Ode to the Sunglasses

For those of you that know my husband well, you may be familiar with his favorite, (and only) pair of sunglasses. We weren't not exactly sure how long he had them which lead us to conduct a picture search (which is a whole other blog post in itself). The oldest picture we have of him wearing them is from summer of 1999 which would make them almost ten years old:

They weren't an expensive or fancy pair. In fact, we can't even remember where he bought them, but they have lasted year after year after year after year. Over the years, many of our friends and family have subtly, and not so subtly, told him that they are a bit outdated and he should invest in a new pair. Jeff was very happy with his sunglasses. He liked how they felt and looked. But their most important trait was that they could not be lost. It seems every time he thought he had misplaced them, they magically appeared.
Well, this past week at Epcot, the time had finally come for them to be lost and lost for good. We believe that Jeff had stuffed them in the pocket of his sweatshirt and at some point between taking the sweatshirt off and putting it back on, they must have fallen out somewhere. Lost, never to be found again. Jeff says he knew they were gone long before he mentioned anything to the rest of us. He felt a piece of him was missing. To remember the sunglasses, we decided to post a few of our favorite pictures of the sunglasses over the years, so here they are:

Our honeymoon in Aruba May 2000

Carmel, California October 2002

Maryland Day April 2004

(yes, Allison was in my belly and I had to have Testudo in this montage!)

First picture of Jeff, sunglasses and Allison October 2004

(tailgating before a Maryland football game)

New Orleans, May 2005

(Allison taking note of the sunglasses)

Disney World February 2006 San Francisco, CA May 2006

Father/Daughter sunglasses picture

Daniel trying them on for size

November 2007

First known photo of Jeff wearing the sunglasses holding Daniel (who is 9 months old)

January 2008

Last known photo of Jeff and his sunglasses

Somewhat symbolic, it's almost like he's waving good-bye to them

So today we went shopping for a new pair of sunglasses. I told Jeff he can't buy an expensive pair since he tends to lose them (yes, there is humor in that statement). We took a trip to Target and picked out a new pair. For all our friends and family out there who have made fun of him over the years for his old sunglasses, whatya think of the new pair?

And one more shot of everyone with their sunglasses on:

Goodbye old sunglasses, we sure will miss you (well, some of us that is)....