Too Pretty to Drink

Have you ever had a coffee that was just too pretty to drink?  I've had a few and last nights was one of the prettiest.  It was made by Topeca coffee (in downtown Tulsa) and they had a barista at the wedding of Steven's cousin last night.  It was beautiful and delicious and I would highly recommend you trying out one of their coffee's next time you are near downtown.  I know I am going to.

Last nights wedding was so beautiful and quaint.  It was small, but not tiny...hot but not unbearable...earthy but not granola (most of my friends will understand what that statement means).  It was great watching his youngest cousin marry the man of her dreams last night.  She's from Tulsa, he's from Vancouver, they met in California, and are leaving tomorrow for a honeymoon in Alaska.  They are my kind of people who love travel:)  They will make their home in Vancouver upon returning from their honeymoon.  She has an older sister who is moving this week to Seattle with her husband to start a new life and career there.  How cool that God organized those 2 sisters to only be 2 hours away from each other upon leaving Tulsa and all their friends and family.  I love how God works things out like that.  

The boys had a blast playing with all their cousins and enjoying the outdoor venue at the wedding.  If you have never been to the Pecan Porch in Catoosa I would say to go.  This place is awesome.  The Pecan Porch is the restaurant, and the Hidden Porch is the wedding venue.  It is worth checking into if you need something to celebrate.  

First Day of School

 The day has arrived.  Summer is officially over at the Kueny Casa.  This gives me mixed emotions because everyone knows how much I love summer.  On the other hand, I also love our routines during school year and how much easier it is for me to work and have some "me time."  

This week we have spent planning for today.  We went and purchased Will's first "real" Bible that he will need for 3rd grade.  He helped pick it out and he was the one who decided which font of letters he wanted and the placement of his name on his new Bible.  He was very excited about this purchase (as you can tell from the weirdly huge eyes).

This week has been hard on my emotions knowing that Owen is our last child and he began Kindergarten today.  I watched my last one walk into the building, hug his teacher, and sit in his class line. I never had these emotions when Will began K.  I think because in the back of my mind I always thought, "I still have Owen and K is still a long ways away."  Well, that day is here now and I'm not really sure how I feel about that.  I know there's no changing it so I will just continue to pray for my sanity when it comes time for high school graduations.  If these have been my feelings just this week I can NOT imagine what that day is gonna be like.  And leaving them at college? Don't get me started....


How they turn from those babies into 3rd and K? Time is not our friend. Nope, no way!

I was happy to snag a picture with Will and one of his best buddies, Gavin. These two boys met in Kindergarten and have been in school together ever since.  We have taken a picture with them every single year on the first day.  Hopefully this tradition will continue because that's pretty awesome!  

Happy first day of school boys.  I love you so much and am so thankful to be your Momma.  Go let your light shine this year!!!

See Ya Utah (State #44)

The last few days of our vacation were upon us.  The last few days to enjoy our time together and soak up the gorgeous views, weather, and places we were visiting.  

Our last stop on this journey was Utah.  While in this state we visited Salt Lake and Park City.  Man, Park City is super high in elevation (about 7000 feet), super high in price, and super high in the amount of celebrities you might see if there during the Sundance Film Festival.  It is also super NICE, FANCY, QUAINT, BEAUTIFUL, all rolled into one.  It's worth a visit if ever in the Salt Lake area.  

While in Park City we saw the Olympic Park.  This place is a mecca for all sports and adventure lovers.  The boys loved the ropes course and ziplining.  Steven and I loved watching Olympic hopefuls training on the slopes and free style skiing jumps.  That's pretty exciting to get to see it in person.  It takes on a whole new meaning to when you hear someone say "that's hard".  Some of the things these athletes were doing didn't seem "hard" to me.  They seemed darn near "impossible".  I'll just stick comfortably on the ground and not flying through the air like human airplanes on skis.

Another thing that was great to see was the Olympic Oval.  I learned that this oval had more American's win medals in over any other Olympic Oval in history.  That was amazing to be inside the same building where so many American's achieved something so few of us ever will.  

It also made me realize that I am not an ice skater.  Nope. Not one ounce of me thought it would be fun or thrilling to go beyond my 2 mph while hugging the foam wall.  I would see people zoom by me and cringe because I didn't want to see them fall.  They never did.  Only my family.  I actually surprised myself and never fell.  I think Owen did 3 times and Will did 2 times but never did they cry.  They just got back up and continued and now (even a few weeks later as I'm typing this) they say that ice skating was one of their highlights on the whole week long trip.  I guess a trip to our local ice rink will be in my near future.  

I am thankful we were able to get away as a family on this journey.  I am thankful we were able to show the boys another portion of the country that they had never seen before.  I was thankful for save travels after almost 2000 miles on the road.  I was thankful for good boys throughout a week long mega road and plane trip.  I am thankful God provided the money for us to enjoy this together as a family.  

I am thankful and I look forward to our next journey together wherever that might take us....

Greetings Wyoming (State #43)

It's worth repeating....Wyoming is wonderful with a capital W. WOW Wonderful.  Just WOW.  I can see now why two of my friends just recently packed up all their belongings and their families and moved to Jackson Wyoming.  It's that much of a WOW factor that pulled them there (and other reasons too).  I got to meet up with these lovely ladies while in Jackson and we sampled some local coffee and did some shopping.  That was fun just to spend some girl time together on this vacation.  

Jackson Hole is not to be missed if ever in this state. We splurged and paid the $85 for our family to ride the gondola up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. This mountain is in the Grand Teton National Park and breathtaking.  It is at an elevation of over 10,000 feet and worth every penny of the tram ride. The only downside is that my ears were popping and as soon as we reached the summit of this mountain my head felt like it was about to explode from pressure.  I must have been the only odd one because no one else in my family seemed to have a problem with it.  I had a headache most of the rest of the day from pressure but it was worth it because this city is just that amazing. 

This was all in Jackson Hole, which come to find out is totally different than Jackson (the city).  Jackson the city is also quite special with all the shopping, the local vendors, Snow King mountain, rock climbing and parks, toy stores, coffee shops, and a town square filled with antler covered entries at every corner.  Could this town get any cuter?  I don't think so and this will be another city Steven and I would come back and visit in a heartbeat.  One downside to Jackson and Jackson Hole? Bring your money.  This place is PRICEY!!!!

Some highlights of this state:

The beauty (it's everywhere)
The people (all very friendly)
The weather (no need to continue to dwell on this)
The mountains (spectacular)
My friends were there (awesome to see)
The views (pretty much top notch no matter where you are in the city)
The shopping (FUN and locally owned one of a kind stores)
The state buffalo flags (I noticed them all over in this city!)

Howdy Montana (State #42)

When you look up the word "breathtaking" in the dictionary the picture that should pop up is Montana (and Wyoming but that's in a different blog).  This place is every adjective that I can think of in my brain that describe the word BEAUTIFUL.  It has the wildlife with signs along the road that tell you to "Be Bear Aware" (I thought that was awesome).  It has the mountains, the hills, the trees, the animals, and the blue skies so blue that they don't need a filter when taking a picture.  

Yellowstone is massive and I had no clue how large this park was until we visited.  Yellowstone is bigger than some states.  I laugh at myself now knowing this and thinking we could cover this park in 1-2 days.  You would need a good week to do everything this park offers so we were only able to skim the surface of this beauty. Skim we did though and some of the pictures I snapped within this park were amazing beyond belief and even prettier in person. I've heard people say that this is a place where no matter what you are taking a picture of, the picture is going to turn out beautifully.  I would have to agree. God did some truly awesome work when He molded and formed this region of our country.  

Some highlights of this state:

Grand Prismatic Pool (one of the prettiest things I've ever seen in my life)
Wildlife in action (it's everywhere in this state)
The sky (no explanation needed)
The town of West Yellowstone, MT (quirky, quaint, and the perfect idea in your head of "Old West")
The weather (I can't say it enough how cool this cool weather was)

Welcome to Idaho (State #41)

I have heard parts of Idaho are not to be missed.  This part must have been in the opposite direction that we were traveling.  Northern Idaho up by the Canada border is the "part not to be missed."  Go ahead and miss on the southern route through Boise.  It's not that it's ugly. It's not really ugly.  It's just potato field upon field, a few mountains here and there off in the distance and lots of corn. Corn? I thought this was Spudder Land but alas, we saw more corn than potatoes.  Oh well.  

Boise was our stop on the way thru to Montana. There's not a slew of things to do in Boise.  Don't give me that shocked face.  I'm sure you already knew that!  We stopped through this place called Wahooz Family Center.  Oh man...this place makes a killing.  We literally stayed at his fun joint for 5 straight hours because there's nothing else to do in Boise right? They had mini golf, go carts, bumper boats, arcades, laser tag, and bowling.  As if all that is not enough they also include a bowling center inside this huge place.  Let's just say we suffered through many hours in this place.  Being outside was actually fine for me.  It had gorgeous weather and snacks out there to enjoy.  Inside was another story all together filled with beeping machines, screaming children, crying babies, yelling parents, smashing pins, and bells and whistles galore.  I can't see how all these employees don't go home with massive headaches.  

The weather, again, was phenomenal.  We wanted to take advantage of every opportunity to explore this weather outside as possible.  Enter Rexburg, Idaho. This was another town we stopped through en route to Montana.  They had a drive through animal park named Bear World.  Bear World was awesome fun for one of our children and extreme boredom for the other.  I think Will once stated while there, "The drive here was more fun than this place."  Drama.  Mind you we were driving about 7 hours that day so he must have really been having a "blast" at Bear World. It would have been way more cool to actually get to feed the baby bears with the bottle but that was $75 and the bears were all full.  They didn't want bottles. Bummer we drove 7 hours for that. At least Owen enjoyed it.  

Highlights of this state:

The weather (again amazing)
Being hit with flying potatoes on the highway (classic)
Feeding huge bears Pringles through our open car window (we broke the rules)
Dutch Brothers Coffee (not just in Portland)

Hello Oregon (State #40)

 As many of you know I am on a quest to see all 50 states in this awesome country we live in.  I am super close to saying this is fully accomplished.  Our vacation this last week took us to states #40-44 on my list.  What remain are: Michigan, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Hawaii, and Alaska. Anyone who might want to visit one of these remaining states with me please let me know.

Last Saturday we left Oklahoma to visit state #40. This state was Oregon and let me tell you that it did NOT let us down.  Never would I have dreamed Oregon was so beautiful.  It is lush, and green, and hilly, and full of mountains.  It has great coffee and nice people.  It has beaches and gorges and waterfalls.  It was so pretty, in fact, that Steven and I said we would come back to this area and begin in Seattle and drive the coast all the way down to northern California until we hit the Redwood Forests. This will be another vacation for us whenever our checkbook rebounds from the current week vacation we just returned from:) 

Some of the highlights from this state were:

Dutch Brothers Coffee (yummy)
Multhomah Falls (incredible)
Columbia River Gorge (beautiful)
The weather (amazing)
The people (uber friendly)
Lake Oswego (quaint and small)

We will for sure be back to this state at some point and if you have never gone I recommend you make it up there at some point.  Life is too short!