we spent the last three days in the car. i don’t want to visit either of our families again in the near future. 🙂

even though the weekend was tiring, it was also a lot of fun. we left after work on friday and headed up to the cabin. we stopped at chilis for dinner and took our time getting up there, and we still arrived an hour or so before everyone else.

we were there to surprise joe’s dad, so when rachel called and said that she and dave had seen her dad leaving starbucks as they drove by, we knew time would be tight. rachel and dave showed up, and we had just a few minutes to hide on the staircase leading to the basement before the parents arrived.

joe’s mom came in talking loudly and then opened up the basement door and said, “hi, we’re here.”

when joe’s dad came in, we heard her tell him she’d turn on the air if he would turn on the water. then, we saw their dog sophie’s nose pop under the door. we didn’t even think about the fact that she might smell us. she sniffed around the door for quite awhile, and joe’s dad said, “i think someone’s down there.”

joe’s mom hurridly told him no one was there and that sophie was probably smelling their friends’ dogs on some boxes they had dropped off. joe’s dad didn’t buy that. “she’s not anywhere near the boxes,” he said.

then, sophie darted upstairs. her behavior was so unusual that joe’s dad was convinced someone was in the cabin. he said, “i’m going to get the shotgun.”

at that point, dave said, “shotgun? i’m out of here.” and ran down the stairs and around the corner. we could hear joe’s mom upstairs saying, “oh no, you don’t need the shotgun!” haha.

eventually, joe’s dad opened the door and we all shouted, “surprise!”

later, joe’s dad said the better surprise would have been to let him know we were all coming, and then he would have said, “i’m going to go get the shotgun,” gotten it from upstairs and gone barrelling downstairs cocking it. he said joe’s mom would have flipped out. haha.

despite causing dad #2 to almost have a heart attack, it was a great day up there. we relaxed the whole time, and joe and dave got in some serious wii time.

then, it was time to head to my parents’ house. we got there a couple of hours before my sister and her family arrived, and after hanging out for a while we all headed to ryan and oriona’s for dinner and socializing. the kids totally showed everyone up on guitar hero while joe and i ruled at mario kart.

joe, jim, randy and ryan went running sunday morning. it was a 4-mile run, but they were all at different levels. ryan has never really run long distances before, and randy hasn’t done so since high school. when lisa and i left to go to the store, we passed joe and jim, and a little ways behind them, ryan and randy were walking up the hill.

later, we all went to brunch at cracker barrel with my grandparents, and then we headed home to have some family pictures taken. it was a really special father’s day for my dad because all of his children and grandchildren were there. it was the first time my sister had been here for father’s day. my mom had booked a photographer and, while she took some good pictures, she lacked creativity. she took numerous pictures of the same pose of each group (everyone standing next to each other), and that was that.

for the family picture, the photographer wanted us grouped as families, and when she had lisa’s family on one side, and ryan’s family and me and joe on the other, she said, “where do you belong?” to randy.

poor randy hung is head and said, “i don’t belong anywhere.”

then, we had pictures taken of the individual families, and my parents had pictures of randy taken by himself. lisa and i kept saying, “ohhh…poor randy!” but he just lived it up. the pictures were hilarious.

we are one good looking family if i do say so myself. 🙂 the picture of me and joe turned out *really* well. it has “holiday card picture” written all over it! i’m thinking about getting one of the closeups printed on a canvas to hang in our living room.

then, it was time to head home. it was such a great weekend, but man, am i tired of driving.