Spring/Summer 2026 Part 1
Since May, we have been busy, on the road and hosting guests. It has been a great season of reconnecting with friends and getting to know our grandchildren better. Here are a few of our guests/friends we have had the privilege of spending time with.
John and Deb Shanks were our first and best friends when we moved to Mebane in 1980. They had two boys and welcomed our daughter, Lily, like family. We visited them in May with the intention of doing tandem jumps near Salisbury, NC. the weather decided not to cooperate, but we had a good time reminiscing and getting to see their oldest son, Josh, who is now a grandparent himself!
Bobbi is a Peace Corps friend who now lives less than an hour from us here in NC. We get to hike with her and enjoy some time with her and her fiancé whenever we are both home at the same time (rarely!). Bobbi and her former husband George were influential in getting us to NC in the first place and we treasure the memories of our first years as a married couple and the friendship we shared with them.
Pam and her husband Dewey are friends of Wendy's from college. Pam and Wendy were roommates sophomore and junior years. We got married in the same year and have traded visits between the Poughkeepsie, NY area and NC, WY, MD and now back to NC over the years. We were happy when they said they could visit us in May of this year. In spite of the rain, we enjoyed some time outdoors as well as some games and always good conversations.
Sheila and Eric are also close friends from our first time living in NC. We knew Sheila during our time in Mebane and she met Eric shortly after we left for Wyoming. We are thrilled to have Eric in our lives and know that he is the perfect mate for Sheila. Hard to believe that they have already celebrated 20 years of wedded bliss. In this picture, we are celebrating Eric's successful completion of the sale of his mother's house and settling the estate, something we all have to face as we get older, the passing of loved ones and the chores that come with that undesired milestone.
Olivia is our youngest niece and we have had the pleasure of hosting her a couple of times in the last few years. She is full of life and fun to be around. She is also always ready for deep conversations about birds, the environment, using time wisely and anything else we want to chat about. She makes us hopeful for the future of our world.
Another of our oldest friends is Joanne. We met her in South Korea and Joanne and I were roommates for a year there. She lives outside of Boston and has hosted us numerous times as we visit her and her family. Here we are on the whale watch boat and at her house, both of us wearing t-shirts from Arizona, another place we have visited together numerous times. We have made many trips together, including Italy, Greece, Denver, Thailand and Cambodia, as well as two trips back to Korea, she is always ready with a laugh and a shoulder to cry on, as all good friends should be.
Ralph and Carol are special friends from Baltimore. We got to know them (and love them) at our great church, Govans Presbyterian. These pictures are from our recent visit with them at their home in Maine. They have their five year old grandson with them right now and he is great fun, keeping them young and entertaining us all with his enthusiasm, amazing vocabulary and deep thoughts. We are so happy that we can keep this friendship going in spite of the physical distance between us. Our time together is precious and we hope to spend many more days together as we all watch Jaden grow up.
These are the old and new friends we have been lucky enough to spend time with this spring and summer.
Look for part 2 where we share some images and stories of grandchildren visits and trips, along with a special trip to the beach!
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