Father's Day

Father's Day is usually the weekend after Travis' birthday and we have been spending it at the cabin because it's also the start of the summer concert in the pines. Good music, dancing, and a great park with a climbing structure for the kids. 

But first, the presents :)

The "kids" picked out a dive watch for Travis (and it was exactly what he wanted- go figure!)

Grandpa made out like a bandit with a new hat and a new keep-cool pillow- because we all know he's a hot head ;P

We also put together a memory box with Grandpa Great's service items.

 A few pictures of Grandpa Great, his purple heart, and the bible that the Hilmar pastor gave him in the hospital in Germany…a pastor from back home just so happened to be stationed in the hospital that Grandpa was sent to after suffering from frostbite from walking for miles and miles in the frozen forests. The story that I've heard many times (and never get tired of hearing) is that the military doctors were going to amputate Grandpa's legs because they were so badly frozen. The pastor came to pray with Grandpa, and after recognizing Grandpa, pleaded with the doctors to give him more time because he knew Grandpa was a farmer and needed his legs in order to have a livelihood after the war. It worked, and my Grandpa was able to keep his legs. He was considered 40% disabled for the rest of his life, but that in no way held him back from becoming an incredibly successful man. In fact, if you knew my grandpa but didn't know the story, you would never have guessed that he had little feeling in his feet. After knowing the story, you can see how special that small bible is to all of us.

After a night of dancing an playing, we spent the next day helping my dad build the new table set for the deck of the cabin.
 This is the raw wood that will be a bench…to give it a little scale, those are my dad's size 12 feet on the right side of the picture.

 First step is to knock off all the bark:

Then some seesaw time :) 

After that, my dad does a few more steps and then it looks like this:

This is actually the table portion, and it's resting on the pool table in the garage. It's going to be a huge, beautiful work of art when it is finished!

 On our way home we stopped off at the air show in Columbia. I remember going to air shows with my dad when I was Adaline's age, and I'm so pleased that my kids are interested in going with their dad.

Maybe next time Travis will be flying the plane :)