Happy Father's Day to MY dad

I'm sure there will be a lot of blog posts today and tomorrow about "the best dad ever." WELL... the rest of them are wrong. Because MY dad is the best dad ever... and now the best poppi EVER too! So everyone should go ahead and change their blog post and father's day cards to read #2 dad (2nd only to Chris Carr). hehe

Since I won't be seeing my dad tomorrow for Father's Day and because the mail lady has failed to pick up the cards sitting in my mailbox for the last 3 days, I figured I'd blog my card until I can get it to him!

I firmly believe that God gives us the parents we're supposed to have whether by birth or adoption. He definitely knew what he was doing when He gave me my dad! He's the most social man I know. He can talk to anyone, make that person feel like the most special person in the world in that moment and then somehow get a business or personal contact out of him of her. Who needs social media or Linked In when you know Chris Carr?

As a kid, my dad would invite ALL of my sister and my friends over for sleepovers even when my mom was at work. I'm talking an 8 girl sleepover here... he was Mr. Mom! He would take my sister and I clothes shopping and ALWAYS made us do the proverbial "turn around and let me check the waistline." No cracks hanging out at our house! When my mom would work, he tried so hard to dress us cute and do our hair. He knew that was important to my mom so he'd get us to church early and my mom's friend would do our hair in the parking lot. He cared.... and we never doubted that. We spent our summer weekends jet skiing and tubing and our winter ones watching Panther games and playing "troll."  Yes, that is a game... and it is awesome.

My dad was and still is invested in everything my sister and I do. He cuts my grass when Daniel is out of town. He changes our tires when they go flat. He went to parent/teacher conferences and all our sporting events. My parents worked opposite schedules so my sister and I didn't have to go to day care. He's worked 2nd jobs to put us in private school. He's always sacrificed for my sister and I and it's never gone unnoticed (although often under-appreciated). Even though my sister and I are now adults and out of the house, he continues to factor us into his major decisions and scheduling.

If you know my dad... you know I'm short changing him here because this post could go on for MANY paragraphs... but then you'd probably all stop reading because it would eventually get super mushy... because my dad is truly an AMAZING man, dad and grandfather. SO for the sake of your viewing pleasure and to save my sane self from my post pregnancy hormonal, teary self... we'll finish with pictures!

In going through pictures for this post, I realized that since Parker was born, I've spent a lot of time behind the camera and not much time in front of it! I need to do better about that!

My dad in the role of "rocket launcher"

Duck hunting (not to shoot... to feed and take pictures of!)

Proud poppi!

Holding Avery when she was 2 days old!

Our annual Hilton Head Trip

Listening to Greg Russell in HarborTown. We did this when I was little too!

He's affectionate... I love that!

Driving Parker on Christmas Eve in his new car!

This is the ONLY picture I could find of us on my computer! My wedding pictures aren't on my computer anymore or I could have used a bunch of those!

PS- Were you at my wedding? Best father of the bride wedding speech EVER? Yes... I think so.

Dad, I love you. This blog post fails miserably at capturing how I feel about you and all that you have done for me. I hope you know that I treasure you and the relationship that we have. I couldn't ask for a better grandfather for my children. They don't know how lucky they are yet! I love you "all the way to God's house and back!"  :)