Father's Day Makes up for Mother's Day

On Mother's Day I had strep throat, didn't get to swim, and when N asked the boys to quickly sign a card for me I heard "It's not her birthday, I'm not signing that!" This outburst was uncharacteristic of my boys as they are usually the sweetest cuddlers ever but let's just say that Mother's Day didn't quite...do it for me this year.

But yesterday, on Father's Day, I had a great day. They boys woke up incredibly excited to give their daddy some cards and a gift (which included tickets to a professional soccer game for all four of us). They couldn't get enough of telling N that they love him and that this was his day, and soon we headed off to Windy Hill for a family hike.

On our hike the boys couldn't have been more precious. We began at the trail head by looking at the map (at W's insistence) to see where we were going. Our first "natural" discovery was a pile of horse poop, which was very exciting to the boys. This was followed up by a sighting of a mommy and two baby deer casually grazing not 20 feet from us. They were so comfy with humans that we actually got bored of watching them before they ran away. "They're so beautiful," my five-year-old said, "and look at this view!" We had not yet ascended the hill at all and he was referring to the valley below filled with water. "These trees are pretty" he continued, "oak trees." There's really nothing I wouldn't give - or wouldn't have given if I hadn't gotten it for free - to hear my child so enraptured by nature in this computerized day and age. He was so...happy and satisfied just to see pretty things.

The boys made it incredibly far up the trail--much farther than we would have imagined. Our round trip took more than an hour and we only needed to carry them for about two five minute periods at the end. They were clearly proud of themselves as well, and that was just as nice to see. The rest of the day included hitting golf balls at the nearby deserted school, watching the US Open, and making a frozen yogurt run after dinner. The four of us didn't see anyone else we knew the whole day. A total family day. It was perfect.