Father's Day and birthdays

Last week Mom and I went to a friend's 90th birthday. 90 years old! What an accomplishment! Gene and Barbara were like 2nd parent's to me when we were in High School, they are Julie's real parents, and I had to be to Gene's birthday. He has lived his life wide open, he rode motorcycles, lived to travel, for years. He was riding his motorcycle on a rural road in the '70s when someone came around the corner on the wrong side of the road, and ran over him. Gene's leg was shattered, and it changed his life. He was in his 50's I believe when it happened, and had a very long recovery, but thank heavens he did live through it. He looked at life differently after that, more concerned about family matters than ever before, and he also sponsored missionaries for years, as a way of giving back to others. He still lives at home, and Barbara and the kids look after him well. I just want to say, 'hats off' to both of them and thanks for being such good friends to me!

We had Dakota and Nic here on Saturday, and that was great fun. We got a wading pool, and she took that literally- she never swam, or even sat down in the pool, just waded around, catching frogs. We unleashed a batch of plastic frogs in the pool, and with a bucket and shovel she was totally entertained for the afternoon. She and Nic made her a cap, it's foam with foam stick-ons, and we finally got her to wear it while she was in the pool. She's so blonde, we don't want her to get so sunburned, so we broke out the 30 weight sunblock, cap, etc. Sunday Nic and David went out shooting for a couple hours, great father/son bonding. Then we had a BBQ, and Nic left about 1:30 to head home. I missed Heather and Jared! They called their Dad and had a nice visit though, so all in all it was a great Father's day.