Van Gogh Project.

 

 Kansas, you're funny.  I heart you sometimes.  I'm so glad Mark and I took the "long way" that day.  Now, off to Colorado...