:( Goodbye Grandma and PaPa ):

Grandma and PaPa are moving. Not just to a new house. Not just to a new town. Not just to a new state. Not even just to a new country. They are moving to a whole new part of the world- Dubai, United Emirates.

And not even just Dubai. Grandma is actually going to be working 4 days a week in Basra, Iraq. You read that correctly. Iraq. Where she'll be escorted by armed vehicles across landmines (disarmed and double/triple/quadruple checked... but still). It's actually pretty amazing what she'll be doing. From what I understand (and that's not a whole lot when it comes to coorporate speak!), she's going with a handful of carefully chosen people from around the world to basically start up a branch of BP in Iraq.

The other big challenge for her in all of this was training her replacement. Not sure if you've heard, but BP has a small oil leak somewhere out in the Gulf of Mexico. In Grandma's territory. Kind of a financial headache...

The hardest challenge of all for all of us, though, was saying goodbye. We currently (well, used to, now... they flew out yesterday) live about 2o minutes away from them and probably see them 1-2 times a week. It'll be a shocker this weekend when we don't go out to eat at Fajita Willie's together on Saturday. Or see PaPa for some random household chore that only he can get done perfectly. Or stop by their house for a quick play with their toys. Etc. Here are some pictures and videos of our last "Goodbye Dinner" with them on Tuesday. Ada had a ball, and was a total ham- she could totally sense it was an important evening because she was a total angel for HOURS- far past her bedtime for sure! No apologies for the picture overload this post, I know that we will read this entry many times when we are missing Grandma and PaPa! (That and SKYPE, which we plan on taking full advantage of!)

Playing a little before heading out:

Walking up to Escalante's- prepping her "cheese" face!
Uncle Lou and Aunt Kendra:

Goldfish, Tomatoes, and Avacado Appetizer..with a few sneaky bites of a blue crayon, too:

Ada and Grandma:

Mexican Grilled Cheese:

Coloring with PaPa:

True Love: PaPa is a germophobe and took whatever bites Ada offered him all night long!

"Kiss! PaPa, KISS!"

The many faces of ice cream ecstacy:

Ada sharing bites with PaPa:

And kisses when she didn't want to give up bites:

Ice cream for Grandma:

And more kisses in between!

I love my Grandma!

Hugging on Grandma and PaPa:

Leaving Escalante's at 10pm. Such a sweet girl.

Still smiling, waving, and blowing kisses as we pulled away. :*(

And some videos of Ada at dinner:

And saying her goodbyes.

WE MISS YOU ALREADY GRANDMA AND PAPA!