The Best Gift

We tend to draw out holidays in our house so that a birthday becomes a birthday week and so father's day was naturally all weekend long. Paul's only father's day request was that he didn't want to change diapers or deal with tantrums. He wanted to be with Noah but he just wanted to enjoy him. His father's day events started on Saturday when the men in my family went fishing. Fishing was something they did every year when I was young and we would go camping, but over the years people moved away and had less time. My grandfather is getting much older and slower and so there was a special push this year to get everyone together. Most of them caught things but threw them back because they were too small.

When Paul came home I asked him what he wanted to do... I could cook or we could go out. He suggested we head to Boomer's -- a local indoor play place. We'd never been there. First we ate at Perkin's and it was a true delight. This was the best public meal we have had yet. Noah sat politely in his chair, colored, and ate his dinner. We played silly games at the table and Noah pretended his fruit was an airplane and just smiled away. We were amazed at how much fun we had eating dinner! Boomer's was right next door and we headed over there. It was 7pm on a Saturday night and it was empty. We literally had the entire play section to ourselves. I was so happy because I spend so much time taking Noah to birthday parties and playgrounds and museums and Paul never gets to do those things. So here we were, just our little family in this awesome play area and we climbed and jumped and slid and crawled forever... we were all so happy...







Today we woke up and for some odd reason Noah had vomited on his floor last night in the middle of the night and had a slight fever. So, Paul and Noah stayed home during church, but when I got home he was doing fine. So, we packed the dog and Noah and all our stuff in the car and headed to Reading for a clam bake with the family. It was a beautiful day! At one point, Noah got a hold of the hose and was just hunting people down.. it was soooo funny! He had Paul trapped and every time he moved Noah would pelt him with the water. We laughed forever. Noah was so happy and didn't complain or whine or cry at all.

(My dad, grandfather, brother, Noah and Paul)

When it was finally time to go home we packed up everyone in the car and just smiled forever. Paul turned on the radio and Noah started rocking in his car seat until he passed out. We were traveling the same route we used to take every Sunday night when I was still commuting from Reading. Every week at that exact same time we would watch the sun set and just be so happy that we were married and starting our life together. We saw the same sunset tonight.

The best father's day gift was a joyful weekend as a family. We all agreed.