The Best Father's Day Ever

Happy Father's Day!

Well, I don't know about you but I had the best Father's Day ever. Before I tell the rest of that story, please allow me to brag about the wonderful Fathers in my life.

I must start with Olen first; but the fathers to follow are in no particular order.

Well, Olen is superb. He takes the trash out every day, unloads the dishwasher before leaving for work and I get a foot rub every night and never have to ask. Oh whoops. I'm suppose to be focusing on the fatherly stuff today. OK, those were freebies.

Olen changes diapers, gives baths, reads bed-time stories, plays Tickle Time and always knows when I've had a bad day and takes over without skipping a beat. He really earned that tie this year. Thanks Sugar, I love you and I couldn't do this without you. (True story: Olen went to Canada for two weeks while training with FibreNew and I was left a single mother for fourteen full days - I almost had a nervous breakdown. Well, I did have one. But it was smallish and who needs details.)

Next up: My Daddio.

He is the coolest dad on the block, and he's been there for me since day one.

Among my dad's many talents is his gift for art. My dad is an amazing artist; he's been using his talents to make me look better than I really am for as long as I can remember. He would come to my classes in elementary school and do drawing demonstrations (this made me the coolest girl in school for one day), his campaign posters won me three elections, and his arrangements of my past and present business cards always get a "This is a fantastic card!" response. He's never too busy to come to a concert or race, have a talk or sit and watch cartoons with us. Daddy, I love you and I want to be just like you when I grow up. I'm working on it...

This is Billy Ray. Olen's dad. He is a masterful story teller. I could listen to the same story told a hundred times (and maybe have) because Billy Ray has such an ability for making you feel important; like you are some one worth telling his stories to.

My husband is one of the hardest and true workers I know and that's 100% because he's Billy Ray's boy. Thanks, Dad, for teaching your sons the value of good work. I hope you can take it easy now, knowing that your good works have paid off. We love you.

Now for the rest of the Best Father's Day Ever...

So, our ward doesn't get out of church until 5:00 pm, and we don't get home till 5:30. Trying to visit both sides of our family (and knowing it costs about $20.00 in gas just to drive to said families in town) just didn't add up for what could only be a three hour visit. So I devised a brilliant plan! The plan was to go first thing to my parent's 9 o'clock ward then stay at their house and give the kids naps, take a nap and just chill out until it was time to visit Olen's family for dinner. Great plan, right?! Well we were running a little late for church (two road closures on the way to town!) so we sneaked into Sacrament Meeting and sat in the back. We see Darcy and Nathan and say 'Hey' and then my mom comes in and sits in front of us and we say 'Hey' to her. Then I see a blond-haired girl get up and walk out. It makes me think of Katie (my sister who moved to La Verkin, Ut three weeks ago) and then I start wondering how her Sunday was going and thinking how she is away this Father's Day. Then another blond-haired girl gets up to leave holding a blond-haired baby boy. I think this one looks like Katie holding Ogden. Then the blond-haired girl turns and looks straight at me in my back row. Yikes! It is Katie! I grab my mom's arm and ask, "Is Katie here?!" She looks at me all sneaky-like and says "Yes". Then I pass London off and high-tail it out of there as fast as I could go in heels (which wasn't very fast, Olen informed me). Needless to say I had a little mascara-meltdown in the foyer of my parent's ward building. But who cares, cuz Katie was in town.

She and her hubby, Jacob, decided on a whim to come down to AZ just for the sake of Father's Day. They arrived late Saturday night and showed up on my parent's doorstep Sunday morning to surprise everyone - except Chris and Katie who are always a step ahead.

SO it was the most beautiful day at church because my Granma Sue and Granpa "Eddie" plus an aunt and some uncles and cousins are all in the same ward. The rest of the day was spent catching up on time apart, being lazy and eating.

How could a day go wrong that way?!

Then we headed out for Olen's family's Father's Day dinner and monthly FHE in the evening. We didn't stay very long, though. Olen was such a sweet heart and knew how much I wanted to stay with my sister as long as I could that he took me back over to my mom's house to spend a few more minutes and to say good bye.

And that's the whole story of the best Father's Day I've ever had. Oh, did I mention I didn't even bake or cook anything - ha! What a day!

Here are some pictures of this fabulous day:

Girls made bracelets.

Boys took naps.

This is what a mom and a dad, twelve kids, one daughter-in-law, three sons-in-law and seven grand kids look like enjoying some Bar-B-Q on Father's Day.

Daddio loving his singing card. I'm bummed I couldn't find my camera to take pictures at the Olen's folk's house this night. It was a good time, too.

(I even warned him twice that I was really taking a picture...)

Thanks, Jake, for making the drive today. I know it wasn't for me, but it sure made my day...

OK, Pal. Blog ya later!