2002 Ranasha with Sage, Thaden & Allie! Denny?

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Starting 2002, we all had a sense of renewed idea of what was important and how we needed to put things in to perspective. We spent more time with our friends and family, and no time traveling internationally.

January was slim with Suns games, we spent a lot of time going to dinner with friends, having friends visit and got in another trip up to Idaho. We had great weather and snow; we spent nearly every day snowmobiling or snowboarding. I kept Nasha warm enough to enjoy both activities. Sager is becoming more confident and talented on his snowboard. We played with Ally, or I should say she played with us!

February, Nasha stayed busy with endless dance practice, Suns games, dance classes and appearances. I stayed busy my DenSco company. I continue to grow the size of the company and things are just humming along like I had hoped. I started spending a lot more time on Genealogy, more on that later.

In March, with the Suns on a 10-day road trip (I’m getting pretty tired of scheduling my life around basketball teams), we went on a trip up to Idaho. What made the trip a bit more fun was that my long time international travel mates Paul and Daver, along with their wives, Julie and April, joined us. We went snowboarding and snowmobiling every day but the last day we were there. Good snow and weather helped make the trip as good as we hoped! Ally and Sage were happy to have a few more play mates! At the end of the month, the Conley’s (Nasha’s God family) came to visit. Lots of food and fun, it was like a family reunion.

April brings the end of Suns season! It also brings a Suns dance team road trip. I met Nasha in California; we spent a few days visiting Marguerite, Nihad and Lorinda, and Mike Kelly, his wife and grandson. We packed in a whole lot in a short amount of time. The more significant event that happened was that I bought a lot with the intentions of building a home – more on that later. The high light of the month was the birth of my newest nephew Thaden Bradley, though he’s a year away from me getting to play with him!

May was suppose to be our first free month from basketball, but instead, Nasha once again decided to dance for the Mercury, back to games, practices, and appearances. I tried to push myself a bit, and completed a sprint triathlon. It was the challenge that I wanted with the lesson on how to train is the biggest thing I took away from it, as well as sense of satisfaction. We flew up to Idaho for my mothers 60th birthday. We had a surprise party for her, which was kept a surprise! To make the trip a little more memorable for Nasha, we had her wisdom teeth pulled. She didn’t have any complications and despite a loss of some good food, she came through fine. This also continues her streak of three years in a row with some kind of surgery.

June was busy with Nasha’s dance recital. It was quite a production! After it was all over, Nasha decided it wasn’t something she wanted to continue in the future. She went on a trip to Texas with the Mercury Hip-Hop Squad and Suns Danceteam to visit troops at Fort Hood. They gave several performances, was given a full tour of the base and treated as royalty. She came back with a sense of new appreciation for peopled in the services. Many of the troops she performed for were being shipped off to Afghanistan. We also had many meetings with our architect trying to figure out what we wanted in a house. Being a simple person, and living in a 1000 sq. ft townhouse for nine years, it’s a bit overwhelming taking on such a task.

July we flew back east for a great trip. We started in Maine and visiting Carol and Mr. P. He has had some challenges with his health, but was feeling good and we had a great time with them. We then drove over to Concord, NH to meet Yardley Chittick. Kyle, my cousin and I have been working on a chittick.com site. He’s spent hundreds of hours displaying stories and pictures of our family history. I’ve worked equally hard on genealogy. I stumbled across Yardley on the web. Not sure how we are related yet, but he’s great person. He’s celebrating his 102nd birthday this year. He has had quite a history. He interviewed with Thomas Edison; a job was offered but not taken, had an altercation with Humphrey Bogart in college, and in the 1923 Olympic trials in Yankee stadium. Roy and Muriel Chittick, some more distant relatives of unknown connection to my line, joined us for the visit. For a day in a half we listened to stories. We then drove to Lake George in upstate NY. We met Paul and Julie for the weekend at their family’s lake house.
We had a great time, didn’t have the best of weather but enjoyed the trip just the same. WATERSKIING

In August we finalized our plans on our house and submitted them to the city. Now the waiting game starts. Nasha once quoted as saying, “I’m done dancing”, once again made the Suns dance team. We flew up to Idaho for a nice summer visit. Michelle Heuer, my sister’s mother-in-law, planned a bike trip for us. We drove over to the ID/MT border and rode bikes for 23 miles on an abandon railroad called the Hiawatha Trail. Incredible sights, 12 tunnels, one 1 ½ miles long! We had fun with the kids at the park and beach.

September we flew up to Idaho to celebrate Sage’s birthday, our 2nd anniversary and get some last ditch fun in the lake. Nasha also went on a girl’s trip to NY. Dance practice for Nasha started once again and I just spent time on my business and waited to hear from the architect.

October brought the beginning of yet another Suns season, and a unique opportunity. The Harlem Globetrotters asked Nasha to choreograph a routine for them. She worked on it for many hours, cut the music and headed to Prescott. After several hours of teaching the routine and making it easier and easier they finally had it. If you see them on TV in the coming year, you might see them do her routine. I flew up to ID to take the kids trick-o’-treating. It was 22 degrees out, but that didn’t slow down the kids. Ally “got it” this year, and Sage was the pro. The adults got cold and called it quits long before the kids did!

November, we finally got final approval on our house plans. My parents came down for the holiday and we spent Thanksgiving with the Howze family. My parents were also hoping to see at least a hole in the ground and some concrete, but for all of you that have gone through this experience you know all to well how slow the process can be. We had a great time with my parents; we went to several games, a quick trip to Tucson, and dinners with the in-laws and friends, another busy visit.

December we got to see Adri’s basketball tournament. She’s improved a lot, and enjoying playing, still takes losing hard. Her older sister Bri has spent her first semester in college at the UofA. She’s a typical freshman in college, which sums it up. Lauren is growing in to a young woman. I’m doing ok with that. She’s busy playing sports and trying to become a teenager too soon. For Nasha and I, the Suns season has been a bit more enjoyable by their good play and exciting games. For Christmas we flew to ID. We had everyone home for the holidays. Watching the kids tearing through gifts and see their joy, makes the whole holiday for us. We miss not being with Kayla, but that’s the trade off. We spend as much time as we can with her, watching her grow and learning is an amazing process.

Our trip to ID was suppose to be full of snowboarding and snowmobiling, the weather didn’t cooperate. We did have a white Christmas, living in a desert that’s always nice. We close the year with excitement of new home on the horizon, my business growing and keeping up with my wife’s activity level! We wish you all the best and enjoy hearing from all of you!

Denny & Ranasha