Father's Day Fiasco

Do you remember when I described the infamous "Father's Day Fiasco" this summer which will live on in memory though I wish it a million painful deaths because it was all my idea and all my fault? The only thing that saved me from ruining Father's Day last year was my homecookin'.  Jeff can forgive a multitude of ill-laid plans if there is a sacrificial cow served with garlic green beans, mashed potatoes, and warm Texas sheet cake with ice cream a-melting on top.

Anyway, I found the pictures from the fiasco! You know, the ones I took while I still thought it was a cute idea and was carrying the optimistic burden of making it fun for everyone? Yeah, here they are!

Technically, if I really want this experience to die, the last thing I should do is post these pictures....but I think you'll agree they are too good to sit embarrassed and shameful in their lonely file folder.

Starting with this:

Jeff's face reveals completely how he feels!

  

When Sawyer is trying hard not to touch something, he pulls his arms up as illustrated in (nearly all of) these pictures.  That way, when he finally snaps, he can shoot his arm out quickly from the coiled position.

See all the canes and knee socks! I was not kidding! Epic.

Little Piggies on the Farm

Elouise wore her first pigtails last month!

 The cuteness about killed me. Rather than sit at home and stare and laugh at their absolute cuteness, we visited the little piglets at the farm and had a heyday at the indoor play area.

Sawyer the benevolent strikes again: he gathers up all the play food and takes it to the ice cream truck or a little sitting area and calls for all the other children to "come get dinner!"

The Lakeshore

This brings such a huge smile to my face. We had so much fun at the lakeshore this summer. That's a phrase I never thought I'd say, being a bit of an ocean beach snob. Actually, the fact that I am an ocean beach snob prevented me from calling the man made sandpit dumped on the side of a beautiful lake a, "beach,"  and so, "the lakeshore" became the catch-phrase.  But I'm glad that being a snob didn't keep us from going at all, because thanks to this sandpit and it's hours of easy entertainment, lakeshores are finally endeared to me.

It was helpful that we lived a hop-skipping 5 minutes away from the lake and its shallow water made for an ideal independent play area for Sawyer, while Elouise and I both tried to shovel sand out of her mouth- though she insisted on shoveling it back in, promptly.  When all of us wanted to swim, I simply wrapped Lou up in the Moby, keeping my hands free for Sawyer, and into the water we all went.

But everyone loved the days when Dad got home early from work and joined us at the lake. Those days encouraged more sand digging, more splashing and swimming, and less sand shoveling in and out of Lula's mouth.

Fishing with Dad

When we first started fishing with dad, it was with long reeds tossed into the lake and used like a fishing pole.  Sawyer was amused, but Jeff wasn't.  So he introduced Sawyer to my old orange pole with a light up reel that I knew, years ago, would eventually be awesome to more than just me. Together they packed up Jeff's "treasure chest" with worms and tiny hooks.  Sawyer could hardly contain his excitement, so much so that I was worried the dock wouldn't be able to properly contain him.

Luckily, the only thing we had to pull out of the lake was sunfish.

Also, on a more journalistic note, while we were fishing in the first set of pictures, we ran into some Ohio State fans who wanted to chat about Ohio with us (after we O-H, I-O 'ed them).  Then circuitously, when we were fishing at the same lake as recorded in the second set of pictures, we were discussing our personal plans for Ohio, specifically, about accepting Jeff's job offer and making our exit plan from the land of 10,000 lakes.

Irony? Coincidence? Fate? Divine plan? Maybe all of the above....