fathers' day

This is the first year I've been home for Fathers' Day Weekend since I left Nebraska in 2002. Typically, I come home in July for the 4th and Hayleigh's birthday. Also, Portland Pride has always been on Fathers' Day Weekend except for this year for some reason. I had a trip planned back through accidental calendar confusion on my part for the weekend as my family and I were all going to head to a cabin in the Black Hills. Since my dad had a minor stroke, my mom cancelled the cabin but I came home as planned anyway just to see my dad (and the rest of the family).

He seems to be doing well. We learned a new card game (Five Crowns) this weekend and he not only picked up on the rules but won a few games and was consistently on top. I've never been so happy to lose at cards! Speech is his main issue and I'm happy to see that my mom is making him talk more, giving him topics and telling him to speak on them.

Today, we didn't do a lot, mostly just sat around playing cards. I got to babysit Ethan while the rest of the family went to church. He's a really smart and funny kid. It's cool to watch him try to figure things out, like how he was spraying the hose, turned it on underside of his ball-cap and shot water onto it and it would come back down on his face. He would stop and be stunned for a second, and then would realize that he liked it so he would do it again and for longer. :)

For my new thing, I changed out my mom's bike tube with my dad providing some assistance. I love changing out tubes and patching them. We waited until late so I didn't feel like patching it and we had an extra tube anyway so I just changed it out. It's kinda cool that I was able to do this with my dad. When I was a first or second grader, he would force me to ride my bike and I would throw a fit but I managed to learn. My love of bikes didn't really manifest until I was in Portland and saw how easier they were for transportation but I don't think I would have ever considered them if it hadn't been for my dad.