Dad's Day Hike

I'm so thankful whenever Father's Day rolls around. I have a stellar dad. Growing up with him was wonderful. Loyal and dedicated and always encouraging, my dad was my running partner, book-swapper, and paper-editor. He was unpretentious, even while being saluted during Army ceremonies, and was always quick to help those who were struggling. Whether it be writing-off the medical bills of a patient, or adjusting the backs of relatives and friends, he has always been generous and compassionate. The best thing is that he has taken his title of grandpa in stride. Because you see, we don't call him "grandpa" around here. We call him Papa Snail. The girls call him Papa Snail. In public. Loudly. And he has never balked or protested. He wears his name proud and for that I will always love him.

My girls have a doting daddy as well, and so I feel doubly blessed. Brian loves his girls with ferocity, works so hard so I can stay home with the girls, is our 24-7 handy-man, and tucks silliness and fun into our every days. He answers questions such as, "Can God take a bigger bite of pizza than you can?" with a straight face and emphasizes truth in serious conversations about religion, poverty, and even the tooth fairy. I am so honored to be his wife and friend while we raise up our girls.

For Dad's day, we gathered together with close friends for a hike in the drippy wet. More's Mountain is beautiful hiking spot a few miles past Bogus Basin Ski Lodge. It was enchanting for this Northwest Washington girl to see Florescent green moss hanging low on tree branches, fog rolling in the hills, and rain spattering against my nose. I loved it! What's more, the kids loved it. We were blessed to have a shriek-less hike through pelting rain.

Here we are pre-hike:

The views were amazing, the trails clear and perfect for little feet:

And of course, you can't get kids together without there being absolute silliness (I think the rain brought it out of them :o):

And the "TROOPER AWARDS" go to Julia (who totally bit it in the mud and came up smiling),

and to Reese (who was contented and happy the whole hike even with wind and rain and didn't cry until we put her back in the car.)

Here she is after getting rained on, right before we put her in the dry, warm, cozy car.



A picnic in the rain didn't sound as appealing as you might think, so afterwards, we climbed in our cars and headed back down the mountain and ate from our coolers and hung out under shelter.

Brian and Adam braved the weather all the way down the mountain on their bikes. It'll always be remembered as a favorite ride for each of them.