Making Memories

Since I blogged about our Mother's Day adventures, I wanted to share about our Father's Day outing as well.  My older sister and I conspired together again to do something special with our Dad.  We made sure he was free on June 20th and I picked him up and met up with sister in a nearby town.  We drove to a shopping center to stop at a Starbucks for coffee drinks, then hit another store for some Krispy Kreme donuts after a little browsing.  Donuts are kind of a special thing between us sisters and our Dad.  We have precious memories of going into town after a trip to the dump with our dad and picking up some donuts to snarf on the way home.  Mom wasn't too keen on us being so sugared up but it didn't happen often and it was great father/daughter time!  So we wanted to indulge in that special time again but our stomaches couldn't handle all that sugar so we stopped at a grocery store for some fruit and yogurt to try to balance it out a bit.  Dad knew of our plans for coffee and donuts, however, the next part of our adventures were a complete surprise for him.  He has always wanted to teach his daughters about gun safety and to take us shooting but most of us just weren't too interested in it.  My older sister and I have recently become a little more interested in learning to shoot a gun and knowing how much it would please our daddy we decided to take him to a shooting range for some target practice.  As we parked, my dad's face bore a huge smile!  This was going to be great!  I also had both my sons with me as well and they were super excited about shooting real guns as opposed to the bb gun, paintball guns or nerf guns they've shot in the past!  We got all paperwork signed, geared up and headed into the range.  Dad did a little review of what to do with each of us as we took turns shooting our targets.  We all did really well!  I think Dad was just as pleased watching each of us shoot as he was in shooting.  He had that proud daddy/grandpa smile the whole time!  As we were turning our gear back in and leaving the store the owner came out to talk with us.  He asked where we were from and how we'd heard about them.  He was very nice and we told him we'd love to have a range even closer to us so hopefully in the near future we'll be able to just go into town here to go shooting as a family!  We had such a good time together with our daddy and even though he didn't walk away with any typical Father's Day gifts, I think it means so much more to have spent that time together and made such great memories as well as strengthened our relationship as father and daughters and grandsons!  Love you, Daddy-o!

Grandpa giving instruction to his grandsons.

Proud Dad with his oldest daughter.

Daddy shooting.

Daddy looking on as I shoot at my target.