"Happy Fater's Day"

This is the poster we lovingly made for our big hero today. Only until tonight did I discover the error of my spelling in the word "Father". I usually pride myself on good spelling. Ouch. The kids thought it was so hilarious that Mom spelled "Father" wrong and kept saying, "Happy Fate-ers Day!" to be funny. Good thing I'm so easy to make fun of or what would my children do for fun around here?

I cannot lie, Mother's Day and Father's Day were hard this year. It's hard to celebrate being a parent when one of your sweet children who makes you a mother or father, isn't here. Especially when that child was so loving and made you feel like you were the rockstar parent you imagined yourself to be. Keith was that kind of kid. The feelings of missing him just never subside. I often questioned people when they said things about the deceased like, "I miss him every day." or "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her." I know that might sound insensitive but I was surprised that you could miss someone that consistently after they were not physically in your life for months and even years. Now, I get it. There isn't an hour or even 10 minutes that go by right now without me thinking of and missing Keith. There will never be a day that I don't think of that sweet boy, even 50 years from now.

I'm certain Brent feels the same way. Brent climbed Mt. Hood this weekend AND last weekend. Crazy man!  He's gone from mostly out-of-shape to "The Rock" in the last several months and he's a maniac. He's dangerously close to resembling the man I married. Pics to come when he's met his goal. At least, I will post them if I can get away with it. Hahaha! The only downside to the new Brent is that I have to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn to get in my runs so he can get in a run after his weights workout every morning. Like I said, maniac!

Anyway, above is a pic of him at the summit of Mt. Hood with my dad (who also climbed both weekends), his brother Clint and of course, Keith's stuffed Theodore. Brent packed him all the way up there. I know it was his dream to climb mountains and tackle all kinds of adventures with Keith, Cole and Ally and it wrenches my insides to think of those lost opportunities. I know he'll create great memories with Cole and Ally and that is not to be underestimated, it's just not how he or I would like it to be. I just hang on to the hope that someday we will understand the entire picture and we will recognize that the Lord's plan is better than the one we can see in our limited, mortal vision.

Just to illustrate what an awesome guy Brent is, I'll relay a conversation Brent and I had last night. Brent was asking me about someone close to me who was having a difficult time. He was checking in to see how she was doing. (Who knew he was so sensitive, right? Ok. I know. I'm supposed to be telling you how awesome he is and not getting in my digs, but sometimes I have a difficult time being serious. Shocker.) Anyway, I was telling him that it's hard for this person or for any of us when life doesn't turn out how you dreamed it would when you were younger. And I said, you know, just how my life hasn't turned out how I thought it would. He looked a little offended and asked what I meant. And I said, "Well, you know, I never thought I'd bury my son."
His response, "Yeah, but did you ever think you'd have such an amazing kid?"
Of course I had no response because that made me cry.  No, I never, ever dreamed I'd have such an amazing kid. And I could do better to focus on what I have, not what I don't have. That's what Keith would do. I have 3 amazing kids.
Anyway, that shows you the kind of guy Brent is and his perspective on life. Cole, Ally and Keith are so fortunate to have a Dad like him and I'm grateful for the strength he is to me when I want to throw pity-parties for myself.

You know I can't end things on a serious note, so I'll share another conversation from today. Cole wanted to sew a patch on his backpack and Brent started to say, "Mom can sew that on for you." And then thought about the fact that of course Mom probably wouldn't sew that because Mom can't sew. (Although in my defense, I think I could handle a patch!)
So, he said, "Cole, Grandma (Burnett) could sew that on for you."
Let me insert, that I was already feeling like less than a domestic goddess today because Brent smoked his own BBQ ribs for dinner. On Father's Day. I know. I'm horrible. (A-Mazing ribs by the way!) The man can cook, I tell ya.

So, in my lowly moment, I hit Brent with a low blow. I told Cole to ask his friends who mows their lawn, their Dad or their Mom...
I've been giving Brent a hard time because he hasn't mowed our lawn once this year. He started to defend himself and then realized that wait a minute, he had no defense.
But seriously, in his defense, he's traveled A LOT and would prefer to spend time with the kids (or climb mountains) on the weekends than mow the lawn. I can't blame him for that. But I will start charging him for "Lupe's Lawn Service" as I now call my yard services. I'm thinking of ordering myself an official t-shirt. But then I realized, he could throw it right back at me and charge for "Brent's Meats: You buy it, I grill it."

So, there you have it. I am so far beneath a domestic goddess it's ridiculous and Brent is no cabana/yard boy. Whatever. It works for us.

Happy Fate-ers Day!

Recuperating

After Boston, we flew out the next morning to St. Thomas and then took ferries and cabs to the British Virgin Islands. Brent and I had been trying to do a trip, just the two of us, far away and sunny for awhile and we finally did it. It was awesome. It was a perfect trip. We stayed on an island so remote that we had the beach completely to ourselves almost every day. It was beautiful, relaxing and fun.

 

 Below is our "private" beach we laid out on every day after snorkeling or island-hopping.

 Below is a picture on the trail above our resort.

 We kayaked almost every day to some of the best snorkeling on the BVI's. Brent never, ever gets tired of snorkeling. I think he missed his calling to be a marine biologist. Below, please notice the obscene amount of water in our kayak. Amazingly, we kept that thing afloat all the way from the reef to our resort. That's some serious kayaking.

 We got a guide and went fly-fishing for bone fish on the salt flats. We didn't catch anything but saw lots of fish. Brent thought it was pretty fun even if we didn't catch anything. I thought it was a lot of (expensive) wading and waiting around. But it was still fun. When you don't have anything to do, anything new is fun.

 This was the boat we were coveting from our balcony. It's only $150,000 per week to charter so yeah, maybe next time, huh?

 The Baths. There is an incredible national park where these huge granite boulders create little tide pools and caves you can meander through. You take your time snorkeling and climbing through everything. It was an awesome experience. Someday we want to take the kids. So cool.

 Below, the view from our balcony. The water is really that color. No joke. It's absolutely beautiful.

 View in the evening.

 View at our last supper before returning home to real life.

 Brent celebrated our last evening with a 4 pound lobster. You order the size and then you can watch your waitress walk down to the dock and have the lobster guy haul your chosen size right out of the ocean. I just had to take a picture of the carcass. It was too huge and too awesome.

Brent took the picture below so that whenever we get stressed or sad or whatever, we can look at it and remember our lazy and perfect days on the beach. I'm transporting my mind there right now...

Maybe after another 12 years of marriage, we can go back.