The Silver Lining

My Grandpa Jones passed away two weeks ago (he was 91 - pretty nifty, huh?) He was always an incredibly loving grandpa,but I don't think I really realized what kind of person he was until we watched a video Friday night of an interview that Mom and Mike did with him and Grandma a few years ago. They talked all about their life together (67 years married!!!), but the thing that I will remember most is that Grandpa could absolutely not talk about Heavenly Father without choking up. He felt so blessed by the Lord that it brought him to tears just thinking about it. His greatest wish for his posterity was that we believe in God. Simple as that. My grandpa was a faithful man, and I'm so super lucky to be a part of his legacy. Hurray for Grandpa Jones!

I was able to fly home to Seattle for the funeral last weekend - actually, let's talk about that for a minute. I have over 30 Jones cousins and many many aunts/uncles, and it was SO COOL to see how many were able to make it up for the funeral (990 out of 1,000, according to Burke, which he figured was pretty good). Some people drove in from Utah, got there the night before, and drove back the same day as the funeral (like, they left from the church building). Burke had two days off - rare and perfectly timed - and flew in for literally 24 hours (wait...26). Scott flew out from North Carolina and through a combination of faith, prayers, and a fast car, managed to not miss his flight. Point being, I was so impressed with the Jones'. A lot of people went to great lengths to get up there because WE LOVE GRANDMA AND GRANDPA JONES!!

So the weekend was amazing, from start to finish. It was so fun to see my Grandma Jones (who is absolutely hilarious), especially, and all my aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, parents, etc. etc. Also, it's a rarity to get all four of us Snow kids together (aren't we so handsome and lovely though?):

And we got this fantastic collection of photos that illustrates both the Snow family dynamic, and how pretty and elegant my Grandma Jones is. Please note:

And while we're throwing out family pictures, here's us with Dad and Rusty:

I wish you could see better how sharp my Dad's new suit is. Complete with a vest, which I'm sure he'll still fit into if he lives for fifty more years (stiff competition for Red Christmas Vest).

But I digress. I really, really, really love the Jones'. How lucky are we all to have such a cool family! And there are so many of us! I kind of doubt that my kids will have a million aunts/uncles/cousins, but I consider growing up with my million Jones' one of my greatest blessings.