Brunch, War Stories, & Pinochle

A few weeks ago we spent a Saturday with Nate's grandparents in Syracuse.

We had a tasty brunch out on their patio.

Mabel loved their swing.  She kept saying,

"Ampa, come swing me?"

We asked Grandpa if he wouldn't mind getting out some

of his memorabilia from his military days.

Out came a few boxes and a lot of interesting stories.

This is a Vetcong flag that was taken off the

fallen standard bearer.  Grandpa kept it. 

Cool foreign money and grandpa's dog tags.

Grandpa always thought his name was Eugene growing up.

Then when he went to register for the army he found out his 

name was actually Farrell Eugene! His parents had never told him 

that he had been going by his middle name his whole life!

He said he never really liked Farrell.

An old newspaper with details about the 

Vietnam War.

Grandpa was a pretty high ranking officer.

Nate asked if he told a lot of guys to drop and give him twenty...

he said he didn't, but I bet he did.

Grandpa modeling his commemorative hat showing the
three wars he has served in:

WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War.

That is a lot of war for one person.
He shared a few stories about when he came very close to dying...
pretty intense situations that make me shudder.

 He is a brave man and

we are so grateful for his service and that he is alive!

After the war he was the ONE police officer

in Pleasant View City.  Crazy.

We put Mabel down for a nap and played Pinochle.

Grandma was nice enough to help us every hand since we were REALLY rusty.
She helped us so much that we ended up winning the game!
I won the last hand with a move called, "Shoot the Moon" where you win
all the tricks in that hand.

We had such a great day, thanks Grandma and Grandpa Tew!