Father's Day Weekend

This year's Father's Day weekend turned out to be extra special because my dad was able to come visit for a day! He has business meetings in NYC occasionally, so this time he extended his stay and flew in to see us Thursday night. I found out a week prior, and hadn't been able to think about much else. You would have thought the president was coming for a visit by the way I was cleaning and stressing! It was his first time to see us so I wanted everything to be perfect. Trav out did himself in the yard too. He must have spent 3-4 hours mowing, edging, and pulling weeds. His plane got in at 7:30pm so we all went to pick him up at the airport. When he got in the car, Collin took a few minutes to eye the stranger. After that, he had no problems with him. I made BBQ Chicken salad for dinner with his own famouse crescent roll recipe. The NBA finals game was on, so we had that on in the background as we talked the night away. 

Not long after we got married, things changed with my dad's job and he took on a new position as the Maxim Petroleum's West Coast President. Since then, he's been working 80 hour weeks and traveling 18 days out of the month. My dad is the hardest worker I know and has always put 100% into his job, but I don't think anyone understands what he's been through the past two years. And with the economy the way it is, the business has been suffering no matter how hard he works. It's sad and frustrating to see all the sacrifices he's making, along with the rest of the family. But that just exemplies how my parents have always been... sacrificing for their family. I guess I mention all that to explain that I haven't been able to talk with my dad in so long. I struggled with feeling guilt over him "wasting" time to see us and happiness over getting to spend even one day with him.

I think my dad has always understood me very well. He's a good listener and can always offer me good advice. As I talked on and on about things going on in my life, I think he could pick up on something I've been worrying about. This probably isn't going to come out right, but I look at my parent's lives and get nervous to follow in their footsteps. All that they've gone without, the sleep lost, the trials they've had. They worry about their kids and stress until their hair goes gray then falls out :) They are always swimming "upstream" as my dad put it. By the world's standards, it's not anything desirable. It looks hard, simply put. And it is hard. I'm afraid I'm more selfish than they are and get scared to have more kids. I want my life to go on seamless and easy without all those rough patches. I didn't necessarily say all this, but essentially I did. Well after listening for a while, he said something that I always want to remember. He said that life isn't about fulfilling your every want, whim, or fantasy, it's about learning to like the things you're supposed to do. It's not always the most easy, fun, or convenient thing to do your church calling, be a parent, or fufill your church responsibilities. But in learning to like those things and find fulfillment in them, you'll have much more happiness than always looking forward to the next vacation, toy to buy, or free time to waste. I think I always knew that deep down, but it was good to be reminded of it. It's really comforting to know that there is a purpose to our lives. We aren't meant to skate by without problems. It's our trials and hard times that define us. It's the sacrifices you make for your family that will bring you that much closer. And if you want to focus on the sacrifices, you can, but I think when I focus on the blessings I'm reminded so much more of how richly I've been blessed.

OK! I wasn't planning on writing all that, but sometimes things just come out! On Friday, Trav finished his last day of school until fall, so we went to the campus and got a tour of the dental school and clinic. It was the first time I've seen his operatory. Pretty cool. At noon, his class had a little picnic out at a field on campus, so we had Wegmans subs and visited with his classmates.

Dad got lot's of quality time next to Collin in the car! Not all of it completely pleasant. I think he's teething, so he spent lots of time shrieking and throwing whatever we gave him that was meant to pacify him. We also went for a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon and melted in the humidity. Collin also continured his shrieking and throwing his pacifer every 100 yards. One of my favorite moments also happened on our walk. We were approaching a home where they have a screen over the garage because they use the garage as a sunroom/bar lounge, but we had never seen the garage door up until this day. And as we walked closer we could hear the "YMCA" song blasting and an older couple was inside laughing (obviously plastered- at 4 in the afternoon!) The woman's back was to us and she had her hands clasped, above her head as she wiggled and swung her hips suggestively, doing some sort of {worm} move. And they didn't stop when they saw us, I think it just encouraged them more. Hysterical. In two years of living here, we've never seen them do anything like that, but on the day my dad comes, they're putting on a show. He must think we live in some free spirited, hippy neighborhood.  

He treated us to a local restaurant called the Red Pepper, where we saw the Taylors, and learned that the tea they serve isn't the {ok} kind to drink. Since serving his mission in South Korea, my dad can tell which kinds are {Word of Wisdom} worthy and which aren't and I guess this one isn't. In the past I thought it was ok because it tasted like a kind my mom used to make. Whoops. We also learned that Collin LOVES fortune cookies. It was our saving grace for the ride home. Go figure. He prefers bland, hard cookies, to the cinnamon, sugar puffs we were trying to feed him.

Here's Collin getting his bedtime story read to him by Grandpa.

 I drove him to the airport Saturday morning at 5:45am and said goodbye. It wasn't easy. Actually, it was really, really hard. I've missed my dad so much and it was so good to see him. Even though we didn't do anything terribly exciting it was great just to visit and spend time with him. It was more than I could have asked for. 

Later that day, Rachel threw a birthday luncheon for Camille's birthday and it was so amazing, I just had to show pictures.

I did go early to help get everything ready, so maybe that gives me permission to show it off even though it wasn't my party or my ideas. :)

Later that night we went to a BBQ at a park with some friends to celebrate the end of the school year, but Collin wasn't feeling good, so we left early. He had woken up from his afternoon nap with a high fever and was just miserable. Motrin brought it down, but he needed it regularly or else he'd get super hot and just cry and cry. It was so sad. Sunday morning he woke up burning hot and shaking and crying, so I stayed home with him while Trav went to meetings and Sacrament meeting, then we switched so I could go to a meeting and YW, and then stay for Courtney's baptism after church. For the past couple months, we have been taking Courtney and her two sisters to church and mutual. They haven't been consistenly active, but since we've been giving them rides, they've come every week. It's been amazing to me to see how eager they are to come to church when no one is "making" them. They truly love coming. It was really, really special to see Courtney get baptized and made me a bit emotional. Definitely a {pay day} moment.

Travis requested "Cafe Rio" for his Father's Day dinner, so the Shaw's came over to enjoy it with us and Rach brought over her {present} to Doug to share with us. Dessert hamburger and fries. The bun is cupcake and the meat is brownie. The fries are sugar cookies and she even made the containers. It was way too cute. The recipe and templates are on Bakerella if you want to give it a try! I hope all dads had a great Father's Day. I'm certainly grateful for all the {Dads} in my life.