a day with my dad

Dad and I always wonder when this Friday tradition started.  I can't for sure pin down the year, but I know Jonah and Noah were young enough to be in diapers, and they were out of them before their third birthday.  Before it became a thing, though, and even long before I even had kids, we were always meeting for lunches whenever we could.  We started that when I first got married.  I worked full time in those days, and he would come near me, because he had a longer lunch break.  Sometimes it was for thirty minutes, sometimes it would be closer to an hour and a half.  I always loved bagels for lunch, and had a couple of spots in Memphis I loved to eat at, so we would always go to one of those.  Even long before these days, and before I started driving, he drove me to school every single morning, unless he was out of town.  So, we have always been close and we've never run out of things to talk about.

If I'm remembering right, Jonah and Noah would have been about eighteen months old when we started making Fridays a consistent weekly thing.  When the kids were little, we would always go somewhere fun, like the zoo or to the children's museum of Memphis, or to the fireman's museum downtown.  We liked the Pink Palace, too, though not quite as much as all those other places.  Sometimes we would go on long picnics, or we would just go to the park.  We used to take them to this one park nearby so they could play soccer or football, and we'd sit in the suburban and watch them as we talked. 

Sometimes we would go and see a movie, but we couldn't talk, so we only did that a handful of times, if even that.  I can remember clearly three we saw with him: Yogi Bear in 3D, We Bought a Zoo, and for my birthday one year, I wanted to see Frozen with the boys, so we did that.  Once we started homeschooling all the boys, we would purposefully finish with all the work before noon every Friday.  Being with Dad was like a living history lesson for them each week, as he would tell them tales of his youth.

As the boys have gotten older and started driving, we've done less activity and more lunches and talking afterward.  My love language is quality time, and I think it's his as well, in case you can't tell.  We just love spending time together, and I would say we are firmly almost twenty three years strong of this lovely tradition (from my early married days to present day).  I wrote all that to say, that a couple of weeks ago when Drew came down a stomach virus on a Friday, I called Dad to tell him that I thought we should cancel.  I hate sharing germs with anyone, much less my eighty-eight year old dad.  He insisted he still wanted to come eat lunch together, though, so I just told him not to come inside when he got here.  We left right away, and he wanted to go to a little place out in Rossville, that's known for their catfish and good breakfast foods.  He really wanted breakfast, but they'd stopped serving it already.  Instead we both had one of the best burgers we've ever eaten.  Who knew?! 

I love the area we were in, it's in an historic area of that little town, so after lunch we drove around and looked at houses for a bit. 

I love church buildings, too, especially with their Gothic styles and stained glass windows. 

After we drove around for a few minutes, we headed back to my house.  We decided we would drop Jonah and Noah off, and that we would continue our day together outside on the town square (the boys didn't want to come).  It was beautiful that day, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together, as usual.  We decided we would have to do this more often, before it gets too hot. 

We were looking for tulips, but found these gorgeous azaleas instead. 

I caught Dad watching this train full of army tanks.  He has always been borderline obsessed with trains.  He loves to ride them, and until a couple of years ago, he and Sandy would take the train to a certain area they were going to vacation, but Amtrak changed their departure and arrival times and no longer serve meals, so they haven't done that in a while.  One is never too old to train gaze, though. 

After that, we saw that one of the trains that stays parked on the tracks was open that day, so of course, we went on board.  My sister Trish was in Denver on this day and sent me a picture of her heading to a baseball game, so we took a picture together and I sent it back in response to her.

We were on the train when I took this. 

After this, we ended up sitting on a bench and talking for the next two hours.  Imagine that.  ;)  It was a great day together, and nice and different.  I'm looking forward to doing this again soon.  We stayed here until a little after three, and then I drove him back home.  (He's not really driving much anymore these days.)  I always love the drive to his house, and I was excited to see his azalea bushes, as well.  They line their house, and the view from their bedroom is my favorite.  It spans the house, yard and lake, and with all the blooms on the bushes, it is beautiful. 

Here is one at the end of the drive, from last week.  The ones in front of the house are all shades of pink.  Their hydrangeas are started to bloom, too, and are equally as pretty. 

Well, thanks for reading, though I really wrote this for myself so that I would always remember this day, or have it to go back and read about.  (A lot of my blog is for that reason, I just share it with others, too.)  I just texted him as I was writing this, to tell him I was glad that it's almost Friday.  He immediately texted back that he was so glad, too.  (How awesome that he texts?!) 

Love to all.