Our Favorite Marine

Yesterday we had the privilege of seeing our favorite Marine, Alex Panos, perform with the San Diego Marine Band at the Wheaton Bandshell in downtown Wheaton. Of all places in the US, the band our brother-in-law is in comes to our town! What are the odds? We were very thankful for the opportunity to visit with Alex, and to see the band in concert. Alex has been a Marine for 2 years, but we've never been able to see him play. It was a fun (and patriotic!) evening! Here are some snapshots of the event.

Visiting with Alex before the concert

No Marine concert would be complete without this guy

No photo session with Brian would be complete with out pictures of me! :-)

The "Party Band" doing their thing!

Yup, the arrow says it all - that's him in the back with the trombone!

Thankfully, Alex also had a little time off today, so we were able to take him out to a nice dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery and for a walk around Naperville (with a trip to Cookie Dough Creations, of course!). Sadly, he is heading out tomorrow so we had to cut our visit short. All-in-all it was a blessing to get to see him and makes us look forward to any other visitors that might be heading our way! Fall is in the air and it is a great time to come see our corner of the US! :-)

A Meadows' Legacy

My grandparents, Lee and Jean Meadows, have lived an incredible life. I have been entertained on many occasions listening to the various stories from their past. I have often bragged to others that my grandparents have the most interesting family history. When we were out in CA about a month ago, I had the privilege of spending an hour with my grandparents and catching up on life. Brian was able to snap a few photos of the visit, and I think they perfectly portray the strength, humor, and romance of this couple. (By the way these are unedited, but due to Brian's heavy homework schedule he just hasn't had the time to fuss with these photos. They are still amazing!)



A classic shot of granddaugther and grandparents. Have I mentioned I am named after my grandma? (My middle name is Jean.) I love this expression on my grandpa (affectionately called "Baca" by my sister and I). Can you tell that he was a career marine?



I wish I could explain how hard I was laughing in this photo. In order to achieve a more natural smile, Baca always start laughing when getting his picture taken. It just cracks me up!



Over 60 years of marriage and they've still got it!



I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture. Does it get any better than this? I only hope someday my grandchildren will have a picture of Brian and I that looks like this!

To my dear grandparents - I love you both so much and am so thankful you took the time to let us come visit you. You have been such an example to me in living a full life, being generous, loving your family, loving each other, striving through hard times, and remaining faithful to God through it all. I love you!!

September Update

Well you might think we have fallen off the face of the Earth, but really, it is more like Brian has been buried beneath a mountain of earth! Brian's fall schedule is a busy one - with thousands of pages of reading, many papers, translation, etc. he will be a busy guy for the next few months!