Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day, to all the dads and granddads out there!  We had a fun day celebrating together.  We started off with a special breakfast outside on the porch–that was Brian’s idea!  He pretty much set the menu, too–cinnamon rolls with lots of fruit and cottage cheese. 🙂  We decided to use paper plates and cups to cut down on the cleanup and to make it feel like a party.  We got everything ready, and then got Brandon and Kendall to come downstairs for breakfast.  We enjoyed the nice weather and summery fruits, and then it was time for cards and presents!  Brian had drawn a big scene on the back of his fold-out card.  It’s detailing how my car got rear-ended during a rainstorm, and he shows it getting fixed at The 1st Fixit Shop (his name for the body shop).  Brandon started to laugh as Brian explained the drawing and he realized what it was about–he is not letting Brandon forget about that!  It’s funny now, sort of–certainly not when it happened!

The kids had more cards that they’d made for Brandon at school, and I was excited to give Brandon the presents I’d been stockpiling for months.  We surprised him with a lot of rare and vintage records from some of his favorite bands–The Smashing Pumpkins and Jimmy Eat World.  After cleaning up from breakfast, we decided to play outside and have our own splash day.  Brandon set up the lawn sprinkler and I got the kids into their swimsuits, and we let them just go wild, splashing and running around.  Brian loves this shark squirtgun he got at a party last year, and put it to good use, stalking his sister!  Brandon got him back with the puffer fish squirters, though!  Brian had begged for this big blue bucket at Lowe’s, so the kids also had fun just playing with the bucket, filling it up, and pouring water.  Kendall loves a “high pour” as you know, so this is a source of endless entertainment.  Not to be outdone, Brandon decided to surprise the kids with a super-duper-ultra-mega high pour, from the third floor balcony!  This was a huge hit with the kids, who brought out their Cheyenne Mountain Zoo umbrella and begged Daddy to pour more and more water as they hid underneath!  (I’m pretty pleased with the action shots from our outside adventures–they look good, for just snapping away on my phone!  And if you think I posted a lot for this entry..  I actually took 608 photos today.  Wow.)

After Kendall’s much-needed nap, we went to the downtown El Rodeo for dinner.  It was the first time we’d tried that one, and we liked it quite a bit!  Then we stopped by Red Hat, where the kids helped me decorate my cubicle in epic Japanese Star Wars fashion.  (Monday starts my first real week in the tower, since last week I was stuck in the Summit War Room and I barely got to visit my new desk.)  Brian wrote me a sweet note (aww, now I’ll never be able to erase my whiteboard!!) and I even gave sticker-Leia a Post-It note t-shirt to match our team’s mascot, cardboard-standup Leia.  I bet the guys will find this pretty hilarious. 😉

Next up, we took the kids to Krispy Kreme, where we enjoyed some fresh doughnuts and watched the factory in action.  Brian really liked to see the doughnuts get flipped over in the fryer!  And, of course, the icing waterfall and the conveyor belt (everyone loves the icing waterfall!)  Kendall kept wanting to get picked up so she could watch, too.  Once everyone was sugared up and stuffed to the gills, it was time to call it a day and get the kids home and in bed.  Whew!  What a great day. 🙂