And celebrating the other best ever fathers that are in our family—Sean, Jules, Owen, Ryan, Calvin. And of course, this day is also for our fathers who are no longer in this world with us: Dad, Dan’s father, Vernon, my children’s grandfather, and my father. These are the men that deserve to be role models for children and fathers around the world. We love them all.
I am so very lucky…I get to spend every day with my love, the best husband and the best father ever. He has so much love to share with his family, and he shows this love in many different ways every single day to all of us.
And our family shows their love for him always.
Here is our Father Day in pictures…..
Breakfast in bed, with bacon and mashed potatoes (and a peek at his special Father’s Day wine).
We took an early morning walk to our sweet little touristy town of Pine. This village really comes to life later in the day on the weekends. The rest of the week, it is our very own quaint and quiet town.
We really enjoy living in a town that has its’ own personality, like Pine does. We had this for years, when we lived in Langley, “The Village by the Sea,” on Whidbey Island in Washington.
The sunrise and clouds put on a brilliant display of artwork for us.
We even have our own Senior Thrift Shop, which wished all of our fathers a very happy day. No one who lives in Pine had any excuse for forgetting Father’s Day. I guess the shop knows that seniors can be forgetful at times.
Every self respecting tourist town has an abundance of antique/junk stores, at least two ice cream shops, historical homes, and a town museum. Right in the middle of Pine there is a historical marker and home, the Stagecoach Stop, where the Pony Express rider would stop and get a fresh mount in the 1880’s. Seriously, the Pony Express went right through our little town.
Another amazing “must go to see” place in Pine are some 1500-year-old Anasazi ruins. For real! We took Soren and Sebastian on a short (and very steep) hike to the top of a hill in Pine, where we enjoyed this small group of ancient “homes” made from the native rock. Boy, did the Anasazi have a great view of the valley and surrounding mountains where Pine is now located!
In Pine today, there are several food trucks, restaurants, and even a local guitarist singing in a shaded courtyard. It seems like every time we walk by he is playing "Here Comes the Sun." We hope he knows more tunes, but who knows? We’ve danced on the street to his music.
Every shop calls out to the tourists (and us) to come inside and look around. The raggedy, falling-down wooden shack that sells honey has a sign out front that says, "You’re honey is inside.”
In addition to all this, the mountain town of Pine has the world’s best chainsaw artists and a shop named, “Come see what we saw.” (groan)
Although the price of their woodwork is prohibitive (but well worth it), it is a wonderful place to stop and enjoy the beauty, sweetness, and often humor of each piece of art. There is even a full size teepee in the yard with a fire often burning inside for both children and adults to enjoy.
We want our children and grandchildren not to worry, we purchased no “herbs” from the the Herb Stop. We were high enough having such a loving family and being together on this beautiful day. (Besides the shop wasn’t open). We just borrowed the shop's scenic site and comfortable chairs for a coffee stop.
We just love this touristy little town. We ambled around for an hour and a half. By the time we got back home, we had walked several hundred feet of elevation gain! Well, I guess that’s not surprising--our cabin is in the mountains, after all.
Dan, this special Dad, Grandfather, and brother received many wonderful cards, phone calls, texts, gifts, and emails from our family.
Each card and gift was chosen with care and filled with love.
One thing Dan wanted to do on Father’s Day was dance with me….I, of course, wanted this too. So he had put together a special song list for us to dance to. When Dan received Emily’s poem, “I Hope You Dance,” he immediately recognized that this is the words from a song that we had danced to in the past!
He added this song, “I Hope You Dance,” to our dance list. And we danced and danced and danced!
....and yes, we are dancing outside on our front porch, for everyone to see. So far, no crowds have gathered to give us applause. A few people drove by and when they saw how happily we were dancing in each other’s arms, they smiled and waved. It’s fun to make others happy. One of the nice things about Pine is that it is a do-your-own thing place. There is a type of freedom here that is hard to describe.
Dan’s request was for dinner was my homemade nachos. We enjoyed them out on our deck, under the tall pine trees.
And at the end of this wonderful Father’s Day….a surprise, my last present to my love…and carrot cake cupcakes!
This father was certainly in a celebratory mood—he ate THREE cupcakes. He might have eaten more, but since I ate one, there were no more.
As for my last present—it was matching Arizona Trail shirts for hiking and cycling.
Here we are, the next day out hiking in our new Father’s Day AZT shirts. We just happened to discover, quite by accident, one of our
all time favorites hikes!
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