Happy Retirement Dad

 My dad retired after almost 40 years of working at the same company.  He worked for APS right after he graduated with his masters and never left.  He must have like it.  So we decided we would all meet up in AZ to surprise him and congratulate him on his retirement.  Evan and I flew in to Phoenix and Scott picked us up.  We headed over to a favorite restaurant of ours, Jordan's and waited for my mom to show up with the man of the hour.  They walked in and when he saw us he was very surprised.  Mission Accomplished!  

We ate and chatted and he read some limericks we wrote for him.  It was a fun time.  The next day we got up and went on a hike in the morning, rode go karts and then went indoor skydiving.  It was a busy but very fun day.  The next day we were heading home in the evening and were pretty tired from the day before so we did a lot of hanging around the house and we ventured out for a quick shopping trip.  We got dropped off at the airport and then came home.

It was a lot of fun just being with my brothers and parents.  It's been a while since we've all hung out together.  Now I remember how much fun they are.  Anyway, thanks dad for all the work you did to keep our family well funded.  Also, shout out to my mom who did many other things that didn't bring money into the home, but kept order in the home and kept our home organized, kept us fed and shuttled us around to lots of activities.  We love you guys!

Once again, these pictures are out of chronological order, and I don't want to spend the time dragging them all into the right order.  

This was our indoor skydiving activity. My mom and dad were naturals and the instructor was very complimentary.  He was also trying to get them to buy something...but really, they were really good!

Here's the whole group.

We played lots of games...new and old.  This was the classic phase 10.

Group picture.

The original crew.  

Cousin Cade (this is what Finley always calls him) took a liking to Uncle Isaac.  Here they are holding hands walking to my grandma's house.  I guess Cade usually was pretty scared of Isaac, but he turned that around while we were there.  He was one of his favorite people!

The man, the myth, the legend...

Just my bros chowing down on Lucky Charms for a snack.

Go Kart racing.  The first race I came in dead last.  I had the slowest lap time.  I was too worried about letting people pass me when they were behind me.  I didn't want the workers to have to hold up a sign telling me to move over.  So I was constantly taking really wide turns but the person behind me never passed me.  Turns out it was Christie the whole time and she didn't want to pass me.  Ha ha!  So the next race my goal was to not let anyone pass me.  I really took off and I think two or three people passed me.  One of them was Isaac.  My lap time was 4 whole seconds faster.  It was fun!

We played a new game where you had to choose someone to vote out and you do that by pointing your foam gun at them on the count of three.  My dad kept doing it so aggressively that his glasses would fly off.  :)

This was Scott explaining the new game.

 

Indoor skydiving...we all had a line on our foreheads from the tight helmets.  

Go kart racing.  They look so cool.  

This was at the top of the mountain.  My face was really red.  I could hardly keep up with those guys.  The end of the hike was really steep. 

Sweaty selfie.  

At the beginning of the hike!  Not hot and sweaty yet.  Funny story, I had my phone in my backpack and somehow a show started playing while I was hiking because it was just moving around in there and hitting things.  I kept hearing people talking.  I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  When we ended the hike and I got my phone out, I realized the show "Naked and Afraid" had been playing for an episode or two.  Ha ha!

Of course we went scorpion hunting to kill all the scorpions in my parents yard.  We found 5 or 6 of them.  That glowing thing in the picture is what they look like when you shine black light on them.

Me and Isaac hanging around.

Pretty palm trees and blue skies.

Evan took us disc golfing.  I started out playing, but I was literally so bad you never knew which way the frisbee would go.  It was funny.  So eventually I started to just throw it over hand like you would a softball.  Then I just decided to watch the pros play.  ha ha.  It was enjoyable.  And maybe I need to make it a goal in life to learn how to throw a frisbee.

Here's dad reading his limericks.  They included reference to the muffin man and "how 'bout both?"  both of which are family inside jokes.

Here we all are at Jordan's.  

I had this shirt made because when we were younger, the waiters would pop their head around the corner and ask "more chips?"  and my dad would just nod his head and give him 2 thumbs up.  Another family joke.

Here's me and Evan in Scott's car on our way to Jordan's.  

The whole trip was a blast.  I'm so grateful for both of my parents for teaching me all that they taught me and raising me the way they did. Thanks for all the work you have put into making my life great.