"Maybe that's God's way of saying, 'Not today, Jill, not today.'."

Realizing that it's nearly the end of March, I'm backing up to say that I had a nutball crazy February. It was eventful, and I spent over half of the month out of town. One of those adventures took me to Haviland, Kansas to visit the Hinshaw family. Donnie was the junior high youth pastor at 4Cs when I first moved to Colorado. For the better part of 4 years, a group of us volunteered together and worked at the church. It was a seriously magical and powerful time. Donnie's wife, Rhonda, is incredible. She embodies the Proverbs 31 woman. The Hinshaws continue to be a giant influence on my life. (Did I mention that they have 4 beautiful children that I love dearly? We'll get to that.)

Twelve of us left Arvada for Haviland...a combination of leaders and students, friends old and new. We hung out and caught up on life, worshipped with Phil Wickham, ate Mexican food (yup, in Kansas), hung out some more, shot a bunch of guns, played carpetball and that dumb pool table game (that I actually like now), and then hung out some more. In a combination slide show insipid quote list, I give you the highlights...


First stop: Genoa, CO. In my quest to see all things superlative, we are drawn to the "Wonder Tower", where we are promised a view of 6 STATES! As you can see, it was a wondrous tower. It was also closed. Boo. However, the 12 blocks of Genoa and it's amazing dirt roads gave us some entertainment regardless. C'mon, it's Jill, JRe and JigglyPuff. Of course it's a hoot and a holler.

"I feel like the Boxcar Children are about to hop out." -JRe on Genoa
"That sign might have been worth it." -JRe on the uber-dangerous traffic



After crossing the state line, we venture into Goodland, KS to see "The World's Largest Easel". In fact, it's only the state's largest easel, as the Canadian creator of this 768 square foot masterpiece is on a quest to replicate all 7 of Picasso's sunflower paintings and put them on every continent. Seriously. The easel itself is 80 feet tall.



That's me posing in front. For a little perspective action, here's JigglyPuff:




Possibly the most hilarious part of the trip, for me, takes place during these next 15 minutes. First, we're stopping in Kansas to take pictures of an oversized painting. With JigglyPuff. That's enough to rouse a nice bout of laughter from me. Then the Rotary Club has a sign in sheet for the visitors...I, of course, make a Dumb & Dumber reference by signing "Kansas, you've TOTALLY redeemed yourself!" right under a guy that passed along a real gem of advice, "Smoke weed or die".

Next, we honestly could not have chosen the neighboring shops of said easel to create a better story, so I'll let the pictures (and our faces in them) do the talking.


"I'll take the picture from back here. I don't want you to get chopped up. Or them to think you're mocking them. -JRe on Bubba's
"But I am." -me on the ever obvious




"Who'da thought all of this would be in the same area?" -me on the hot mess
"It's a gift. Like Christmas." -Jess
"In April....Except it's February." -me

Once we got to Haviland, JRe discovered she had a new talent and a new love. The talent being throwing clay pigeons for shooting and the love being the Gagers.





"First we shoot like this. Then we shoot from the hip like this."
"Why can't I cry? What if my bone's broke?" -BarryRay
"You don't even know what could've pooped right there." -Jess to Ben on snow




"You aren't a very good liberal." -Andy on Jill and guns



"There aren't any peachers there." -Leighton on going to the country

Cute kid, huh? Darnell, Lantern...my first baby friend. He plays the harmonica.



Lauren and Lillian. Tons of super fun memories of these pretty Pony ladies...we played waaay too many hours of Memory, read hundreds of books, had water balloon fights and laughfests aplenty. Somehow they'll always be 6 and 10 to me. (Good thing Jess and I are willing to stay immature just for memories' sake.)




"Oh. Mountain people." -random dude at Barclay (note the plaid and stocking hats)



"Or you could go to Belvidere." -Rhonda on our directional aptitude
"You just ruined worship for me." -Donald on melons
"My sister probably keeps a lot of games from me." -JRe on Micah
"Jill's always the last woman standing." -BKainz on late nights
"It's because I'm lost." -JRe on Uturns
"Wow. It's so sexy. Like bra sizes." -JRe on Kansas' highway abbreviations
"I am. I'm allergic to love." -Jess on Ollie
"I don't know. Hopefully he's dying." -Donnie on limping