Father's Day weekend

As soon as school ended back on June 18 at 10:45 AM, the fun started.  Ezra ran off to one end-of-school picnic with friends and the other kids and I ran off to another picnic for a friend's birthday party.  As soon as all the partying was finished we packed our bags and headed to The Tractor's for three days.  That night I got to go out to dinner with all my mommy group friends--what a tremendous joy.  No pictures.  We were far too busy stuffing our faces and gabbing three hundred miles a minute. 
The next morning Tadd crossed the bridge and spent the day at the US Open Golf Tournament.  He had VIP tent tickets from his office.  It's a hard life for him sometimes.  I kept texting him all day.  The texts went something like this: "what kind of food are they serving in the tent?"  "what have you had to eat?"  "How about now--any new food?"  "what are you drinking?"  "can you stuff some of the food in your pocket and bring it home to me?"  "seriously, I worked out this morning and I think I deserve some VIP food."  Ha--it's a good thing his office didn't send me along with him.  You all know what I would've spent the day doing.  Not watching golf!
 Tadd said that they weren't supposed to be taking pictures--but he did take one shot as Tiger Woods walked by--can you see him?  He finished in the bottom two or three, I believe, so he did not stick around the whole weekend.  And Tadd said he preferred watching the tournament on tv to watching it live.  The Chambers Bay Golf Course is not a viewer's paradise.  Sounds like everyone there got a real good workout tromping around, though.

After his hard day at the office, Daddy headed back to Grandpa and Grandma's to play some bocce ball with the kids and Grandpa.

 We sure do love their big huge backyard!  It's perfect for all sorts of games and wanderings through the woods.  We try not to be jealous.

After a very relaxing day at Mom and Dad's on Friday during which my Mother fed us even  better food than the VIP tent, we decided to get the boat out on the water for the weekend.  The weather was gorgeous and Mom and Dad are selling the boat this summer.  Henry had never been out on their boat and we thought he better take the chance to do it while he still could.  Poor Grandma spent about 6 hours taking the online boating test so that we could have a legal driver.  And then off we sped into the beautiful evening.

 I will never get tired of the views from the water.  The smells are also pretty amazing.

 What do you know--there is the Good Year Blimp hanging out over Chamber's Bay!

 And there is the golf tournament.  We had to stay pretty far back as the waters were being patrolled by the Coast Guard as well as local Sheriff boats.

 At first Henry had been a bit of reluctant boater.  But he warmed right up and had a wonderful time.  He shouted "Wheeee" a lot and laughed when the spray hit us.  He was not at all bothered by the life jacket which surprised me quite a bit.  By Sunday afternoon when we went out the second time he was walking around the boat by himself like he owned it. 
Sunday was Father's Day.  For once in my life I managed to get some pictures of the kids with Daddy while they were all dressed up.

 I couldn't do anything about Nora, however.  There's always one who won't comply.  Nine times out of ten it's the same person in our family.

 And there they are with MY daddy. 

 We are so thankful for the three amazing fathers in our lives.  We would not be who we are without them.

 We ended the mini-vacation on a high note--ice cream!

Then we piled back in the car to head home.  It was after 8 PM by the time we left The Tractor's house.  We promised the kids it would not be the same 2 1/2 hour rush hour drive we had endured on the way to the Harbor.  But guess what?  We shouldn't make such promises.  We got stuck in the middle of all the US Open traffic and it took the exact same 2 1/2 hours to get home as it had to get there.  Sometimes life in the city can fray one's nerves.