on our way to my parents, we stopped at the waterfall we love….it was on the summer list.
waffle was with us.
and this is how close he was to me the entire two hour drive.
dog breath….. gr-oss.
kansas is so beautiful.
i know i tell you that all the time….but i think it all the time.
i say it over and over.
my kids just look out the window and say “huh?”
the kids were way ahead…so excited….it had been 2 years since we’d been here.
that dog was L-O-V-I-N-G this place.
(oh and did you notice his freshly shaven (bald) body? he’s so much happier without his abominable snowman suit)
as i took this picture she had just said to craig “I LOVE this place!”
waffle wanted to be up with the kids really bad.
he couldn’t quite make it…..too slippery.
all the duerksen kids in one shot.
wow.
after all the play and all the kids in wet stinky pond water clothes….we headed to the car.
it was a smelly ride the rest of the way.
next time we will remember to put the kids in swim suits.
i was showing my parents these pictures and my dad said
“that’s like the picture of you and me with the crawdad”
and he went and found this photo. (i’ll give it back dad…next week)
1983?
not sure.
i am trying to tell by my hairstyle and what my school picture hairstyle was that year?
AND i went through the archives and found the last time we were here.
crystal b - Oh I envy where you live — funny that I would say that being a So. Cal girl, huh. This place looks so magical. I loved the picture with you and your dad — you look so much like your daughters!!!
Dionna - Does look like a great spot! 🙂
Courtney Walsh - So my husband was reading my blog the other day and he clicked on my sidebar “Blogs I love to read” and landed at yours. When he read this post, he IM’d me and told me how cool it was that you posted this with the photo of you and your dad at the end. I haven’t been online much with our move, but now that I’ve read it I see why he felt the need to comment on it! What a cool thing to have.
Oh, and being from IL originally, I understand what you’re saying about beautiful Kansas. I LOVE the cornfields. The green. The flat. I’ve always found soo much beauty there! 🙂
Stacy Christy - Meg, thanks for the wonderful pics. Where in KS is the waterfall? I’m in Wichita and would love to visit this with my boys. Thanks!
Darcie L. - Wow! We were just in Kansas last weekend. Never been before, and we saw the same drive you did. Relaxing, and 2 hours of corn and crops on either side. So quiet! Of course, we didn’t have kids in our car at the time. 🙂
Rach - You do realize how much Talby looks like you right? 😉
Tara Schaubert - p.s. i’m just figuring out this typepad stuff, but i’m the taralee up there, too. =]
Candy - Meg, just curious as to where that might be, we live in Topeka, but are always looking for cool things to do in Kansas. My kids would love that waterfall!
Bron @ Baby Space - ‘Gorgeous’ that’s meant to say!
Bron @ Baby Space - I have just discovered you and ‘whatever’ and I am DELIGHTED! This is a delightful blog. Not just in the sense that you take goregous pictures but your blog is almost like a pictorial on ‘how to be a family’. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, I like it!
Toni :O) - You have such a beautiful family and your blog is absolutely one of my favorites to check in on.
Kate @ Songs Kate Sang - Oh, how fun! You are so cute with your daddy!
Lorilee - Wow, I wish that was near my house!
Blessings,
Lorilee
Jess Mead - Looks like so much fun!!
Nicole Q. - Made me think of all our favorite spots in Utah!
julia - You have great adventures.
It’s too bad none of your kids look like you. hahaha.
never making it as mother of the year.... - you are such a good mother. I don’t haVe a list….but if i did…going to a waterfall would be on it.
errr…actually…hawaii should count as a waterfall.
hawaii should count as the whole freakin list if you ask me.
xo
Tara Balu - i just noticed you have a lot of fans named tara… =]
se7en - That is so cool to have a photo of way back when!!! Love it!!!
Taylor-Ann - Kansas is very pretty. I come from southern California with no green rolling hills. 🙂 I love driving in the midwest because teh sates are all so beautiful. If we could transplant the lush green grass and the CA beaches I would be in heaven.
taralee - hey! i saw this and thought of you. thanks for your color inspiration!
http://www.spearmintbaby.com/2010/07/rainbow-cupcakes.html
how in the world did you find the waterfall? i might have missed that explanation…
blessings,
tara lee
Holly - how fun! I am a little jealous that your kids are still enjoying summer break!
Juli - This brings back such memories! I grew up outside Wichita, Kansas, and we always used to play in the local creek and catch “crawdaddies.” Unsupervised. *Sigh.* Those were simpler times.
jaz - What a great memory you found there!! haha most of our pictures from childhood are butt shots – peoples bottoms as they’re bent over to give thankyou kisses at christmas time or birthdays haha classic Bailey photography there! That picture of you and your dad is absolutely beautiful and priceless!
PS Your husband has an evil twin in Australia, I swear it! They could be brothers!! Every time I see a pic of him I think how much he looks like my friend kevin! (who isn’t really evil, quite the opposite – he’s a bishop as church at the moment, so yeah, he’s pretty much the polar opposite of evil haha)
Anyways, Look at me dribbling on and on!
Tonya - We had a creek running through our backyard when I was growing up. Crawdad hunting with neighbor kids and sibs is a cherished childhood memory! I love Kansas too — think it and say it all the time. So far, my kids think it’s pretty great. But they’re still young and not yet “bored”.
tara pollard pakosta - I LOVE that pic of you and your dad!
sooooooooooo sweet!!!!! I think that your baby girl
looks like you as a child!
Your children are all BEautifuL!
tara
Alisha Mancinas - Did Lauren look a lot like the younger girls when she was little?
Sheryl - It’s amazing how much your kids have changed! A beautiful place….
AshleyAnn - Your dad looks really fun…and pretty thoughtful to have remembered that picture with his daughter….
Kristi - Awww.. great pics! I can tell from them that Kansas IS pretty!
Natalie (The Sweets Life) - You have SUCH a beautiful family–and I know it’s not just your photo magic that makes it look that way! Count your blessings, I know you do 🙂
Shelly - I am assuming this is the Chase Co. Lake. How fun! I live in Chase County and never think to go there. I think we will make a trip out there this weekend.
Hettie - I just love your blog 🙂
kristine - could your kids have more beautiful eyes?! big brown beautiful!
waffle looks like a totally different dog!
love your childhood pic. that’s awesome!
Lisa H - I would LOVE to go to the waterfall. Most of my family still live in and around Wichita and Newton (homestead) and we go back every couple of years for family reunions. Didn’t even know waterfalls existed in flat Kansas 😉 But seriously, from the geology it looks like eastern/northeastern Kansas? – Lisa
Jaime @ Mamarazzi - What a beautiful place…
Kansas is so pretty!
Love the picture of you and your dad!
Becky @ Farmgirl Paints - Oh those are great. I love seeing Kansas through your eyes. I’ve driven through it many many times on our way from Illinois (where we grew up) to Colorado (to visit Honey’s sis). I’ve never once thought it beautiful. It was always just in the way. But when you post on it, it IS beautiful. So thank you for changing my view. I can’t believe how much your little girls look like you when you were their age. It’s just uncanny!
Niki - LOVE the group photo of all the kids! You even managed to get them all looking happy! What a fun experience!!
I’m totally in love with Kansas, too! There is room to breathe here! I find myself feeling claustrophobic if I’m somewhere that I can’t see for miles!
pam - Ahhh, Kansas. I forget I don’t live there anymore. I LOVE driving through the Flint Hills to get to my parents home. That’s a great waterfall. Every one of our road trips involves heart rocks for me and looking for waterfalls if we’re in a new state. Fun times….
Beth Ann - You are right, Kansas is beautiful. Where exactly is that waterfall? I would love to go check it out.
Lorel - I guess dad and I think alike – I immediately thought of that picture too! I love Kansas – thanks for sharing the beauty so people don’t think it is a flat, treeless, fly-over place. Wish we could have seen you this weekend.
laura - that picture of you and your dad is awesome!
Willy - Love the picture of all your kids!
jack - Oh I love the photo of you and your dad!
You still look really like your ten year old self!
chasity - what a good time….
that’s what you do with no tv.
and i bet they weren’t even fussing with each other at the waterfall.
that’s a magical place.
and holy moly~ your girls look just like you when you were little.
adorable.
tara - i rocked the same hairstyle.
i was about 10 years old and watched CHiPS…
so I think 1983 is right on.
great post:)
Lisa - Wow Kansas is so beautiful. As are your children, Waffle and the waterfall. What a fantastic day.
Sophie - Looks like such a pretty place!
I love the picture of the five of them together… You’ve got some cute kids!
You look SO pleased in the first photo, Waffle being so close (loving his hair cut by the way)
And I’m pretty sure I’d like to move to Kansas this second please (:
Tasha Griffin - One of my very favorite pictures ever of my dad is of him holding a crawdad by a waterfall, making a goofy face while my sister and I stood nearby! Just switch the people, and it could seriously be the same picture!
That waterfall looks like a great place to visit…it looks like you guys had lots of fun!
: ) Tasha
emily - So fun. It looks gorgeous and summery and fresh {unlike the day we had here in seattle}. Your oldest daughter is so beautiful – will you tell her that for me? Maybe she’s having one of those days and needs to know that some 31 year old thinks she’s pretty. Random, I know, but thanks.
Gemma @ Musings of a gem - Hi Meg!
I can remember that post a few years back. It still looks just as fun. Haha I can feel for Waffle not being able to reach where the kids were!
Btw you looked adorable when you were young!
Gemma x