Father's Day

We had a fun Father's Day weekend.  First, we got together with Tim's parents, his brother and my sister-in-law and went to dinner.  Luckily, Blake and Sydney were at my niece's ballet recital, so we just had the little guy with us.  He was so quiet and good, which is rare when you have to wait awhile for food!
Since Dad is more of a cooking out kind of guy, we went to my sister Stephanie's house on Sunday for ribs, steaks, appetizers, drinks, dessert and some swimming in the pool.  It was a perfectly relaxing day spent with family and all the dads too!  My sister and I lucked out with our guys!  They are wonderful, hands-on dads that do it all!

I have so many great memories of my dad!  He loves his family!  I used to go to his office with him on Saturday mornings when I was little, many times a friend would tag along.  His office was gigantic.  We would play tag, play with office supplies, pretend we were bus drivers in the meeting room with all the chairs, get snacks from the vending machines and clean and organize the supply closets (yes, I had the cleaning/organizing bug as a child).  Dad would always take me to lunch and then K-mart on the way home to get me a toy.  There was one cold and rainy day in December when he took me to McDonald's.  The smell of the french fries was lingering in the air at the drive thru.  I remember what a fun day at the office that was.  Still to this day, when I smell McDonald's, it brings me back to that day, and not for the smell of grease, but the closeness I remember feeling.  It was just the two of us!  He was my protector, he kept me safe and would have done anything for me.  I looked up to him and was so proud that he was my daddy! 

Although this post is a few days later, Happy Father's Day Dad!!  I love you!

My dad and I at my sister's wedding in 1997.