Gramma and Grampa Catching Up

Who says it's not an age of miracles?! We sold our home in Kansas (por fin!) and packed up our junk and headed off to Utah to seek our fortune--or rather to exhaust our meager savings. So there are many benefits of moving closer to family, like sharing Halloween . . .

 

. . . pretty scary for the rest of the inhabitants. Yes that is Hulk, Ariel the mermaid, Wolverine, and Nick Fury--and that other clown was invited to hand out candy at the Enniss home. 

 

 
Bethany and Lucy, Hailey and Ryan came out for Thanksgiving--and we got to celebrate Hailey's fifth before they headed back to California. We had an awesome visit from the Thanksgiving turkey . . . uh, no, that's Steve with  Lucy's turkey crown from school. And a good time was had by all, especially Steve!



It's been snowing a lot since Nancy and Pat got to Utah--we got about 6 inches at our house right after the movers dropped off all our stuff.




And then we got to head out to Spokane, WA, for Josh and Kelsie's wedding on 17 Dec. Josh's Grampa Tanner was able to officiate as the sealer which made for an especially amazing ceremony. As sealer, Bill Tanner mentioned missing Patty and Jim--and that he was confident Jim was there with us. And the Tanners and Barnes families put on some great parties for the rest of the day. Here are the Tanners able to attend--Brent and Janet, Gramma Elizabeth and Grampa Bill, and Troy.



And there were some of the Shaha reps at a table in the corner--where they belong.



It was cold and slushy and we got to the luncheon a little early so rather than stand around in the cold and get sloshed by passing buses we ducked into a nearby deli and had some hot soup--which was GREAT. And Grampa Pat even figured out how to do a selfie--no end to his talents.



The reception was held at a big home in the northwest hills above Spokane--a pretty precarious trip getting to it on some unplowed roads in the dark, but the place was very interesting. Had a whole bunch of baseballs and baseball bats collected over the years from major athletes--signed game bats from Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Frank Thomas, Pete Rose and others; and autographed baseballs from Ruth, Aaron, Mantle, Koufax, and a whole slew of others. Was pretty amazing. And there was this grizzly bear upstairs . . . .


 

 



Truth be told, the crew sort of descended into depths even lower than usual following the festivities--photo evidence follows. Nancy will have to fill in the story . . . .Nancy here. So upon arriving at the hotel in Spokane, we were all disappointed that we'd forgotten our swimsuits since there was a nice pool and hot tub. So of course Stacy  had a great idea that we needed to go to Wal-mart to find shorts and tank tops. The bargain rack provided Santa shorts and tank tops (Buffie's and Nancy's shirts say "meow" which explains the clawing gestures). The Tanners came back from the reception to see the Shaha reps acting like idiots in the hot tub in our Santa shorts...we all thought it was hilarious but are a bit concerned about our penchant for loud laughter and light-mindedness!



 

 

 

Once back in Utah we were able to check out the lights at Temple Square with Steve, Lucy and Hailey.

 

And today Lucy marshalled the forces available and staged an impressive Nativity--Natilie and Jack as Mary and Joseph, Hailey as the angel, and Ryan and Grampa as the wise men (casting was desperate). For some reason Ryan did not want to wear the wise man hat he chose--a Star Patrol helmet. It was an awesome production.

At Ryan's right hand are the gifts we brought as wise men--some paper props provided by Lucy. Not the spellings of 'Mr' (myrh) and 'Faksins' (frankincense).

 

Sunday Picture

Well, I will never be as good as Wendy about posting pictures or writing captions but here's my second for the year. Maybe the last...we'll see. This was taken on Sunday as we were leaving for church with the sword in hand. The sword only made it to the car and was not allowed to attend church much to Ryan's dismay. He folded his arms and refused to leave the car door without his sword. By the time we crossed the parking lot he changed his mind and I had to go back to get him.

The California Shaha's

Lucy and Ryan being silly.

Sweet Hailey Jo Jo

Aunt Danielle did her hair. She's enjoying her reflection.

Hailey's First day of school. She's in Pre-K at the school my mom teaches at. I have to get her up at 0630 and my mom picks her up at 0700.

Lucy's first day of school. She doesn't have to leave until 0800.

The Great Utah Visit by Grammy and Grampy

Greetings all. This is being typed by the Old Geek so will not be as witty as coming from Gramma. But we had another wonderful visit with Katie and Shea and Natalie and Jack, and got to spend time with Steve and GreatGramma Shaha.

 

Here are Natalie and Jack on their driveway. They had created a highway system for Natalie's new toy Smurf car to travel, being chased by the lion scooter driven by Natalie's stuffed beaver--his driving skills were very suspect.

And Natalie rode on her bike over to the park--Jack scooted over on his little self-propelled racer thing like Peter uses (only Jack doesn't use his feet to get propelled like Peter). Anyway, had a great time at the park playground--as you can see the beaver had no fear of the fireman's pole (although his landing was very flat and abrupt, fortunately Natalie was there to pick him up and brush off the sawdust).

Jack was very interested in going UP the slide--had a good view of the ongoing softball game from the top.

 

Well, pretty lame entry I know, but that's all the photos I took--can you . . . of course you can believe it. I got to meet Steve's date the night before I had to leave; Sarah was a very attractive, smart, articulate and fun; I hope Nancy gets to meet her when we go out for Thanksgiving.

 

Stay cool out there, and be excellent to each other. We hope to see you all again soon. Nancy and I are working up a proposal for a gathering of our family next summer, when Joe's back and the families of Dave and Ben are moving--hopefully in conjunction with the Shaha Reunion. We'll keep you all posted.

Love, Grampa and Gramma

Gramma & Grampa Visit Shaha Bragg and Belvoir Contingents

We just returned from a good news/bad news trip to North Carolina and Virginia. The good news is that we got to see Joe, Bethany, Lucy, Hailey, Ryan, Dave, Wendy, Oakley and Peter, and they are all well and wonderful. The bad news is that we said good-bye to Joe for awhile and that he has to be away from his family for the next 10 months.  Upon arriving at Joe's apartment in Fayetteville, we encountered this 6-legged ghost haunting the area....the last pair of legs reveals a suspicious diaper...must be a baby ghost!

 

 

Ryan assisting with janitorial duties while the girls create art.

Joe and family after returning all of the furniture to the loan closet.

The girls were awesome at miniature golf, and Ryan was great at throwing all of the extra balls into the water hazards...good times!

We stopped briefly at a Sonic playground before saying good-bye to Major Joe and his beautiful family; Dad and I left from there, and Bethany and the kids took him to the embarkation point....tough day.

 

 

Next stop was Dave and Wendy's at Ft. Belvoir...the extra family was one that Ben and Marinda knew well in Monterey (the Lewises). Oakley and Peter are good friends with Ian and Elsa who were good buddies with Emily and Caroline...there's also an extra neighborhood friend in the picture.

Grandpa probably urging Oakley to go look at the ants at the playground.

On the Metro coming back from a visit to the Smithsonian.

Grandma and Grandpa engaged in their favorite activity, hanging out with the grandkids!

Looking at my Dad's photo in the database at the WWII monument...can never go there without shedding some tears.

 

Wendy received permission to travel to Philadelphia and meet her missionary brother on his preparation day (he's returning home in a few days and Wendy will not be able to go home to greet him). Dad and I went along to help during the three-hour drive and got to taste our first authentic Philly cheese steak sandwich too...a good day!

Oakley checking out the butterflies in the Natural History Museum...she's fascinated by bugs.

We all loved the static electricity effects from the playground slides...check out Oakley's hair!

Fabulous Visit to Shaha Germany Contingent

 

We're baaack! We had a wonderful visit with BMECJ and only wish that we could figure out a way for all of us to hang out together in Germany...maybe I should start playing Powerball! We visited the Leichtenstein Castle which was built on a very impressive cliff...all hands were on deck to keep track of James!

 

Emily practiced her photography skills and only cut off a little bit of Pat's head...according to him, it was probably an improvement.

James was extremely careful while opening his birthday presents, not to mention serious! And he didn't even complain that his present from us was a duplicate of one he already had...he's possessed with trains and cars, so it didn't seem to bother him to get more.

 

After Ben and Marinda left on their cruise, we entertained the kids by taking them to the zoo; E and C loved climbing on the animal sculptures, especially this elephant.

 

Back at home, the twin Elsas entertained us with some great dance moves. 

 

Ben has trained his crew well and they are avid Star Wars fans. Many hours were spent with Grandpa in a variety of space ships on the several playgrounds in the housing area, this one being a version of the Millenium Falcon. Notice Queen Amidala, Princess Leia, and Yoda at the controls.  Pat was usually Lando and I was Chewbacca, very flattering.

 

Another day, we went to a small, kid-friendly amusement park called Traumland (not to be confused with Traumaland)! Traumland translates to "Dreamland." 

 

Sweet Emily giving James a ride. 

 

The girls peeping out of Snow White's house.

 

James relaxing after our return home. 

 

After Ben and Marinda returned home, they insisted we get away for a couple of days and arranged a visit for us to Rothenburg, a medieval town with its original wall intact...we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. 

 

Where Nancy plans to move if Donald Trump wins the presidency.

 

The hotel where we stayed, formerly a castle. We stayed on the 3rd floor and could see the entire countryside from our bedroom window. 

 

Ben and Marinda arranged for all of us to go on a Rhine River cruise, and we spent the night before in the medieval village of Bacharach. In the morning, we hiked up to the castle there before getting on the boat. 

 

One of the castles along the Rhine and a beautiful little cowgirl!

 

The three amigos; the girls following in the footsteps of their cowgirl great-grandmother! 

 

At the fountain in downtown Stuttgart. 

 

On Ben's balcony just before we left to go to the airport.

 

Thanks to Ben and Marinda for a fabulous visit! And to all you FamiliaShahas out there, thank you for your wonderful good works and families. We look forward to seeing you all much more often now that the Old Geek has stopped working ( . . . one has to wonder whether he was ever really working all those years!??!).