Fathers Day 2019

June 16, 2019: Mark with his Fathers Day gifts from daughter Sarah.

Fathers Day caught me by surprise this year. It nearly always falls within a day or two of Mark's birthday, which is coming up this Friday (June 21), so I was thinking Father's day would be this coming weekend. Until Mark pointed out last week that the 16th was the third Sunday this year.

Thus, it was a pretty quiet Fathers Day weekend this year. We already have a barbecue-and-swim party in Mesa planned for this Saturday, the 22nd, so all three of my men can celebrate their birthdays together, on the same day: Mark's 51st is on June 21, Jacob's 28th is on June 26, and Dylan's 22nd is on July 1. Rather than rushing to plan another get-together, I told Mark I would take him out to dinner on Saturday night in honor of Fathers Day.

I told our kids my plans, and it turned into a family dinner, after all. Sarah, Dylan, and Jake joined us for a delicious meal at Show Low Cafe (Mark's choice, but we all love it). Chris had won a free ticket to a comedy show at a nearby club, so he missed out this time.

Sarah still planned to come over on Sunday, but I didn't expect to see Dylan or Jake. They were leaving town that afternoon, heading to the Valley to spend this week with Jake's grandmother and aunt, who were flying in all the way from New York City.

However, when I awoke before 7:30 on Sunday morning, I was surprised when Dylan walked into my room! He'd decided to come over and do some long overdue laundry while Jake was at work. As it happened, Mark was also home that day. He'd worked on one of his days off earlier that week to cover for someone else, and now that guy was covering for him on Fathers Day. So we called Sarah to let her know Dylan was at the house for a few hours, and she joined us around 9:00. Unexpectedly, Mark was able to spend the first half of Fathers Day with two of his children, after all.

Mark and Dylan compete on Dylan's video games.

Between loads of laundry, Mark and the kids played video games while I made us all French toast for breakfast (even though Mark's French toast is far better than mine). Before I started cooking, even I completed a Zelda adventure, with Dylan's tutelage! Sarah didn't want to wait for our party the following weekend, so she brought along a card and gifts for her dad to open. She gave him a bag of his favorite Snickers candies with a gift card hidden inside.

I think it was about 1:30 when Dylan returned to his apartment to pack for their trip and wait for Jake to get home from work. They stopped by again on their way out of town, around 3:45, and I had a big pot of spaghetti and some crispy garlic bread all ready for them so they wouldn't have to stop and eat en route. It was after 4:30 when they were finally on their way, but they reached the Valley before 8 p.m., texting me of their safe arrival.

Sarah had also headed back to her house after our spaghetti lunch, so things became quiet for the rest of the day. But what a nice morning it turned out to be, with family!