One year

One year. 

One year of holidays and every days, graduations and birthdays, funerals and births, special events and sporting events, dinners, quiet moments, mundane daily tasks, and big accomplishments.  Changes at work, Fiona growing and changing, and life moving forward.  Four seasons of watching the world move on without you in it.  And today, one final first without you here.

What a year it has been from planning your funeral on my birthday to celebrating Father's Day on the anniversary of you leaving us and all of the days in between.  How has a year gone by already?

But in every moment, your presence is felt, and your influence, your knowledge, and your guidance are still with us .  

While your seat at the table may be empty, the impact you made in our lives, the guidance, love, laughter, and memories remain.  You are still with us every day, in our hearts and actions and thoughts.  Because without you, we wouldn't be who we are.  

Happy Father's Day.  Miss you dad!  

This week was simultaneously crazy and quiet.  The weather was cool and rainy for the middle of the week, and my work days were long and exhausting. 

The dogs were a little stir crrzy by mid-week because my schedule and the weather weren't cooperating with their normal routine, but we made it through the with some shorter walks, games of fetch, and frozen Kongs.

By Thursday the rain had moved on so that they could enjoy the beautiful days outside.

And I made sure to get them out for a nice walk around downtown after work. 

We even explored the area around Ferris Park and the John Smolz strikeout baseball field.  There were lots of kids out playing soccer, and basketball, and Bumble found the kids at the baseball field most interesting. 

Friday was the Juneteenth holiday, and started with a Vet appointment for Peaches.

Then we got into the car to head out for a fun day trip to Indiana.

Peaches loved the grass and enjoyed a good roll around in it.

Mina was happy to be out exploring some place new.

And Bumble even cooperated when I wanted to get some pictures of all three of them at a few of our stops along the Garfield Trail.

We saw some interesting things throughout the day, lots of small towns and history,  had some nice walks, and did a little geocaching.   And I enjoyed a really yummy quesadilla from a food bus along the way.

We even got to drive over a covered bridge.

By the end of the day, the dogs were tired of getting their pictures taken. But we had all had a great adventure. 

We stopped by the patriotically decorated holiday house in Marshall on our drive home.  And while we got home later than I had planned, it had been a great day.

On Saturday,  we made a visit to Tom, Barb, and Ruby.  

Poor little Ruby seems so sad without her brother Sherman.  I was happy to give her some extra love.

Bumble loved making new friends and had so much fun. Peaches wandered around the yard sniffing every corner, and Mina took every ball out of the toy bucket and played lots of fetch. 

I tried to get a picture of everyone, but it's impossible to get them to all hold still at the same time.  That's okay, though.  What matters is that we had a great visit.

We spent some time out in the yard after we got home, and had a quiet, relaxing final Spring evening, which was perfect.

At 4:24am today, we welcomed Summer and we've celebrated with a quiet morning and some snuggles.  The girls have been outside for the last hour, but Bumble decided he'd rather stay inside to help me write.

Now I have to get ready to head to Chesaning to visit my mom while the dogs enjoy a quiet day at home.  And of course, i plan to stop for a visit with dad too.  It's hard to believe he's been gone a year now and that we're celebrating our first Father's Day without him on the anniversary of his death.  I miss him everyday. 

This week I'm on vacation with no plans to go anywhere.  I'm excited to see how the week goes.  Lots to do in the yard and house, and we'll sprinkle in some fun, too.  I'm ready for the break from work and I know it's going to be a good week.

Until next week...Happy Father's Day and Happy Summer!