Well, it looks like this really is happening – we are #movintokansas!  Our house here in Vienna is officially on the market – my five year old was pretty excited about the new sign 😉  And my husband and I took another trip out to Kansas City last weekend to look at neighborhoods, schools and houses.  He will be out there soon for his job while the boys and I stay here until school is out, but we wanted to get the housing search started.

We saw many wonderful things – and we are getting more and more excited about this move as we learn about our great new city. Of course I had to post pictures to instagram throughout the weekend as we toured around… I will spare you the entire batch, but thought I would share the highlights – from our beautiful hotel view of downtown Kansas City to the gorgeous old Spanish style church near the Plaza.  I don’t think we will end up living in this beautiful neighborhood, but I am quite sure we will visit the area often – such an amazing area full of art, museums and stunning architecture.

Then we were off to look at houses.  I was laughing so hard our realtor thought I was crazy after I posted the bathtub picture to instagram.  Not only did my fellow photographer friends agree that the old tub was beautiful and would make a great spot for fun bubble bath photos of the little ones, but they also cheered me on for trying to choose a house based on its potential for great photographs 😉  We didn’t choose this house, but I now have a stand alone tub on my wish list because of it!

And when you look at 20 houses in three days, it is safe to say you are going to find some that just don’t work for you.  The house where this interesting golden swan lives is quite lovely, but, um, lovely for someone else 😉

And then there was Winstead’s.  We have a tradition in the Stengel family, we go out to breakfast at a little locally owned diner for waffles and whip cream two or three Saturdays a month.  The waitresses know us, we know them, it is our family spot.  The restaurant has a name, but to us it is only known as “the diner”.  My oldest son recently said he wished we could put the diner on a truck and move it with us to Kansas City.  We are going to miss the diner.  But when I saw Winstead’s I knew we had to give it a try and tell the boys about it – so that last photo, it was all for my boys (those greasy onion rings were for them too 😉  But it also represents all the new that is waiting for us to discover.  We may not be able to take the diner with us, but I am thankful for all the ‘new’ we are going to discover and make our own in our new home – Kansas City.