Father’s Day got off to a rocky start. The kids were snapping at each other, and we were snapping at them. So, we all gathered around the new Vitamix to make apple pancakes (I still don’t know what this blender does that my old, handy Waring didn’t do.. but I’m willing to give it a few more weeks) and then piled into the minivan for the first hike of the season. Technically it’s almost summer here… even if the weather isn’t always cooperative.
The hike, as it always does, saved the day. We were out of the house, all walking in the same direction, and hungry enough to eat whatever I’d manage to bring with.
It was us and about five million caterpillars on the Coal Creek trail this morning. All the kids (even the ones that didn’t belong to me) were walking around with the little critters crawling up their arms… apparently they were too cute to resist. The boys filled their hats with them:

Even Francie had a little posse on her arm, until one pooped on her — or so she thought. We then had to PROMPTLY remove them all.. and the little green worm that had managed to climb into her hair.
And then there was this sign, which the boys though was pretty spectacular (so much so that Efram insisted on having his picture taken next to it.) Quite shockingly, it took me a couple of seconds to figure out why.

There was a minor kerfuffle at home and the boys spent some time in the doghouse. They tried to worm their way back into our hearts (sorry, I spent all morning with buggy creatures and still feel like I have them crawling all over me) by putting on a puppet show with some lemons and a couple of spuds:
It didn’t really do the trick, and we were all feeling a bit fed up until M, when organizing some of our family photos, stumbled upon this treasure — my first attempt at hat-knitting. It may have even been his first father’s day.

I still refuse to measure properly when knitting, which is why, ten years in and my knitting really hasn’t gotten much better. (But seriously, how on earth did that happen? Did I not notice halfway through the project that I was knitting a lampshade? And why was I knitting a hat for a man who is never cold.. and lives in LA?)
Still, if I were a diligent, precise, careful person, we’d never have photos like this to give us both some much-needed comic relief.
(And kudos to M for even putting the damn thing on his head and being such a good sport.)

Posted in children, hiking, travel, Uncategorized on Jun 18, 2012