summer celebrations

Saturday night we packed a summer solstice party and father's day celebration all together with a camp-out in the yard (can't get much closer to the house than that!) and s'mores around the fire. The idea was to stay up to see the fireflies and watch the fire glowing on a long summer evening.

It was really hard to get everyone out of the tent.

But the pull of the fire and the lure (and novelty!) of gooey chocolate and marshmallows won them over.


And here's my pop.
King of silly faces and the perfectly flamed (o.k. burnt to a crisp) on the outside, seriously liquid on the inside, marshmallow. The man who taught me how to build a sturdy fire that will light on the first try. The guy who made a ceremony of setting up the tent. The one who sang silly songs and told stories around the campfire and then eagerly toughed out the hard ground to camp in the yard with me. I owe a lot to this guy. From him I've learned:
to think decisions through thoroughly before jumping to a conclusion
to take pride in my work
to keep my sock and underware drawer tidy
to question everything
to stand up for what I believe in and take action when necessary
to check and change my oil religiously
to spend wisely (or not at all)
to seek greater knowledge insatiably
to put a hide-a-key somewhere outside my car (where is that one?)
to give generously of my time and vegetables
to persevere in the face of hardship (or if all else fails, just take a nap)
and to always, always make work fun (and take LOTS of breaks).

That, of course, is the short list. But now he's passing on all that (or at least the marshmallow roasting tricks and silly faces) to Iris. What with a Grampy and a Papa that are SO fun, she is just over the moon lucky. Too bad she didn't make it to see the moon, or the fireflies for that matter. The tent called her back before the long summer nights end. But what a night it was.

Here's wishing all of you a most happy summer solstice and father's day too. We have a bit of vacation this week but I hope to be back next week with some ideas for less is more.