Ready or not, I am wrapping up 2016 and going bravely into 2017. We traveled to Kansas City for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with the Voight side of the family. Kansas City during the holiday season is magical and spending time with the family is always fabulous.
Lights on the Plaza
The weather was ideal for watching the lighting.
Lights on!
The Voight gang!
We stayed on the Plaza and managed to visit the TESLA showroom 4 or 5 times. That would be thanks to Christian, who works for TESLA.
Randy and the kids went to Boulevard for a tour and then on to a Roasterie tour. Not sure what got into them, but they did get photos:
Beer tour
Coffee tour
Strange photo session at Roasterie
And one more strange photo
Speeding up to Christmas, we spent our 7th or 8th year at Big Cedar on Table Rock lake. That weather was freaky warm.
We ate Christmas Eve dinner at the Osage Restaurant at Top of the Rock. This is another tradition and doubles as everyone’s Christmas presents. It did not disappoint! Liz and Charlie joined us and that made it even more delightful.
The rest of the time at Big Cedar was spent playing games, cooking, eagle watching, hiking and sport’s watching.
Kids got Santa and Elves hats
Santa and family came to visit us
Patrick gets his cookies ready to cook
James with friendly gorilla
Between Christmas and New Years, my sisters, my brother in law and I went to Woolaroc. We went to see the John D Free art exhibit. The show was ending last weekend and we were running out of time. John D Free was an artist from my hometown that has always been one of my favorites. The exhibit did not disappoint. As an aside, he studied with Thomas L Lewis in Taos, New Mexico. That is the same artist that my Grandmother studied with. The palette colors of his paintings from that time were very similar to my Grandmothers. Alas, I failed to get any photos of his bronzes. I so wanted to buy one.
John D Free exhibit
Art of John D Free
Biography
Woolaroc is definitely woven into my life. I have been going there for 55 years! I have also been having nightmares about the shrunken head exhibit:
The exhibit that causes lifelong nightmares
Luckily, there is more on display that I love:
All time favorite painting
And the museum building itself is etched into my memory:
Liz, Charlie and Mary Jean at Woolaroc front door
And the animals were everywhere! We saw Bison, deer, peacocks and more:
Bison at Woolaroc
And this guy!
Moving on, the big news of 2017 is that Emily is moving to Fayetteville! She has taken a job at the U of A and will start in a couple of days. She is currently heading this way with a van full of the last 8 years of living in D.C.
Randy and I are so excited about her being here. It has been since 2004 that we have lived in the same town, and 8 years since she has lived in Fayetteville. Woohoo.
In closing, happy 2017 and good wishes to all.
2 Comments
I can’t believe Emily has lived in DC for eight years. Wow – time does fly. It will be so wonderful having her three and a half hours away, so I know you and Randy are so excited to have her in the same town! Love all the pictures of your family and Woolaroc. The picture of Randy looks like he’s in the movie Doctor Zhivago. Love the Taos Valley Dweller painting. Happy New Year to all!!
I agree with Charlotte on the picture of Randy! It is priceless. Great post and pictures! I’m ready for another road trip…