Last week we were in Toronto for Jeff’s dad’s memorial celebration.
It was good for us to be together with Jeff’s brother and sister, and their families. Jeff’s uncle and aunt also came for the day of the celebration.
It was a time to be sad together,
Thanks to everyone for your kind words and well wishes. It means a lot to Jeff and to me that so many people in so many places, many of whom we haven’t talked with in years, are thinking about us and sending love.
Through everything, life goes on. We just got home from a road trip vacation, spending most of our time away with my mom, sister, and 4-year-old niece in Windermere, BC. We had a super incredible trip. Windermere is beautiful, I highly recommend visiting. We swam just about every day in the lake, saw eagles and osprey and turtles and a baby skunk, went canoeing through wetlands, hiking, lots of s’mores, and incredible mountain views the whole time.
Then from there we went to the dinosaur Museum in Drumheller, then quick stop in Calgary at the US Embassy to get Maren and Linden American citizenship and passports, then one more overnight on the way, and then home. It was a super long trip but really felt like a vacation for the first time in a long time.
Some pictures:
Last Sunday Jeff’s dad died. He had been in the hospital with some serious health issues for several weeks, and at the end transitioned to palliative care. He died peacefully.
We have been sad, and of course Jeff especially. There are emotional and logistical things that need time and attention, and that has been a lot of the past week. There is no funeral, but there will be a memorial celebration with a few family members at the end of July.
Soccer classes have been happening once a week for the last little while, and both kids are having a lot of fun with it. Here is a little snippet of Linden’s class, which Jeff also participates in with her:
Maren has taken to writing books over the past week. She staples pages together to make a little booklet and then writes words and draws pictures to fill it up. Here she is working on a story board for a book, and inexplicably also wearing a mask:
It has been a bit of a rough weekend. Jeff’s dad has been quite ill, and Jeff flew out to see him very early Friday morning. Fortunately today he is a bit better, and Jeff is coming home late tonight. However, some tough conversations and tough decisions are coming.
Meanwhile, I have been holding down the fort. Thanks to some help from new next door neighbours, who have kids the same ages as our kids, things have not disintegrated into total chaos. We had only spoken in passing until this weekend, but it turns out that they really are the best kind of neighbours. Maren and Linden happily played in their yard for hours yesterday, while I folded laundry, picked up enough toys that I could see the floor, and generally brought the household back from the brink.
And no matter what the situation, an ice cream cone on a warm day is pretty much the best thing ever:
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