Father's Day

This month has been a little rough for our family. Cody has been gone most of the month and is still gone now. He is such a hard worker and while I absolutely love that about him, we sure do miss him a lot!

I've been trying to think about the last few Father's Days we've had, and I honestly can't remember the last one that we actually celebrated with Cody. He's usually gone for work and it's hard to find the time to be all together as a family! This year was no different. He was in Arizona for work and because of his work policies, we aren't allowed to be with him while he's working.

The Friday before Father's Day, I was talking to my friend, Karen, and I said I wanted to just go visit him anyway. She was all for the idea and said she'd take care of Axel if we did decide to do it. So after talking to a few other people and trying to figure out of this was completely crazy (driving 6 hours each way, with 3 kids and me, the only adult), I just decided to do it!

Saturday morning I got all packed and we left around 12:30. We only stopped twice and the girls only got out once! They did amazing on the drive and I told them they couldn't watch a movie until after nap time, so they didn't even start a movie until 4, because they didn't fall asleep until around 2:30! Once they fell asleep I was getting sleepy, but I put in some Moulin Rouge, sang along and I was good :)

Around 5:00, Cody called me and said he got off work (he was supposed to get off at 7 and we were going to be there at 6). I was a little bit sad because I wanted to be at his hotel when he got there and surprise him that way, but I just figured out a new plan. He also said that because he got off early, he was going to go to his sister's house and hang out with them. I told him that I had already talked to Brittany that day and she was sick (all true) but that maybe he could still go over. I usually want him to go hang out with other people if he can so he isn't just alone, so I didn't want to seem weird! He said he didn't want to risk being sick so he'd figure out something else.

Luckily it takes Cody about 30-40 minutes to get from his work to his hotel, so I decided it was actually all kind of perfect timing. When we got there I was SO nervous! I was so scared he'd be upset we came, since it is against the rules and just kind of crazy! I told the woman at the front desk what we were doing and asked her to call his room and tell him he had a package at the front desk he needed to come pick up. After she got off the phone with him she said, "I hope he comes soon. Sometimes people leave packages down here for a long time!"

Uhhh great.

After 10 minutes and Chloe screaming, "I need to go POTTY!!!" I decided we needed to change our game plan again. I asked the lady if she would just give us his room number, and swore that we were really his family and not crazy killers. She did, in a low, hushed tone, and we rushed up.

The girls were SO excited to see him and surprise him. They were tiptoeing through the whole hallway, being so quiet. We got to his room, knocked, and waited some more. He finally opened the door and we all yelled Happy Father's Day!

And he just stared at us.

:)

He was SO surprised we were actually there I don't think he thought it was real for a second! After a minute I asked if we could come in because he hadn't opened the door for us yet. haha He just kept saying, "How are you here? How did you get here? How did you know where I was staying? How did you do this with all the kids? Where are they going to sleep? What are you going to do while I'm working?" Haha I just kept saying I had figured out the whole thing and he didn't need to worry about planning any of it because we were already there and it was already done!

Then he was finally happy that we came. He said that he took so long to answer the door because he was just about to get in the shower. He thought we were the front desk lady bringing his package and so he had to get all dressed again. I told him we were the package! I'm just glad we didn't get there a minute later and have to wait for him to be out of the shower!

This was on Sunday. Cody worked, so I took the girls to church and after naps we went swimming in the hotel pool. He came home while we were in the pool so he joined us. Then we went to dinner and to his sister's house after that. He also got to open all his presents and I didn't take any pictures of that, or anything else for that matter! This was my only picture of the whole weekend!

I'm really grateful for Cody and all he does for our family. It is definitely hard to have him be gone 85-90% of the time, but when he is here, he's really here.He is an amazing dad to our girls and loves playing with them, being outside with them and teaching them. I think our kids are really lucky to have such an amazing dad, and I know I couldn't be happier with having him as my husband!