Fathers Day

As yesterday was Fathers Day, I thought I ought to post some of my thoughts and feelings regarding the wonderous day that is all about DAD.

I actually had a very nice day yesterday, except for the fact that I had to get up at 6am to get ready for 8am church. Now that I think about it, though, I believe Melanie allowed me to sleep in until about 6:30 - ostensibly b/c it was Fathers day - but I'm sure it just took me that long to face the eventuality of having to get up and out of bed in time to avoid her ire. However, one cool Dad's Day gift I received was that the twins decided to stay in Nursery at church for the whole time! Yep, they did not cry their way out even once, and that is a moment I will cherish forever. Me thinks they are finally catching on to the fact that a class full of fun songs, tasty snacks, crayons, toys, and generally being loud and crazy is preferable to constantly being shushed by Dad and having to sit "still" through Sunday School and Priesthood classes. They're young yet, but they're catching on.

Mel and the kids splurged and gave me a new iPod for Fathers Day. It's the 80 GB iPod Classic, and it's silver. Very cool toy. I have had a 20 GB iPod Classic for the past 3 years, but it finally zonked out on me a few weeks ago. Some folks can't understand why any one individual would possibly need 80 gigabytes of storage on an iPod, and I agree to an extent (that's why I did not request the 160 GB model), but to tell the truth, I have about 45 GB of music files in my iTunes library, and having to choose which 20 GB I was going to put on my old iPod was very frustrating. The iPod Nano's are so very small and cute, but only 8 GB of space would have driven me mad in very short order. This way I can just put it all on there and not have to worry about it. How so very convenient for me. Collin already asked me if he can have my old one.

So, after church and a nice Fathers Day lunch (brunch was it?), I lay down for a short nap. 4 hours later, I came to and immediately declared that it had been the best Fathers Day ever! Wow, I'm not sure if I even got 4 contiguous hours of sleep during any night last week, so this was a real treat. At one point during my nap, Seth, one of my 20-month-old twins, came into the room, climbed up on the bed, and lay down next to me, softly speaking to me in his cute gibberish and patting my head. Then he abruptly left and I continued in my peaceful slumber. Then, around 2pm, I awoke and thought that maybe I ought to get up and go to choir practice at 2:30, so I lay back down "for just a couple of minutes", and then did not wake up until 4:30. Life is rough sometimes, but you just have to roll with it.

We went to Mel's Aunt Mareen's house for a big family dinner last night. The whole Arizona crew was there, which amounts to about 30 people, counting kids, and there was even a cake, which I initially mistook for a Happy Fathers Day cake, but was really a birthday cake for Melanie's brother, Daniel. Since we already had a Smith family b-day party (with cake) for him last Tuesday, I went ahead and pretended that this was a Fathers Day cake and had 2 pieces.

Needless to say, Mel and the kiddos treated me to a nice, relaxing day, and it certainly did make me feel special, so thank you, guys.

Got to speak with my Dad last night. He turned 70 this year, but doesn't look a day over 60. He and my step-mom, Nan, came out here to celebrate in February, and we had a grand old time.

My brother, Scott, surprised him by showing up unannounced (only I knew he was coming) - that was fun. The last thing Dad wanted was for anyone to make a big deal out of his turning 70, and that's why he came all the way out to Arizona - to escape the certain dread of some sort of big party with black balloons, unexpected attendees, and likely a roast. We spared him the roast and the black balloons, but we still got the surprise visitor in. Mel made a cake...

Come to think of it, maybe she didn't actually make the cake, but she did cut it.

Here's Dad blowing out the candles...

Anyway, I freely admit that I'm a bit biased, but Fathers Day is cool, and Melanie and the kiddos helped to make it really great this year. Sure wish I could have spent it with my Dad, too. Well, here's to next year!