A Goodbye and a Celebration in Snowy Spokane

Last Thursday afternoon, Corey's grandpa Joe passed away so Corey, Roxy, Joan (Corey's mom), Elliott (Corey's twin) and I headed over to Spokane yesterday. It was a bittersweet time - while we were in town for a vigil and funeral for his grandpa, we were also able to celebrate his grandma Rita's 90th (!!!) birthday. We were glad we were able to make it over here to be with the rest of the family during this sad time and to help his grandma celebrate her birthday. Having Roxy on hand helped cheer his grandma up so we were glad she was able to come along with us!

Joe Moran (April 17, 1920 - March 5, 2009).

I was honored to be able to meet a lot of the family that I hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet and during the vigil last night, I was able to hear many stories about Joe from close friends and family members. Because I'd only had the pleasure of meeting him once, it was so great to be able to hear all about him and his amazing life through the stories of others. From what I knew of Joe, he was amazingly sweet, gentle, kind and extremely in love with his wife of 65 years, Rita. Joe will be greatly missed - so many people were touched by him throughout his life. Joe's obituary can be found here.

A trip over the pass in March wouldn't be right without blizzard-like conditions both on the pass and in Spokane. With a high of 28 and snow falling throughout the day, it made for brisk walking conditions for poor Roxy; however she had a blast playing in the snow and trying to eat the snowballs Corey made for her to play with.

Trying to fix her fleece, which had become a snow cape after bounding through the snow.

Roxy wasn't very happy that I wanted to take a picture with her in the middle of playing.

Tonight, Corey's parents treated us to a delicious dinner (and dessert!) at a yummy restaurant called Scratch. We all had a great time.

Corey, me, Joan and Curtis, just before rolling out to the car, stuffed.

We'll be heading back to Seattle tomorrow so fingers crossed for a safe drive over the pass. And hopefully little Roxy will be an angel on the way back, just as she was on the way here (she slept between Joan and I almost the entire way!).