Our Father's Day

I'm not Gus, so I can't speak on his behalf... but I think we had a pretty nice day! He slept in until 9, when he had breakfast in bed followed by kid cuddles and presents. The kids wrote him stories, which I turned into a book. And then I got him a stereo that works with his phone, so he can listen to "his music" while he works in the garage, etc.

The kids really wanted to go fishing, and the canoe was too hard to get to (the garage was a mess), so Gus suggested we eat a picnic lunch at the state park, then do some fishing. We ate at the picnic tables by the swimming beach, which was clearly THE place to be today (the beach was packed!). We had a chipmunk friend who had clearly been fed by people before, and who hovered around our table the entire time we ate. It was pretty amusing! He was very determined!

Once we were done eating, we walked back around to the side of the lake where we'd parked. On that stretch of road, there is a wide grassy strip along the edge of the lake, and it's protected by a metal guardrail. So we unloaded our chairs and fishing gear, and set up camp on the shore of the lake. Niko didn't have any luck, but Maya caught three fish! We tossed them back, as always (they were tiny), but she had a blast! Niko's attitude quickly deteriorated as his sister kept pulling fish out... he was excited the first time, but quickly became bitter that he wasn't catching anything. And that's life! But it was kind of a bummer. We stayed until almost 2pm, then headed home. I took pictures, of course!

On a related note... We live in such a beautiful town. I look at these pictures, which were taken in the state park just 5 minutes down the road, and it amazes me. I think of summer camp when I see them-- but we LIVE here! I can't imagine wanting to leave Massachusetts pretty much anytime from late spring through the fall (February is an entirely different story!!!). And this is just one lake out of I-don't-know-how-many. Amazing!!

But back to our day... :)

We got back, and Gus expressed a desire to clean the garage. I kept the kids occupied outside by plying them with ice cream cones and setting up the bounce house (please note that these were two separate activities! No food in the bounce house!). They loved it, as always!

We had a lovely dinner outside (all things Gus likes), and that was pretty much our day! Not bad at all, if you ask me! :)