reunited & it feels so good

you may wonder, "where in the heck has em been for the last two months? no blog posts?" call it a summer break, call it a much needed hiatus. but rest assured, i shall now make it up to you, faithful readers. stay tuned. ;o)

the first week of june, josh and i flew to philly to spend time with our grandparents smoyer. it was a sweet time of getting to know them better.

w/ grandma & grandpa smoyer & aunt judy

playing scrabble w/ grandpa smoyer

we also spent a VERY hot day (read: in the 100's, people!) downtown at the philadelphia museum of art.

yo, rocky!

then we had a yummy dinner with our relocated-from-asheville friends justin & meghann at a pub in jenkintown, and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with them at their flat. cheers for having us, guys!

justin & meghann, all "phillyfied"

we were also treated to a fun trip to the jersey shore by our uncle dan & aunt judy. we had fresh seafood at an old restaurant next to the docks! and i repeat, it was HOT outside. we all snuggled under two small umbrellas on the beach, just to be in the shade. you could barely make out the new york city skyline in the distance, across the water.

here are some photos of us at a 9/11 memorial that we visited. the base of the monument is covered in the names of folks from new jersey who died that day. the eagle is holding a piece of the twin towers' wreckage in his talons. it was a hard but good thing to take in.

uncle dan & aunt judy (they're sassy. i just love them.)

us at the "joisey" shore

9/11 memorial

god had an even cooler reason for us being in PA than we ever knew while planning the trip though. we got to spend an afternoon chatting with our great grandpa leh who is 103 1/2! (and he was emphatic about that half, though he said it with some disbelief himself. i guess he earned it. :o) ) great grandpa spent his life in the loving service of others. both times i met him, i was immediately overwhelmed with a sense of his gentleness and humility. and, remarkably, he spent all 103 1/2 of his years in his own house, with the loving support of his daughter, our grandma smoyer. (she takes after him.)

grandpa leh told us about his first sighting of a car, his wedding to our great grandma, their best friends, fishing trips, and adventures out west. he vividly remembered details, right down to the exact date he started work in the 1920's! it was a magical, bittersweet time, as grandpa leh's health was slowly failing from being unable to eat. these photos with him are the last ones taken before he died later that week. you can see how brightly his spirit was still shining that day.

josh, great grandpa ralph leh, grandma smoyer

us w/ great grandpa leh

josh & great grandpa leh

josh and i both feel so incredibly blessed that god gave us the gift of such a sweet goodbye. we will miss you, grandpa leh. but we rejoice in the life god led you to live, and in the fact that you are now safely home with him.