Concert in the Flint Hills -- Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Well, Grampa with another attempt. Nancy and I attended the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve annual Concert in the Flint Hills (that's in Kansas, folks), with the Kansas City Symphony and Lyle Lovett. It was held on a historic farm on the Preserve and, as you can see, the dude that built this farm in the 19th century spared no expense--even the chicken coop is of quaried limestone. But now THAT'S a barn.

They also had a lot of local volunteers demonstrating pioneer life skills, like this lady spinning yarn from sheep's wool . . .

 . . . and the blacksmith . . . .

They also had some tents with lecturers on the status of grasslands across the globe, and gave folks a ride in a 'covered wagon'--I think they must have had some kind of suspension because some of the folks that were getting off the wagons didn't look like they'd have survived the typical jostling around of the real thing.
They had erected a huge tent thing and the symphony rocked the prairie with music from Copeland, John Williams and some others honoring the land and cowboys. During the Cowboy Overture by Williams about 14 horsemen herded some 100 cattle over the hills behind the orchestra stand--it was a very great scene, including the awesome sunset below. Last song played by Lovett was "Home on the Range" which all of us sang together. Let's hear it for conserving the wonders of nature.

 As usual my photography couldn't capture the real spectacle, but it was really something worth seeing. It was supposed to rain all day, and it did look pretty bad and was rainy during the 2-hour drive to the park, but just before we got there things dried up and stayed clear till be were on our way home--an answer to prayers. Before we left the park, Nancy took me dancing where another band had set up in one of the big tents--so we dance while we waited for the crush to leave the park--did some swing, two-step and waltz. Nancy is a great dancer.

Catching up on a few photos of Oakley and Peter

Grampa trying again to post stuff . . . practicing for retirement when most current excuses will run out. Can't remember if I posted these, but if I did just skip on, brother.

 Oakley helping her mother decide on a pair of boots for stepping out in in style during inclement weather. And Wendy and David hosted us a while ago at their place and took us to the National Arboretum--at least I think that's where this was taken. They always take such good care of us when we get to visit.

 Wendy is fortunate to have a live-in fashion consultant--Oakely obviously knows her stuff . . . and is very serious about it.

 Doesn't look like Peter shares Oakley's assurance of her good taste.

Kevin Marries Shayla

 For those of you unable to attend, Kevin's wedding to Shayla was really a wonderful event. Not only are they an outstanding couple, but it seemed the entire Williams clan was there.

 As usual, there were a number of extracurricular activities ongoing during the reception, some of the younger Williams cousins getting some crucial initial training for future auto decorating.

 Mike showed off his daughter to us all -- fortunately she takes after her mother; here are several of her proud uncles. And we got to see Uncle Jeff, and Amy and Tom made it as well.

 

Handsome couple! Many good stories were shared by both sides of the family, those about Shayla indicate she has led a life of distinguished accomplishments, and the one story I recall about Kevin had something to do with the Naked Paratroopers--wasn't really clear but got a lot of laughs--and the one about the hide-and-seek game where the only way he could be found was with the bribe of ice cream sandwiches.

 Natalie was very impressed with the final results of the 'Just Married' car . . . .

 And Nancy and I got to meet with some of the Shaha clan just before having to return to the bowels of America--that's Carlie and her family who happened to be in town and met us for lunch.

It was a great week and thanks to all who made it so. Best wishes to Kevin and Shayla!!

Valentine Pictures

The girls love the dresses Grandma sent them!

(Flowers are from Daddy)

Pat and Nancy @ Belvoir

Pat and Nancy visited us Nov 25-Nov 29

Oakley was sooooo excited for them to be here. She and Grandpa spent a lot of time in the play house. Probably more time than I've ever spent in that house. In my defense it is very hot and uncomfortable. Thanks for being a good sport Grandpa!

 And Nancy saved my bacon on Thanksgiving. What the  heck do you do with a 30lb turkey? I was kind of freaking out. But it turned out really good. And we fed the whole neighborhood with leftovers. 

AND Pat and Nancy did all the dishes!! Who are these people?

The whole crew. We had some neighbors over for the feast. 

Gwamma and Gwampa!

And the next sequence of photos pretty much sums up our activities while the kids were awake. Non. Stop.

And while the kids were asleep:

We ventured into DC and waited in a very long and VERY cold line to see the train display at the botanical gardens, which was cool, but maybe not worth the wait. We also checked out the American Indian Museum. Also cool but the "show" in which the modern-day Indians walked around in a circle for half an hour left us for want of.... something. I don't know. It was lacking. But the museum part was cool. 

 

This Lincoln Memorial is made completely out of natural materials! Sticks and bark and acorns and stuff like that.

And I'm happy to report that Pat walked away unscathed!

Gwampa Photos from Nov 14 Reunion

Once again I am constrained to working captions. Here are some of the photos I got (or were taken by others with my camera while I was off checking out the local health facilities). Hope you enjoy--in no good order--just glad I got them to upload at all!

I believe this was the last photo taken by my (Gwampa) hand prior to the Big Fall. I hope my disaster did not traumatize anyone; if Caroline is any indicator I don't think my injury was much of a damper for anyone (Ben "what happened to Grampa?" Caroline "he fell down" Ben "where did he fall down?" Caroline "where the red stuff is" Ben "what's the red stuff" Caroline (without batting an eye) "blood")

The girls were very impressed with the Disney parade of princesses and characters--including the fire breathing dragon.

Preparing for the birthday candidates--Ben and Wendy.

Happy Birthday to Wendy and Ben--it's great to be 22 again.

Back at the Magic Kingdom, the little ones trying to get the sword out of the stone--we'd just watched the movie prior to going to the park that day so it seems they were inspired to check it out.

Resting up after the Lion King show in the Animal Kingdom--actually it was lunch time so James and Ryan were definitely interested.

The girls working on their Animal Kindom badge workbooks--the boys couldn't have cared less.

Preparing to move out--Katie always the political activist (and trashed hand treatment specialist, thankfully).

We got permission to hold church with out family--a rare opportunity for a dad and grampa to preside over one of these events. We are so grateful to you all for making the effort to come to church that day--all the travel and expense. It will be a fond memory for this Grampa for many years.

Steve got the worst of it on the wild river raft ride (or whatever it's called)--in fact, though it's hard to see because it was dark and he had the shakes from the cold, Steve it actually completely soaked from socks to noggin. I thought he'd just fallen out of the raft.

Thanks to Bethany the children always had some project going when things slowed down.

Which is the real Grumpy?

James did not seem to enjoy being locked up with Zurg as much as his cousins. Looks like Jack is explaining the finer points of the Zurg situation to Caroline.



We tried to line up the grandchildren in numerical order--with numbers showing . . . and



. . . and from the front--sorry i did not get Ryan in this one but i think some others of you got some better shots of this photo. What a handsome group!!

I took this one to show Emily reading to the group from a book that apparently did not pique interest in the other girls . . . as they slowly drifted off to other pursuits, Emily was apparently oblivious and pressed on with her reading aloud.

And Uncle Steve was always good for a reading aloud.

Oakley never did explain what was going on here--she was tying a pair of her pants around Steve's head. We hope the next step was not to have him negotiate the stairs--that sort of stuff is reserved for Grampa.



We did watch one Barbie vs the Flying Sorcerer (or something like that) movie that seemed to capture attention.





. . . the attention of most, but not all . . .




The major award winners from the Like Minds tournament. Note neither Gramma or Grampa are among them as they are always poor performers in that game--or maybe they knew what the prizes were going to be and just threw the game.



We also visited Hollywood Studios where we got to see Belle do her thing and also saw the Frozen show. They got Hailey able to go on her first 'thrill' ride in the Tower of Terror and she was from all appearances completely unfazed by the experience. Moving this crew enmass was a real accomplishment--thanks to all for your patience and good humor throughout!

As usual, when things get quiet it's time to start checking. Gramma caught Ryan with his hand in the Nutella jar--up to his elbow--with a big grin on his face even when caught!



And the pool was great once heated up--a good time was had by all. Thank you again for your willingness to get together. Gramma and I are already talking about how we can do something like this again with you all.