Kansas City Reunion and Cleveland Wedding October 2025 - Part I

Kirby, Emi and Her Cast, Leo Behind the Curtain

                                                

We’ve been here since Thursday evening but there hasn’t been a good time to sit down and write. But here I am, Saturday morning at Mark and Mary’s new house in KC. The younger generation is heading to the zoo. The old fogies and just hanging out, at least for a while. Later some people are going to the No Kings protest. At one point I considered it but my heart just isn’t in it. I don’t even want to talk about it. I’m just not optimistic about where we are heading and I don’t think a protest, even a great big one, is going to make any difference.

Ok, never mind. We dropped the dog’s off at Rita’s Thursday morning and headed to the airport around 11. Our flight took off right on time. It was short compared to going to California, only a little over an hour. Much to our surprise Kansas City has a brand new airport. Their old airport was pretty nice at the time. Their new airport is REALLY nice. And the signage was great. No problem finding the shuttle to the rental cars, or finding our way out of the airport.

Our Airbnb is very nice, for a change. It even has a pool although we didn’t pay to have it heated and it was pretty cold. It was fairly warm here, however, so the kids enjoyed it.

We are staying with Sarah, Eric, Leo, Kirby, Dan, Kelsey and Emi. Emi broke her leg a few weeks ago but she’s being a very good sport about it. She’s starting to walk on it, which she’s not supposed to do, but it’s hard to keep a 2 yo down for long. She only has to wear it for a few more weeks. Little kids heal fast! Anyway we’ve all learned something; you’re not supposed to take your kids down a slide in your lap. I mean everyone has done that at one time or another. Daniel feels terrible but who knew?

Lee sent Sarah and I to get carry out at French Market. He had been there before and said it was great, but initially we didn’t understand how it worked. When we got there however it all made sense. There were lots of premade dishes and we picked out 3 pastas, 2 green beans, 1 meat dish, 2 salads, a charcuterie plate and some crostinis. We had just the right amount of everything except too many green beans and salad, and not enough crostini. The boys basically ate the charcuterie plate for dinner! Oh and some very good chocolate chip cookies!

In the morning I work up too early, darn it, 4:30 am. I stayed in bed until after 5 but then I got up. Once it was light I went for a run. There was a great park, Meadowlark, very close to the house, and I ran around there. It’s so much warmer here than in Minnesota, highs in the 80’s yesterday, and pretty humid.

We headed to Mark and Mary’s as soon as I was finished with running and had cooled off and taken my shower. We basically spent the entire day at their house visiting with everyone, which meant Cathy, JA, Kate and Erik and their 4 kids, Andrew, Calina and their 2 kids, Elsa, Sam and Blake and Elsa and Sam’s kid too. We had a great time! Their house is beautiful and spacious with lots of good places to sit and relax, both inside and outside. There were big swings hanging from trees and lots of places for the kids to run around as well.

Around 2 pm Cathy went and brought Joanne over. She’s almost 95 yo and has had some health issues in the past year, plus moving to Kansas City has also been stressful. But I think she really enjoyed seeing everyone and just hanging out with us. She stayed until around 6 pm, so a long time. It was really great to see her.

We had bbq for dinner. Mary bought a LOT of bbq, nobody went hungry! And she had also bought a carrot cake and a chocolate cake. There even was some cake left!

We went back to the Airbnb around 7. I went to bed around 9 and slept a lot better, until almost 6 am. Leo and Kirby got up a little before 7. There were in their room fussing with each other so I said why don’t you just get up and come cuddle with me on the couch. Leo looked at the clock and said, it’s 6:58, we can’t get up until 7! They literally would not leave the room until the clock said 7! Well trained kids, at least sometimes!

Soon Emi was up as well. Kirby picked up Go Dog Go and started reading it. He’s only 5, and that’s a second grade level book! He needed help sometimes, but he read a lot of it all by himself! He was very persistent too. Once he started that book he would not stop until he finished it! I was impressed. And Emi was a little enchanted. Periodically she would come over and announce Kirby Dog Go!

After a while Lee and I headed to Mark and Mary’s. Sarah, Daniel and fam went to the KC zoo with Kate and Elsa’s families. At first just me, Lee, Cathy, JA, Mark and Mary were at their house. Around 1 everyone except Lee and I went to the No Kings protest. In spite of my negativity I was heartened to see how many people showed up. I wish I thought it would matter.

Lee went to get Joanne. And soon Ann Schnell showed up as well! It was great seeing her, I think I hadn’t seen her seen Dan and Kelsey’s wedding. She has been doing a lot of traveling and stays very busy staying active in Fayette community affairs.

Joanne, Emi and Daniel

                                    

Eventually the younger generation returned. They said the zoo was great, but the kids were pretty wiped out; it involved a lot of walking. Leo and Kirby went in the other room to rest for a bit but they eventually joined the other kids swinging outside.

Suddenly a rainstorm blew through. It didn’t last long, but it rained hard. It drove everyone inside, at least for a while. It was getting close to dinnertime anyway. Mary tried another place where she was able to buy large pre-made pastas - lasagna, spaghetti, mac and cheese, and salads. They had to cook for various times so I worked out when each one should go in. Only thing was because we had so many of these big containers in her oven at the same time we probably could have cooked some of them longer. But they were all very good.

Sunday October 19.

Eventually it was time for Lee and I to head to the airport. We have a very early flight so we stayed at the airport Marriott last night. First we dropped Joanne off at her apartment. Then we headed to the hotel to check in. I took the bags up to the room while Lee returned the rental car. Before too long we were in bed.

I had my alarm set for 3:30 AM, but I was up by 3. I was a little nervous about just getting up and heading right out the door, so I didn’t mind having a little extra time to drink a cup of coffee and eat a little something. But we were ready to catch the shuttle to the airport by 4:15 and at the airport by 4:30.

Of course the airport was buzzing. You wouldn’t think it would be that early but there are always a lot of flights scheduled first thing in the morning.

Now we’re sitting at our gate, about to embark on part 2 of this adventure!