Father's Day part one

Today was Father's day. Ok, not really, but my family decided to celebrate it today. My sister, Judy, and her husband, Jim, will be in San Diego next week for my nephew's wedding so Judy offered to have a get together at her house a week early. Guess she knows that the rest of us aren't very good at organizing when she's away.

And, thankfully, Father's day is actually next week as Jesse has strep throat this weekend. Hopefully, he will be completely mended by next week.

So Riley and I headed out to Judy's house on our own. Riley only took one shorter morning nap so I was grateful when she fell asleep in the car. I was tempted to continue driving around to ensure she got some rest and didn't end up crabby, but I just woke her and hoped for the best. She was a little hesitant at first, but eventually began to warm up. The first thing we did when we got there was to grub on the nummy veggies my sister-in-law, LaRaa, brought. Riley ate tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumber, cauliflower, and even onions! Grandpa is a huge fan of onions so I am pretty sure he was delighted that she was eating the raw onions he was feeding her. That was her gift to him. : )

We hung out in the back yard with the rest of the family as they sat around the bonfire and played games.

Jacey showing Chuck how it is done.

LaRaa waiting her turn.

LaRaa showing her moves.

So I know it looks like Judy is irritated here, but that is my picture taking skills to blame. More often than not I see a great moment, take the picture, and look down to see that I've captured someone blinking, covering their face, looking away...

Annie and Connie hanging out.

Ann chillin' in the back yard.

My Daddy.

Riley and her Grandpa.

I am pretty sensitive to things such as smell so the bonfire quickly made my slight headache much worse. There once was a time when I would have loved to sit around a fire all night. Now they make me flee. When one of the neighbors has a fire we close up the house tight and curse them and the popularity of the fire pit. And don't even get me started on people who really like perfume. Jesse also has a sensitivity to smells and a predisposition to headaches so I am a bit worried for Riley's future. Hopefully, she won't be inflicted with this headache crap too. I apologize in advance, kiddo, if you are. Mommy loves you and will kiss your head until it is all better.

At any rate, Riley and I headed inside where she proceeded to climb up the stairs and then attempted to come down them. She hasn't quite got the 'down' system yet. Jesse and I have tried to show her the crawl back down method, but she's never seen us do this when we walk down the stairs. It's no wonder that she wants to 'walk' down the stairs just like we do. It makes sense. She tried several different methods today, but did finally crawl down in a safe 16 month old way! 

Riley also got to play with some very cool toys that auntie Judy had. She was pretty happy about that and I'm sure she would have said 'thank you' if only she had mastered that in her vocabulary. 

We then ate dinner (where I pigged out on two hotdogs) and then headed home to get Riley in a bath and to bed as she was tired. There was a lot of good food, but I only photographed my fruit while I was there.

Nummy, fresh fruit kebabs!

Before I left LaRaa handed me a large piece of cake she made. I don't quite remember the details, but it was a yellow cake with pinneapple topping, whipped cream, and coconut. Sure, I thought it sounded good, but I'm not a huge cake fan. I brought it home and hoped that Jesse would feel well enough to want to help me eat this (after taking off the coconut, of course). I took my first bite and... OMG... the cake was probably the moistest cake I've ever eaten. It was fantastic and now I hope Jesse is not feeling up to eating the other half that's now in the fridge. And LaRaa should really come up with a name for the cake that embodies how delicious it is. Perhaps 'Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious cake'? I took a picture, but it doesn't begin to show how good it was.

Cake so good.

So that was Father's day part one. Next week Jesse's brother will be in town from PA. I may tackle a lamb chop recipe so more to come on if that is a success or not... or completely aborted.