Grandpa Weeks

The Weeks family said goodbye to an incredibly special person this weekend.

Joseph I. Weeks, Nate's grandpa, pictured here at 8 years old, went home to be with the Lord on November 18th of this year.

Here is a beautiful picture of Grandpa and Grandma on their wedding day. They were happily married for sixty-six years.

Grandpa was undoubtedly the most generous person I have ever known. He and Grandma, who passed away shortly before Elin was born, were caring, practical people who strongly believed in young people and in education.

Thoughtful words and prayers were spoken in the name of Jesus and in honor of Grandpa.

It is hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful man. But thanks to the hope we have in Jesus Christ, we'll see Grandpa - and Grandma - again someday in heaven.

We will miss you, Grandpa. We love you.

Joseph I. Weeks's obituary.

An article about Joseph I. Weeks.

Many thanks to Lane for contributing some of these pictures.

The Weeks Lab

Part of the celebration of Grandpa's life was going to visit the lab he commissioned in the new Science Center at Wheaton College.

Just seven weeks before Grandpa's funeral, he stood and was recognized for this significant contribution to Wheaton, given lovingly by him.

It was really a gorgeous part of the building.

That's saying a lot for me considering I never mentioned to Grandma and Grandpa Weeks that I failed out of chemistry . . . twice. *ahem*

What I really loved was the romance, history and unbelievable generosity that stood behind Grandpa's lab.

Viggo and Oliver . . . future recipients of the Weeks Scholarship? Wheaton . . . are you reading this post? :)

Perhaps there were some other potential scholarship-worthy Wheaton students there as well.

No pressure though. I promise.

My English-major brain couldn't comprehend all of the equipment but at least I knew what this stuff was.

It was really neat to have the whole family in there. I think Grandpa would have been very proud to see everyone walking around and experiencing what he loved so much.

No trip to Wheaton is complete without seeing the Perry Mastodon.

Elin could have stood on Sarah's lap and watched the fish all afternoon :)

We were all really impressed with the Science Center.

I can't think of a better tribute to Grandpa and Grandma than all of us being in such a special place.

Being with family

Being in Illinois last week allowed us to spend time with some special people. Many thanks to Lane and Chris for providing some of these photos :)

Elin and cousin Soren.

Out at The Bank Resturant for a family dinner.

Members from both the Weeks and Kronholm sides of the family.

We are spread out from all over the US. Here is Florida, Texas, Oregon . . .

Illinois . . . new to our family! We are blessed with growth :)

California, Michigan, North Carolina, and obviously the great state of Minnesota . . . it was just really wonderful to meet new family members.

Lane's bag of activities saved the day on more than one occasion.

Thanks, Lane.

Then we went here. The candy store in Wheaton. The Little Popcorn Store. I definitely got the feeling that it's practically an institution.

Uncle Joe treated the kids to a whole lot of sugar.

It's about 4 feet wide but it really feels much more narrow than that.

I didn't stay inside for very long.

It sells a lot of old-fashion candy and, of course, popcorn.

The kiddos were so proud of their finds and are still singing the praises of Uncle Joe!

The hotel we were at had a pool.

This is a must for us.

If a hotel doesn't have a pool, well . . . we don't go there.
Nate and uncles Mark and Chris helped out with some major energy-busting!

I saved my favorite picture for last :)

When we moved

We're going back in time today.

It's snowy and rainy here (more snow than rain - yippee!) and I realized I just need to do a little catch-up. Honestly it's been hard to even look at these pictures because the days of moving all of us from DE to MN were just so stressful. I took these pictures and then when I went back to post them a few months ago I just got a headache. Because this was kind of one big headache. If you've moved with little kids . . . you know.

Here we are in August in Delaware.
There are a lot of beautiful sights on the East coast but surely this was one of the lovliest things I saw: a moving truck.

On the day the truck was packed, Nate was up bright and early moving our 4,000 tubs outside and getting things ready to go - despite having the flu. It was also 100 degrees with humidity through the roof. Ugh.

Inside, Viggo and I were sick too. Svea and Elin were doing fine, but the flu is not something you want to deal with on moving day. While Nate was outside arranging and packing the truck with friends, I was doing lots of laundry and trying to keep things as un-germy as possible so the girls wouldn't also get sick.

Viggo ventured outside to watch the truck pull up into the driveway.

You've got that right.

This was our life. Piles and piles of boxes.

Elin was so tired from all the rukus she probably would have napped on the floor if I would have let her.

Outside, there was a lot of action going on. I really don't know what we would have done if all of these wonderful people hadn't showed up.

After lots of liquids and a nap, Viggo woke up and was ready for action. It was like the flu never happened. A 6-hour bout of flu.

That's it! The truck was packed . . . and we still had lots of stuff. Whoops. So, people walked away with furniture we couldn't fit, and that was okay.

Karen and Matt played with the kids and kept them out of everyone's hair. The kids love them and so do Nate and I. We were so thankful for their special help that day.

I'm not even sure what we did with all this stuff. We did have to rent a small U-Haul trailer for some of it.

More leftovers, but mostly, an empty house.