Dad's 60th Birthday

We celebrated Pop's 60th up in Tahoe for the weekend. It was so much fun for all! Cousin (nephew to him) Erik flew in from Texas as a surprise and we stayed between Erik's house and the Aubin's house.  There was much wine tasting, eating, game playing, eating, walking, eating, and hanging out. I made Dad's recipe enchiladas before our kitchen was demo'ed and froze them. The next morning Court and Wynt made homemade eggs benedict with our fresh eggs. Lori brought quite a spread for the wine tasting, it was gouda! We went to dinner at Scusa in Tahoe, an Italian restaurant that was playing live jazz that night. Not that jazz is Dad's favorite, but it was fun for the kids because the musician played songs from the little mermaid. Owen behaved very well, and he enjoyed some foccacia.

Court put together a sweet sentimental gift for Dad, gathering stories and memories from over 40 people and giving them to him. It was quite a hit and we sat around and read them with him. It was really neat as he reports not seeing or talking to some of these friends for years, if not decades!

Dad is quite a fun guy if you don't know him. He has always been a jokester, great cook, and there for anything. He enjoys biking, hiking, and of course a good meal and drink. He was my soccer coach growing up and split a few gray hairs over that one. He would always make pancakes on the weekends with the best fillings: apples and cinnamon, chocolate chips, bananas, etc. It was always fun to have friends over and impress them the next morning with the fantastic spread he would put on. He is a very organized person, and I get a few of my labeling qualities from him. Some of my favorite quotes from him are: follow through, anything worth doing is worth doing right, SHOOT the BALL!, and of course some goofy ones like: whoopity whoopity. He is quite a goofball and I'm told he got some of that from his parents. I love watching him and his sister Lori be total nuts together, laughing and saying random things in Finnish.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH DAD! IT was such a great weekend honoring YOU! LOVE YOU!!!!

WWalking down the isle

LLove!

FFlying in the plane overseas.

Chris's Graduation

Hiking up the big Dish in the Bay

Dad's Xmas card when he was overseas... See the sense of humor I'm dealing with here?!

Cousin Mike's graduation. 

 First visits

 Hanging by the Aubin's pool

 Thanksgiving 2010

 Twins

 Love!

 Bay Area visitor

 Pizza making champ

 Hugs!

 Matt and his roomie Rich (from Iraq)

 Garden

 Life flight home made toy (that he will not be allowed to play with)!

 Racing monster trucks down the driveway

 gEggs Benedict!

Silly dad at xmas many moons ago

 Being so sophisticated

AWWW!

That's me and my dad! LOVE YOU!