portland

Dave's older brother passed away a week ago. We spent a couple of days up in Oregon with our sister in law, nephew and nieces. Dave's family is spread out all over the country - this little group is from Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Florida, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Illinois, Washington DC,. It was nice to have all the immediate family together. Dave's brother, Kevin, was only 56 years old. Much too young. Here is his beautiful family. They have a wonderful, loving, beautiful and smart family. I have always liked them and I wish we lived closer. I wish our kids knew their cousins better growing up, but in recent years they have all connected on Facebook and keep up on each others lives a little more now. Rachel traveled with us. She and Stephanie are the same age so it was especially nice for them to reconnect.
It's always nice for Dave and his brothers to be together. Our girls were commenting recently that Dave and his brothers don't look anything alike. The same is true for me and my siblings. Go figure. The family had a very nice, quiet, private service for Kevin at the local church. We shared stories, shared photos, sang together, prayed together and cried together.

Kevin is the first of our siblings to pass away. We never thought it would be this soon. We will miss him. Kevin was an adventurer - always moving to new locations (including back and forth to Korea on several occassions), always trying something new in his career, always traveling, and always had a great story to tell. There is something about being together with family to bring a warm and healing spirit. I was so glad we were able to be there. I love this family.

Before we left town, we drove by the new ice cream shop that this family is just getting ready to open. If you are in the Portland area, go enjoy some cool refreshment at Chill Ice Cream!