Father's Day

For my dad this year we decided to spend the Saturday before helping out with a big outdoor project he has been wanting to get done for quite some time: garden boxes.  He had 7 garden boxes that the wood they were originally built with had rotted out, so Dad wanted to replace the wood with retaining wall bricks. 

Dad had removed all the old wood, and even laid the base layer for several of the boxes.

Nathan grabbed his shovel and was a big help!  "grandpa, can I have a job?"

Jeremy took off the lip for all the bottom layer bricks and Nathan took all the pieces and put them in a pile.

Grammy took a break from pruning all the flowers to hold little Hannah, who knows where the weak link is when she wants to be held!  :)

In order to get our big project done in one day mom called in some reinforcements and Anna and Duncan came for the weekend!  Thanks guys!  Duncan did an excellent job at facing the spiders and wasps :)

Many hands make light work...one down!

The finished product from one side...so nice!

My major job was weeding.  I pulled out all the weeds seen above in the flagstone until it all looked pretty!

Look at that beauty!

The new fountain in the back...It's really stunning, and makes the loveliest sound!  At the end of the long day we sat back to relax in the shade and enjoy the view off the patio.

When night fell, we enjoyed a nice fire, s'mores, and for Nathan- bedtime stories by fireside!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Jeremy, Nathan and Hannah and I spent the night up at mom and dad's place so we could deliver our Father's Day surprise.  All the Ard kids, spouses and grandkids took the time to make a bunch of hearts and mail them in time to heart attack Dad's den doors.  It was perfect!  We got up really early on Sunday morning and put up all the hearts and a few pictures of dad with kids and grandkids.  It covered the whole door and he LOVED it!

We attended church with mom and dad, then headed to "the loud park," as Nathan calls it (because they have sirens that go off if there is lightning).

For Jeremy's and Ken's Father's day we had a picnic at the park, assembled some rockets and shot them off in the field by the park.

Sorry for the lack of photos here, but I got really sunburnt working outside on Saturday and had to stick to the shade, but here's what I got:

Anna and Nathan got brave enough to shoot one off :)

 Mom, mom! Take a picture of me!

"Okay, when your daddy is putting the rocket on the stick push this button..."

Jeremy's experimental creation.... yes, that is a rocket engine imbedded into a styrofoam airplane.

Duncan decided to try and get a video of this attempt:

Sorry for the quality, but all we had ready before this took place was a cell phone.

After that, the plane was Nathan's to play with and destroy.  This is what Jeremy asked for this Father's day, some time to spend playing with Nathan and enjoying some of his favorite hobbies with his son.

P.S.- if anyone is wondering why Nathan is not wearing pants... his aunt Jamie and Uncle Dan took him over to the sprinkler park during the assembly effort to keep him from destroying the goods :)  They took his shirt off, but the pants got soaked and were drying in the sun during the launching etc.

And since we are showing the undies shots...this one is a classic.  Mark my words, it's going on the wedding slideshow!  Using the underpants as a holster for both his swords... that's my boy.

But when the moment arrived, Nathan was ready to fight!  He had so much fun playing with his daddy and all the family at the park.  After all, isn't that what daddy's day is all about?

We are so grateful to have Jeremy as the brave, kind, hardworking, worthy man he is to be the head of our home.  I am also grateful to his father, who led by example how to lead with love and to my daddy who has been an unwavering source of love, knowledge and support throughout the years.  Father's Day is indeed a day in which I feel richly blessed.