fathers day 2008....a little late...

last saturday night..."lifehouse" played "taste of ft. collins"...
we were there...in the front row..
i'm probably getting a little too old to be going to a concert like this and being in the front row...but it was great!!
ok ...it was great and it was also really, really loud...


baby darcy models the baby shrek look ...the proper headgear for attending a rock concert when you're very young...

then sunday morning was fathers day...we drove to aurora for breakfast...
it was mary and i ...and violet and alissa and..lily, george, alexis and whitney..and sabrina and jazmine and doug..
not everyone...i'd have liked to be there...but it was good...


lily, me, alexis, george, whitney, violet & alissa..


jaz & her father...doug


alissa...


alexis...


lina & sabrina at taste of ft. collins...
(the pictures of sabrina at breakfast..she would not have been happy with)


sometimes...
when it's quiet...and there aren't a million things going through my head....
to distract me..
how ...
in time when thoughts are simple..
the most important things continue to be
family...

and i think about.....
how i seldom see daisy, jason...alexis & summer..
but they are always in my thoughts and prayers..
i struggle to find a way to see them more often ....

and i think about violet has her family now..alissa who is growing so quickly...
and chris away in basic training ...working for the future of his family...

and lily's family...overnight...became so big..with george, alexis and whitney...

i think about may, chris and darcy..the blessing of their family...

lina...and her relationship with duane..

not seeing jazmine nearly enough but enough to watch her grown into an quite a beautiful young woman...

and of course sabrina...who..well...continues to amaze me..

sometimes it seems like overnight..
everyone has grown-up..
it seems just like yesterday everyone was so small...

so what's fathers day...
without children..
the blessing of family...

this brings me to my fathers day gifts..
and how ...if i were to have gotten nothing..
i was still given the most precious things that could be given..
the gift of a growing...striving family...

so what do you give a guy who loves stuff...
but has too much stuff...
well...
you think about what he really loves...besides his family..
and you realize..
music is in his heart..
and even though...he has no business singing..
or that he has pudgy middle aged man fingers..
and the lack of co-ordingation it takes to use almost all power tools..
still....
you give him the gift of music...
and the opportunity..
to unlock the notes..
that fill his life and heart..

thank you mary...
i love you...