Father's Day

We had plans to go to Lake Chelan for Father's Day weekend this year with my parents and Geoff and Robin.  We had been last year for Annalise's birthday and had such a great time we all wanted to go back.  When my Mom passed away my Dad didn't think he could go back without her.  I was super bummed, but totally understood.  I barely wanted to go back without her.

We decided to still go and I'm so glad we did.

It's so beautiful there!

And there were lots of happy memories of time with Grams.
(This is one of my favorite pictures.....)

 

The weather wasn't the greatest when we got there.

But that didn't stop the girls (and Uncle Geoff) from getting in the pool!

Seemed like a good night to hang out and play cards.

And then.....we saw this cloud.

What does it look like to you?

It started off looking like a fox to all of us, then it kept morphing into other creatures!  

It was so cool!!!

The next morning, the clouds had parted and it was warm and SUNNY!!!

Robin's Dad and his wife drove up from Wenatchee for the afternoon.

It was great to see her Dad and meet Bernadette.

We headed out for a walk and ended up at the City Park.

Then back to the pool!!!

Mark and Geoff spent some quality time in these chairs.

Such a beautiful view!

And we played more card games!

Sunday was Father's Day.

Mark is such a great Dad.  His girls love him dearly.

Unfortunately we had to spend most of the day in the car heading home.

It was a great weekend.  We had such a nice time.

And then we made the most of the drive home with several stops along the way.

The first in Winthrop.

And you can't stop in Winthrop without getting ice cream!!

We hit the road again and stopped at the top of the North Cascades Highway at the Ross Lake overlook.  GORGEOUS!!!!!

A lovely view of the mountains for this Dad on Father's Day, 

with the girls he loves the most. (Be still my heart.)

Happy Father's Day Mark!

A Day For Mark

Mark loves the mountains.

They are his place.

Any time he can get out and get to the mountains he is super happy.

He and his friend Jeff decided to take a day and do some scouting for a good fishing hole in the mountains.  They headed toward Mt. Baker and found Bald Lake.
Turns out they were a little early.  The lake was still frozen and there was snow everywhere!

But....they had a great time being OUTSIDE in the mountains!

Another Performance

Avery and Annalise like to perform.

We get the privilege of watching lots of "shows".

The show of the day....

It always seems like they work on it FOREVER.

I mean, like HOURS in a day.

This show was no different.

The introduction....

Yes....those are socks.

And I'm pretty sure the show that took them all day to create, lasted approximately 2 minutes. 

Not the 10-12 minutes as advertised.

I wonder how long this will last?!

They so enjoy playing together (most of the time).

And I love watching their shows (most of the time)!

Just another Sunday at the Schneiders! :)

Breaking Boards and Fighting Boys

 Now Avery's on to breaking boards.

This is such a cool picture!

 And she's sparring every Thursday.

Sometimes with the Instructor's Aide (he's the only one her size! :) )

Who would've thought?!

Memorial Day

We decided to stay home for Memorial Day weekend.

We needed a little outing one afternoon so we tried a new park.

The girls thought it was pretty cool.

I loved how they played and played and then paused to let me take a couple of pictures!

Gramps

After my Mom passed away I made my Dad promise to come spend his birthday the following week with us in Ferndale.  He agreed and I was so glad he came.

We went to dinner to celebrate.

Annalise even shared a birthday rainbow sherbet with him!!
He stayed for a few days and it was so great having him here.

I can't even imagine what it must be like for him.

They were partners for 52 years.

High school sweethearts and then married for 48 years.

They loved each other deeply.

They were best friends.

They were a team.

When my Mom was diagnosed with kidney disease 20 years ago, my Dad took on another role...caregiver.  And he was an amazing caregiver.  So patient, so loving, so fully present.

He would say "yes, Stephie" when she grumped at him.

He would swell with pride when she called him a "saint".

It wasn't always easy,  yet there was never a doubt in his mind as to what he had "signed up for".

I worry about him.
I know that he will be just fine.
It's just that now he's on this journey without his partner and that breaks my heart.

Thankfully we can look back and be grateful for what they had.
Many years of a deep, true and pure love.
One that some people are never so lucky to have.