Seven 9s and 10s

High-res I don’t participate in the whole “favorite parts” meme, but today would be easy if I did. Today is my dad’s 75th birthday. He’d been fishing around for weeks trying to figure out if we had anything planned for him - and we did - but we kept quiet. This morning, my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephews took the red-eye out of Los Angeles and arrived in Rochester around 9:30am. They had moved west in the spring of 2010 and had yet to come back to visit (though my parents had gone to LA twice). They parked their rental car in the neighborhood behind my parents’ house and scampered through the backyards like vagabonds until I met them in my parents’ backyard and assembled them on the deck. My sister was running interference inside the house, distracting my dad and keeping him occupied. He has a peach tree in the backyard that he’s been working particularly hard on this spring, hoping that this would finally be the year that it produces a healthy, bug-free, crop. He spends a lot of time tending to it and talking about it. He loves that tree like a son, and that came in handy this morning. I stuck my head inside the house and exclaimed: “Dad? Did you know there are thousands of ants all over your peach tree?!” I knew that would be just the spark needed to get him to come onto the deck. He came out and didn’t notice the visitors for a few seconds but then they stood up, “Surprise!” Hugs. Kisses. Happy tears all around. It was a total success and he got the best gift he could have asked for. Later on, we pulled off a second surprise when my mom arrived home from work. We hadn’t told her they were coming either, and she was just as shocked and overcome with joy as my dad. I’m truly blessed to have such a great family, and few things are more rewarding than having us all together and happy.

I don’t participate in the whole “favorite parts” meme, but today would be easy if I did.

Today is my dad’s 75th birthday. He’d been fishing around for weeks trying to figure out if we had anything planned for him - and we did - but we kept quiet.

This morning, my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephews took the red-eye out of Los Angeles and arrived in Rochester around 9:30am. They had moved west in the spring of 2010 and had yet to come back to visit (though my parents had gone to LA twice). They parked their rental car in the neighborhood behind my parents’ house and scampered through the backyards like vagabonds until I met them in my parents’ backyard and assembled them on the deck. My sister was running interference inside the house, distracting my dad and keeping him occupied.

He has a peach tree in the backyard that he’s been working particularly hard on this spring, hoping that this would finally be the year that it produces a healthy, bug-free, crop. He spends a lot of time tending to it and talking about it. He loves that tree like a son, and that came in handy this morning. I stuck my head inside the house and exclaimed: “Dad? Did you know there are thousands of ants all over your peach tree?!” I knew that would be just the spark needed to get him to come onto the deck.

He came out and didn’t notice the visitors for a few seconds but then they stood up, “Surprise!” Hugs. Kisses. Happy tears all around. It was a total success and he got the best gift he could have asked for.

Later on, we pulled off a second surprise when my mom arrived home from work. We hadn’t told her they were coming either, and she was just as shocked and overcome with joy as my dad. I’m truly blessed to have such a great family, and few things are more rewarding than having us all together and happy.

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus

Notes

  1. misschasse said: Cool Story Bro.
  2. wifeoftj said: Awesome!
  3. escapereality said: love this. congrats. <3 <3 <3
  4. jaydensmommie said: So cute.
  5. steelopus posted this