A Fitting Father's Day

How fitting that this Father's Day weekend was our first camping adventure of the season.  My husband loves the great outdoors.  It is his happy place.  Our boys are so blessed to have a daddy like him.  He is teaching them everything there is to learn about being a true man---a man of God and a man of adventure. 

With such respect I watched him all weekend teach the boys things their mommy certainly couldn't impart.  With patience and step-by-step wisdom he taught them how to build a fire.  Not how to build it the cheater way with a fire-starter or a box full of matches, but the survivalist way...starting with a single match and a tee pee of tiny, dry twigs, then placing a larger tee pee of slightly larger twigs around the first, followed by medium sticks, and so forth, until the fire was ablaze.   Later on, I watched as he coached each boy in archery, patiently making adjustments to their bows and dreaming aloud with them how they will soon be hunting by his side.  When they tired of archery, he took turns playing Chucko or Golf Toss with the boys.  Throughout the weekend, I watched as he cooked all our meals with a single-burner propane grill and calmly asked the boys to help with various chores.  It seemed that he was constantly working...while, at the same time, teaching our boys to value work.

The next day, I watched as he carried our littlest one (who isn't so very little anymore) in the hiking backpack for an 8 mile hike without complaint.  His example of quiet strength inspired the boys to hike without a whine escaping their lips (which is more than I can say of their mother).  As I watched him hike I was reminded that his rugged outdoorsiness was one of the qualities that most attracted me to him when we dated.  I loved hearing about all his hiking adventures in college and all over the world when he was in the Navy.  I secretly prayed that I would meet his adventurous standards enough to be his bride, and I dreamed that someday we would have lots of kids and be one of those outdoorsy families who camped and hiked all the time.  My prayer was answered about becoming his wife, and although I'm not sure we truly rate the outdoorsy family category yet, at least we are trying.  And I think the fact that we're trying made this a truly happy Father's Day for my husband...

Here is instructor daddy teaching Campfire 101.  Although you can't see it well in the picture, I love the fact that his Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, all worn and ragged, is peaking out of his shirt.  To me, that is a perfect snapshot of who my husband is:  humbly spiritual and a wild-at-heart outdoorsman

Here are my rugged men hiking to Cottonwood Lake.  This section of the hike was quite unique.  More than half of the trees in this area were dead and blown down from a fire and then a wind-storm years later.  Piles and piles of trees were strewn as far the eye can see.  Here and there you could find a few evergreens standing tall and bright, but those seemed to be the minority...

As I stared at the scene before me, the thought struck me that perhaps this is how God views the current state of humanity.  It seems that more and more souls are falling into sin and casually living a culture of death.  Things like abortion, contraception, divorce, and premarital sex are accepted by the masses.  Even our government is trying to create a health care plan with a mandate which threatens to take away our religious freedom by forcing all insurance plans to cover immoral procedures that our taxes will pay for.  It seems like those who stand up for a culture of life are the minority, just like those bright evergreens peeking through the piles of dead trunks.  I am so proud of my Catholic Church and my husband who have been actively standing up against the HHS mandate, striving to remain faithful to Truth whether it's popular or not.

Here is my handsome husband in the background taking a well-deserved break while Nathanael takes a break of his own. 

Joseph was a happy camper because he got to practice shooting his compound bow to his heart's content.

Michael takes after his mother and just loves to read with sunshine on his shoulders.

And Dominic was in Big Sky bliss because he could play Golf Toss from sun-up until sun-down.

Nathanael's favorite part about camping was sitting by the stream and throwing rock after rock after rock into the water.

He could have happily done this aaaallll....daaaay.....looooong.

When he wasn't throwing rocks into a stream, he contented himself with picking dandelions for daddy for Father's Day :)

And mommy was a happy camper with her favorite beverage in hand and knowing that her man was having a Happy Father's Day.  I am so thankful that God blessed me with my husband, Paul, and my dad, Patrick, who embody the highest definition of fatherhood and strive to please their Heavenly Father in all they do.  I pray that my sons grow up to be just like their father and grandfather someday (minus my dad's smoking habit, of course). :)

Thankful Thursday

Things found in my thankful notebook...

• "Chili's" bottomless chips and salsa
• Dominic's giant smile that swallows my heart whole
• Nathanael's growing vocab that makes our whole family laugh out loud:  we've decided that he's bi-lingual and speaks Hungarian most of the time and occasionally we catch a word or two of English
• A hotel get-away:  swimming for hours, vending machine snacks, Major League Baseball on the TV, a hot-tub right outside our door, Johnny Carino's Italian restaurant next door, free breakfast in the a.m., reading in the car while Natey napped
• seeing college kids who are clearly in love with the Lord at Mass
• the Eucharist, the Eucharist, the Eucharist!
• belated Birthday margaritas with girlfriends
• my two biggest boys on the pitching mound making mommy both nervous and proud
• the last day of school = less time in the car, more time with my boys
• growing buds in our garden that survived the May snowfall
• Wii weekends that teach boys how to share
• suppertime devotions (when we remember to do them)
• birthday gifts from my beloved:  hiking pants that zip off into shorts and new hiking shoes
• another handsome 4-eyes in our family (Joseph now has glasses, but he prefers to wear his contacts)
• finding a special rosary that had been missing for months (the one blessed by JPII and given to me from his very own holy hands)
• new glasses and a new prescription (thanks to my optometrist brother!) :)
• getting away for a haircut
• Mass and Reconciliation date with my boys, followed by a treat at the Bagel Company
• my "J" friends---Jenny and Jody---who help me add jewels to my crown and encourage me when I'm down
• boys with the garden hose
• boys running through sprinklers in their underwear without a care
• boys reading books from the library all afternoon
• an accomplishment:  weaning Nathanael from his beloved bottle...hurray!
• summer sleep-in schedule
• meeting friends at the park
• reading a good Catholic mystery book to the boys out loud before bed
• daily Mass on Tuesdays because Joseph got asked to be an altar server---what a joy to watch my son assist the priest, what a privilege to receive Jesus an extra time each week, what a challenge (I mean, great training opportunity) for me to teach Nathanael how to sit quietly in the pew!

Play Ball!

Joseph and Michael just finished an exciting season of baseball this week.  They were bummed that the season was over, but mommy and daddy were a bit relieved :} With the boys being on separate teams, we had a game to attend nearly every night of the week!  Some nights the boys had games at the same time, which made it a marathon to run back and forth between their games to try to see equal amounts of each game.  But our baseball days are not quite over yet because Dominic's league starts in a week!  It's hard to believe, but in just a couple of years we will have FOUR boys playing ball all at the same time...now that will really be a marathon for mom and dad!  :)

Both Joseph and Michael were pitchers for their teams, which was BY FAR their favorite position to play.  It was not mommy's favorite position for them because it totally stressed me out to have that much pressure weighing on their shoulders (but they didn't seem to mind the pressure one bit).  They both did an excellent job throwing into the strike zone, but they will need to work on speed if they want to stick with pitching in the years to come.  Each year the league gets more competitive, and by age 10 the pitchers are already throwing fast balls with some serious heat.  When the boys weren't pitching, Joseph played short-stop or center field, and Michael usually covered the short-stop position.  They were both solid hitters for their teams.  They enjoyed every minute of every game, and mommy and daddy were very proud of them.  This summer they are looking forward to attending a Brewer's Baseball Clinic where our local minor league team will teach the kids the tricks of the trade. 

Here are some of the best photos I took this season.  I didn't get many action shots because I was always in action chasing my 1 year old!  All in all, Nathanael was a real trooper during the season and contented himself with digging in the dirt with his trucks, finding puddles to stomp in, and picking dandelions for mommy :)