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weekend travel seems to be an every weekend occurrence lately.  we just got back from roanoke late last night after traveling in for uncle tommy’s memorial service. 

while in town we were able to visit uncle arnold and aunt sheree at their lake house on saturday.  carmen brought ellie in for an afternoon of baby lessons and entertainment.  we all had a wonderful time speaking baby babble and learning about car seats, diapers, and bath time.  carmen and neil are so blessed to have such an adorably cute and sweet baby.  ellie is a charmer.  she and james hit it off and had a great time reading story books and playing with ellie’s toys.  ellie’s favorite activity was laughing at granny covey’s attempts at baby babble.  she’d crack up every time granny came at her with this “abababababa ooooohhhhhh babbabbbyyy awwwwww oooochhiieee cooooochiieee babbbbuuuu”.  (who wouldn’t be laughing right?)

sunday morning we woke up early to hit up blue collar joe’s donuts since they are all the rage these days.  our breakfast began with a donut sampling including:  botetourt bog, nutty buddy, obx, pretzel, peanut, turtle, pink lemonade, zebra, oreo, reece’s pieces, and the infamous breakfast sampler which includes blueberries, maple frosting, and bacon!  we all enjoyed our sugar highs and packed into three cars and headed to the peaks of otter for uncle tommy’s memorial service. 

the fog was dense going up the mountain and i was a nervous wreck.  mom was driving the car i was in.  mom loves to talk with her hands.  mom loves to talk while driving.  for the most part of the ride i was in the front passenger’s seat with my hands over my face swatting at her hands every time she’d lean over to point out some attraction off the side of the blue ridge parkway that we “should” be able to see if the fog weren’t so thick.

we safely arrived at the peaks and got out to snap some photos around the pond before the luncheon and ceremony.  we all enjoyed the scenery including about a dozen deer that we spotted on multiple occasions.  at one point we were sitting in the lodge down stairs and a deer came running past the windows.  i jumped up to take a photo, but was too slow.  luckily i caught his friends after lunch and held a photo shoot with them. 

the memorial service was a time to share our fond remembrances of uncle tommy.  everyone spoke about how kind, compassionate, caring, hard working, dedicated, and loving he was.  aunt pat and uncle tommy would have been married for 41 years today.  they spent the first night of their honeymoon at the peaks of otter and then came back annually on their anniversary to celebrate.  pat said even when they did not have enough money to eat in the lodge they’d still come back with a picnic basket.  as we began to cry, the rains began to fall.  the rain falling on the pond seemed quite fitting.  afterwards we took roses and laid them by a tree near where uncle tommy’s ashes had been spread.  pat was happy to have all of us there to help her memorialize uncle tommy’s memory and to celebrate his life and their lives together. 

we love you uncle t.