Daddy Day 2011

This year on Daddy Day the girlies were singing in their church's Primary program. They did a beautiful job, and Ane was completely confused why she was the only Naki's girl still sitting with me. We spent the entire program in an argument about why she could NOT get up and go sit with a sister. She spent a significant amount of time, moving from sister to sister in our conversation, and explaining to me why she should be sitting on their lap. I did feel bad for her. We'd been practicing the song they sang plus their individual primary parts each Monday night for the last two months or so. And silly us...she was confused then why she didn't have a "part" and so her obliging sisters made one up for her! And she would practice it when they did, and would stand and sing with them in our music room whenever we practiced. It was all quite confusing to her. For me I couldn't have picked a better thing to be doing on Daddy Day in honor of all that he stands for and all that he holds of value. It was perfect. The night before I had grabbed some balloons at the store...two for each child to release. Line and Malia had picked the colors, BYU ones of course. So Sunday late afternoon each girlie got to write a message to Daddy on them. I asked the girls if they would prefer going to the cemetery to release them or if they would like to take a walk somewhere we'd never been before. In Malia's words, "Mom, let's go somewhere we've never been before so we can have a new adventure with Daddy today." So we headed down to Utah Lake, which I know, many of you who live here go there all the time. But we'd never been there. And directionally-challenged me didn't even know how to get there. We found this little inlet area. There was a small hill with a path that we had to scuttle down to reach where we wanted to go. We made it down the hill, but when we got to the bottom to separate the balloons realized that the incredible wind had tangled all the ends of the ribbons together in one big clump. So the girls decided to all hold on to them and let go at the same time. It. Was. Hilarious. At least to me it was. Maybe to those of you who picture a movie-perfect moment it would have been devastating. But as they let go of the balloons, there was a brief second until we all realized that they were headed straight for the trees beside us. Yes, they stuck right in those branches. All the girls were squealing and I could honestly hear Naki's true laugh right alongside mine. The girlies ran straight to the tree and shook it all kinds of ways, until the balloons finally came loose and took the "correct" flight path. But seriously. How many of our flight paths go the way we thought they would or should? The girls and I laughed and laughed and laughed. It was just a perfect day. We walked for a while on a path that paralleled the lake, but after too many encounters with obnoxious bugs decided it was time to head home. Next year I really want to do a hike in the mountains. Who knows what will happen up there!