Down Memory Lane

 On our way home from Branson, we rode with the Vogts. 

We had such a fun time!

Everything is a party when you are with them!

 When we got close to Joplin and Pittsburg, they let us take a little extra time and see our old stomping grounds.

Not much has changed, and Pittsburg was never a very lovely place, but it was still fun to see all the places we spent so much time at.

This was Matt's dorm his freshman year. 

 He was the second window on the top...or something like that. 

They all look the same anyway!

When we got married, we moved into a garage shed turned part apartment. 

It was SO little and only had 3 windows...one in each bedroom, and one in the kitchen.

The rest of the garage was a workshop for Matt. 

That was his favorite part!

 It was in the country very far from the college, so Matt would take our one vehicle to school with him all day and I would stay at home alone every day until around 5:00 or 6:00 when Matt would come home.

 We lived there our sophomore year and part of our junior year. 

It's funny how normal things seem and how you get used to them no matter how hard they seem looking back. 

I really didn't mind living there for a while. 

But by the second year, I started looking for a better spot to live...closer to civilization and little things like that.

That's when I found married housing. 

It was like a beacon of light...and I didn't want anything more than to live there.

The rent was cheaper, it was bigger, actual people, not cows lived right next to us, and it was across the street from the college, which meant I would have the car. 

So we lived there from the middle of our junior year until we graduated.

It was definitely the best decision we could have made. 

I met the special, close friend I had been praying for so long to meet,

and I'm sure Matt enjoyed coming home to a more refreshed happy wife.

That's the technology center where Matt spent almost all of his time.

He worked for the professors after classes too.

We took lots of walks in the summer going over to visit and see what he was working on.

And last on the list was the hospital Tripp was born at. 

We went to Joplin quite a lot to shop and go to the "big city."

We wanted to see what the tornado had done.

It was absolutely devastating.

This house was totally demolished, but on the window, they had written with their finger, 

"We are OK"

It just made you tear up thinking of the people who went through this.

This was the hospital that was hit.

We weren't actually familiar with the area that was hit. 

It was absolutely crazy to see whole neighborhoods just devastated, and then you'd go to the next street and everything was perfect. 

I've never seen what tornadoes can do.

It feels so much more real to see it in person than just watch clips on tv.

You really start to see the people behind the pictures flashed in front of you.

A few houses have started to be rebuilt.

I noticed maybe a handful.

There is still SO much to do.

I've definitely been thinking more and praying for the people who lost their loved ones and homes.

So that was our little detour down memory lane.

It was fun to remember those first few years together, and the crazy places we lived.