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!??!).

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.