hoagie orders taken here

we've just returned from pennsylvania, & we're flying to seattle tomorrow for time with family + seattle/vancouver shows. recent music travels have taken our family to three out of four corners of the u.s. (josh to all four), in the span of a month & a half (by the time we return from the northwest). it's been a bit more challenging with a baby, but really fun, too. i like starting heron's life out with family adventures. it's building her into such a social, adventurous, adaptable individual (though i suppose she's a bit genetically pre-disposed to this, too!).

in pennsylvania josh played in lancaster, philly, and grantham (messiah college). on the way to his first show we stopped for the night in roanoke, virginia, to visit josh's aunt ineke & uncle neil, cousins stephen & eric salo. what a joy it was to reconnect with them! with three sisters, josh looked to his cousin stephen as a brother.

: with the salos in roanoke :

onward we trekked in our little family chariot. lancaster was a welcoming city. the becker family hosted us in their tall historic rowhouse. homemade pizza & blue moon were waiting for us in a place alight with people. the lancaster community was warm & lively, & we were thankful to be able to stay the night & visit the becker's church & home group the next day.

: tom & becky are some of the coolest parents i know :

: josh & tom at senorita burrita, where josh played music with their daughter katie :

: here's how we do merch now :

: heron is a hit wherever she goes :

i must confess that as we were in lancaster, pa, home of the innocence mission (who are friends with the beckers), i was expecting to see don or karen enter the venue every time the door opened. maybe next time... at the end of our stay tom said, "if i would've known you were such fans i would've dragged them out of the house! they're such homebodies!"

next stop: philly, a city i love, a first for josh. again we were hosted by lovely people, our friends jay and aimee (we stayed with aimee). jay & aimee both live a few blocks from circle of hope, a church we've wanted to visit for a long time. we were so warmly welcomed by folks there. i made new girl friends.

: jay & aimee :

we had several free days in philly. we hung out with jay, aimee, & made new friends, too. we were also able to get together for dinner with sammy, my childhood friend from peru. he & josh really hit it off, as i suspected they would...

toward the end of our philly stay our friends jay & jess kirkpatrick, & their son kian, joined us from indiana for two of josh's shows. jay accompanied josh on banjo, melodica, bass, slide guitar, & accordian at the circle of hope & messiah college shows. we had just enough time together in philly to grab a cheesesteak on south street before we caravaned to the next show.



by the end of our trip josh & jess & kian were all feeling sick. since this post is feeling extremely missionary-newsletter-ish, i'll end with some prayer requests...

1) please pray for kian, jess, & josh as they continue to recover, & for me as i seem to be coming down with something, too! we have a day of travel tomorrow, three rest days, & then four straight days of shows to get through.

2) please pray for my mom, as thanksgiving day is also my dad's birthday. she will be with some of her siblings in new jersey for the holiday, but away from me & jeff.