Wallace Family of Omaha

Last week we had the pleasure of visiting Kenneth's Wallace Grandparents in Omaha.  Years ago we used to catch up with them whenever we were in Utah at the same time. In recent years they have not been well enough for travel.  Shirley has been visiting them often and asked us to plan a trip soon as she would be going out again to accompany her mother to the doctor. My suggestion was October as summers are so short here in Seattle and traveling during the summer is shame when it's finally warm and sunny and great weather for being outdoors.  Instead we made last minute plans to fly out to Omaha within just a few short weeks.

Omaha, Nebraska is so much more green than I thought.  Sprawling suburbs much like Utah with wide roads and large parking lots and landscaping around businesses (no shortage of land here) and tons of trees!  I guess I always imagined all of Nebraska to be the color of golden wheat.  We arrived in Omaha earlier than we thought and stopped by to say hello to everyone at the Wallace Family home before we checked into our hotel.  Shirley had driven from Utah along with Greg and her sister Cindy.   Grandpa and Grandma have a sweet little home in a quiet neighborhood. Grandpa has cultivated the entire back, sides and even some of the front lawn in to a garden, which he cares for all day long every day.  Very impressive! 

Wednesday we all went out for a nice lunch.  The boys got to work on some heavy lifting projects Shirley had been saving for them.

Thursday morning Shirley took Grandma to her doctor appointment.  Afterwards she and Greg joined us on a visit to LDS Winter Quarters where the pioneers fleeing from Nauvoo stopped for two winters.  For 15 years Grandpa and Grandma Wallace were caretakers of the property around the cemetery where a modern LDS temple has since been built.

That afternoon Shirley's brother Sam joined us for dinner.  Grandpa Wallace and Shirley prepared Grandma's famous steak and gravy for the occasion.

The day before Kenneth and Greg realized there was a Triple-A stadium in town, home of the Storm Chases (Kansas City Royals) and that the Ohio Cubs (Chicago Cubs) were in town.  We dismissed the idea of catching a game.  But on our way back to the hotel Kenneth decided the game was probably only and inning or two in and we should just go for it.

The stadium is truly one of those 'field of dreams"' in the middle of cornfields outside of town.  While walking up to the gate it was obvious we had picked a busy night as it was $2 beer night.  The stadium was packed.  Someone must have heard us talking about where we needed to go to get tickets and a young man at the gate gave us 3 free tickets just a couple rows over the dugout.  A pretty fun little field. Kenneth caught a flip up from one of the Cubs players as they ran into the dugout after the inning. Triple-A baseball is always a lot of fun.  From the "second inning snack boy" who served cheese-it's and sunflower seeds to the players on the field to the mascot races... very cute, family fun entertainment.  Throughout the game the announcer played music and the crowd got excited waving their hats to "stir up the storm." 

Friday we said goodbye to Shirley, Cindy and Grandma and Grandpa Wallace and we Greg and his belongings in our rental car for the next leg of our journey....