Its family weekend at Missouri State and Sonora wanted us to come down and visit. We started by driving down on Saturday morning early and going for a hike at the Springfield Nature Center. And we all wore matching (ish) Missouri State University shirts.
We were silly together. Telling stories and acting goofy, and it felt wonderful and normal! After our hike, we went to the university’s football game. It was not very packed, but we stayed and enjoyed the game.
That evening, we dropped Sonora off at her dorm and got a cheap hotel. Danelle finally found my limit. The place we stayed, the bathroom door didn’t fully close or lock. I had to take my shoe off and prop it against the door to have a small amount of privacy. I gave her trouble about her selection for a while! More importantly, we went out for donuts on Sunday morning. We went to a local favorite, Hurts Donuts. They are a national chain with seemingly random locations. Inside was super fun.
There were many other fantastic decorations, including swings for chairs.
Themed bathrooms, just a place that is fun to visit. And then I made the mistake (like I often do) of ordering too many donuts. We wanted to try them all!!!
With donuts in hand, we went for another hike down in the Branson area.
While hiking, we paused for a while to have a video conference with Coty. If you don’t remember, she is our exchange student who we were going to visit in Argentina in a few months. We finished our hike enjoying all of the views available and feeling amazing from the exercise. After the hike, the girls were very tired and I wanted to experience it all. Nearby was a watch tower and I wanted to go up. So off I went. Then I nearly stepped on this snake crossing the path. It was nearly five feet long! I called and Sonora came out to see it with me. Note how its easily confused with the crack in the pavement at first glance.
Sonora and I followed it at a distance for a little bit before continuing on to the tower. We loved the views at the top.
Back in the car, we had one more thing to do for this family weekend. We would watch a KC Chiefs football game together. We found a restaurant playing the game and enjoyed!
It was a perfect weekend visiting Sonora. We saw lots of things and enjoyed all of our time together. Danelle and I drove home to St. Louis after dropping Sonora off at her dorm.
Hogan Haake