Grandma Goodness

This weekend we finally made our trip to Salina that the weather had prevented since the holidays. Our main purpose for the trip was to visit Chad's grandmas and deliver their gifts that we'd originally intended to take the weekend after Christmas. We left yesterday morning, and after stopping for Chad's obligatory meal at Bogey's, we went to Grandma Decker's apartment and watched the Jayhawks win while playing gin. Grandma has congestive heart failure and her physical health isn't very good, but she's still mentally sharp enough to play cards and to do crosswords and jigsaw puzzles. While Chad was Grandma's card opponent I worked a little on the puzzle she had out, and it was incredibly hard! I love jigsaw puzzles and used to do them all the time when we first got married. The problem with me and jigsaw puzzles is the same problem with me and books--I start them and I can't get much of anything else done until they're finished!

After some cards and basketball and puzzling, Chad and I went and picked up a salad for Grandma for dinner, and hung out with her for a while longer while she ate. We got a few pictures before we said goodbye and headed off to our next engagement.

For our own dinner, Chad and I headed to downtown Salina, where we met my good childhood friend Jennifer at Martinelli's. I'd never been there, but I wanted to check out the food and the banquet room since it's where we're organizing our 20th high school reunion for this summer. We were shocked at how packed it was--I had no idea there was any place in Salina that was so popular! The food was pretty good and we had such a great time getting caught up and reminiscing with Jen. It felt like no time at all had passed even though Jen and I hadn't seen each other in 6 years. Our friend Jason also came out for a beer a little later, and we had such a nice time with old friends we ended up not getting home to Chad's parents until almost 10. After hanging out with the folks over a few games of dominoes (I won, in case you're keeping score), we headed to bed after a long day.

We got up this morning and headed into town to meet Grandma Luce at IHOP, where we had a tasty and leisurely breakfast with such enjoyable company! We got the updates on all of Chad cousins and aunts and uncles that we haven't seen in a while, and told Grandma all about the new house and whatever else is going on here in Lawrence. Grandma just turned 84 in November, and yet she's still so witty and sharp, you would never guess she was a day over 75! She's always quick with a joke or a funny retort and is just so fun to spend time with. Although the weather had taken a nasty turn as we left the restaurant, we were able to get a few good pictures with Grandma before heading out into the cold. As you can see, Grandma is a tiny little thing who makes me look tall and makes Chad look like a giant!

Our trip was great and was made even better by the fact that our friend Beth stayed the night with the dogs so we didn't have to worry about them! Hooray for wonderful friends who will dogsit! :)