Father's Day Weekend

After a long week of teaching VBS and wrapping up swim lessons I was really looking forward to Father's Day weekend myself. Typically when a holiday falls on a Sunday it means that Jerry doesn't have any meetings--a rare and special treat. Getting to ride together and sit together at service as well as having his help getting the girls in and out of church is a bonus too.

We celebrated his dad Friday with a train ride to the zoo for a special evening event and a big homemade breakfast the next morning.



My dad is in Canada, which left Sunday completely to celebrate my Jerry.

It started with snuggles from his girlies and then it was off to church.


We grabbed lunch at a new-to-us burger joint which happened to be on a trolley stop.


So we rode the trolley to the end of it's line which was downtown.

Walked a couple of blocks and ended up at the base of this building.





At which point my camera battery died (all little pics from cell phone), but not before snapping this pic of my 3 favorite people.


I don't think I could have imagined a more perfect impromptu afternoon. Especially not 12 years ago when Jerry proposed to me exactly 57 floors above this perfect fountain spot.

I definitely wouldn't have envisioned how needed our afternoon nap would be or that the evening movie choice would be Toy Story 3.

What I did know then was that if a restaurant wasn't busy on Father's Day when everything around it was on a 30-45 minute wait, that you should definitely stay away. Far, far, away. But then again, what I didn't know then was how skewed your thinking can become when you have two hungry children and it is nearing bedtime. (and you don't feel like cooking!)

That restaurant choice, which shall remain nameless and NEVER, EVER, EVER visited again, is the very reason you are getting a Father's Day post today and not on the actual day. You know that feeling of food that is sitting in your stomach but not digesting. Yes. That is the feeling I went to bed with last night.

And in our Daddy's truest form, Jerry bathed and put the girls down for me on a night I was hoping he could put his feet up and take a well deserved rest. Instead it was me who was laying on the couch trying to get in any position that wouldn't further my indigestion pains...subtle reminders of a dinner gone very wrong.

A yucky way to end an otherwise perfect weekend.

Hoping yours started and ended well!

Surprising Dad

Let's face it. December birthdays are not the best. My dad is blessed with one such birthday...a whopping two days before Christmas.

As hard as we try to separate the two occasions, they often blur together as one celebration. I'm not a fan of giving him combo gifts and always make sure to find some birthday paper amid the sea of red and green Christmas wrapping that is going on. Sadly though, even with different paper and putting the gifts as far from the Christmas tree as possible, his birthday never seems to get enough significant attention as its own meaningful event.

I was determined to make that different when he turned 60 last December. But as the holiday rush and madness hit, coupled with our trip to Disney World, my determination waned. Plus, how do you squeeze a big birthday bash in among all the other holiday parties and expect it to be well attended?

I now have an answer for that. You throw a surprise 60 1/2 birthday party 6 months later. I guess you could say the surprise part was pretty easy...who would be expecting a party in June for their December birthday?

Needless to say, he was shocked. And after the initial blow was just setting in, he went around the corner to find 3 of his siblings and a couple of their spouses who had traveled down from Wisconsin for the event...something that would have been hard for them to do in December.

He basically spent the whole evening in utter amazement of how we pulled it all off without him catching wind of it at all.

It was PERFECT.

The cake was ready.

The food was ready.


The paparazzi were ready.

He finally came in the door. (My sister got a great pic from her angle...hoping to switch it out soon ;) hint, hint!)


Video of his entrance, his first question? "Who cut the grass?"...classic dad.

The second shock of his siblings in the next room.

Here is a slide show of the rest of the pictures. If you're interested in captions, run your mouse over each picture. If you want it to go faster, just click the + sign.

A special thanks to Kim for hosting it at their house and keeping it a secret so well. She did a wonderful job! And of course it was extra special to have that many people traveling down from Wisconsin for the party...thanks so much y'all!

We love you dad and can't think of a better way to have spent Father's Day weekend!

Father's Day Fun

Father's Day events (in order of occurrence):

Honoring My Dad--

I sent out this little e-mail to my dad to get the fun started:

hey dad,

this is your invitation to a father's day event in honor of none other than YOU:

meet us at the goal
so the truth can be told

whose hoopin' is the best
when you're put to the test

mine is going through the rim
but your chances are looking dim

maybe you'll fair better at skee ball
unless we hold you to the wall

jerry wants to play a shooting game
is that where you'll find your fame?

we can even have a race
though we're pretty tough to face

Let the competition begin!

When? Sat. June 14th @ 11:30 AM

Where? Chuck E. Cheese

Why? It's going to be fun to smoke you at some games for Father's Day, while your granddaughters watch of course!

All of the embarrassment will be funded by us!

Are you game?

Love, Kerry and the gang

I'll let the pictures do the talking...all I'll say is that Kelly (my sis) wasn't too fond of this idea, but once she got her game on and beat each of us at the hoops, she was lovin' it. I blew her away at skee ball though and even though it only happened once, and I didn't get a picture of the score board, I did beat my dad at the hoops during our first match up...40-25! I'm pretty sure that at that moment several of the parents around were staring at us thinking...don't they know this place is for kids?!

Oh, the kids! They had fun too. Jade even rode her first roller coaster. Simulated roller coaster, of course.

Honoring my hubby--

Jerry and I are kind of weird about gift giving. I think we're a lot like Christina and Jeff after reading this recent post on her blog. Like for Mother's Day, Jerry just told me to go ahead and get my hair highlighted since I have been thinking about it. (I haven't had it done in 4 years! I'm going Wednesday! I'm also quietly wondering if he realizes that this is a gift that keeps on giving...) So, back to Father's Day. I did give him some framed pictures to put in his new office, but my main gift to him was letting him sleep in. Jade made that gift extra special by waking up at 6:30 AM. Have I mentioned that I think anything before 7 AM is the middle of the freaking night?!? Thought so. So, at 6:30 I jumped up, turned off both of the girls monitors and he didn't even hear me leave the room. By 7:15 Lily was up too, so I decided it was time for a morning jog. I snuck into our bedroom to grab something before leaving and he rolled over and said...Jade's not up yet, is she? Uh, yeah, since 6:30. And Lily is awake too...we're going for a jog. Happy Father's day...enjoy it! He was in such a good mood when he resurfaced around 8:30.

He's looking into new cell phones and other gadgets, so whatever he picks out will probably get the "Father's Day gift" label. Sure makes shopping easy for me.

Honoring my father-in-law:

My father-in-law is by far the biggest baseball fan I know. Rangers. Texas Rangers. Meet Jerry Hollis Gibson...he is your biggest fan. Good times. Bad times. All times. He is faithfully following your every move. So we thought we'd get tickets to a game. Thankfully the Rangers weren't in town this weekend...we'd need to take out a second mortgage to finance tickets for all of us if they were actually in the park...and then a third mortgage just for the parking and snacks. That place, which we used to frequent like crazy when my in-laws had season tickets, has gotten outrageous.

So, it sounded like a good idea when we were planning this to go to a local minor league game instead. We've heard they are a ton of fun for families. That was before we realized it would be one hundred and one degrees. Yes, like the dalmatian movie. 101. 101.

I was so thankful to have an out. I can't believe I had a reason to be thankful for Jade's recent double ear infection. She is still on an antibiotic that makes her sensitive to the sun. She simply can't be in it. At all. No one in the family was liking the fact that I was trying to get out of sitting in the blistering heat for 3 hours with a sweaty baby on my lap. Jerry assured me our seats would be in the shade. Really? Call them. One call later and he was depressed to learn not only that the sun would be on us, it wouldn't be at our backs, but in our faces. Glory! I had my out!

So only part of our crew made the hike to the sun pit. They did it to honor my precious father-in-law. He's just the kind of guy that makes you want to do those kind of things for him. I did feel bad driving away in my car with 2 A/C vents blowing full force pointed straight at me, and the other two at Jade. That feeling faded quickly as we watched them hike 3 blocks just to get to the stadium. Valet? Valet anyone?

I did snap a picture before leaving. Just in case they shriveled to raisins during their stay. The report on Lily was that she did fabulous. However, she did at some point announce to everyone that they had been there long enough and it was time to go home.

I think that was at the top of the second.