Happy Fathers Day DAd!!!~you mean alot to me!

Happy FAther's day Dad! this is a photo collage of my father when he was six years old and before going to be in a school play as Tom Thumb. This is the story I heard and hope its correct. He is standing with his hands in his pockets, something I remember very clearly as a posture my dad kept the rest of his life. My brothers adopted the same pose and Kevin, who now lives in NZ not only looked like my dad his mannerisms such as hands in the pocket were much like my fathers.
This year just to be different Sharon, Bridget and I sent dad a gift certificate to the local nursery to pick something he wanted for his ever expanding garden. My mom likes to tend the flowers and vegetables and dad prefers building a fence for a dog they are getting in October and also loves putting in pear trees and other foliage so the nursery seemed a logical place to gift give.
His other loves are golfing and painting and has painted hundreds of florals, friend's and relative's dog portraits and also fabulous scenics.
His Tuesday and Saturday golf outings in any weather cannot be denied him. And at 84 years old(85 in Nov.)he is such a great example of what a person who has a full life can be! He is the repair/builder at the ST. Vincent's store that both my parents devote volunteer hours to several days of the week and his latest bit project was building a shelter for the donations in the back of the store. He has helped my family w many building projects, Jenny the youngest sister and Mike the oldest brother both have had many an addition and tiling and remodel from dad in recent years even though he had major surgery recently removing a blood clot from his neck, he was up and back to work shortly after recovering.
I think if there could be one word to sum up my dad it would be "superman". There is nothing he cannot accomplish and his famous words when we 11 children were growing up were"I don't want to hear the words,"I can't", I want to hear"I'll try". And that was it!
I myself have tried to follow my dad in so far repairing a dishwasher and vaccum cleaner just since moving to Sedona. Almost anything can be done if you put your mind to it.
Dad never refused us a trip to the skating when we grew up in Michigan, swimming at lakes in summer and camping at Camp Dearborn every summer, despite the amt of prep to bring a large family on such an adventure. Of course my mother as his right hand woman was his rock.
She was there always preparing his favorite foods for dinners and keeping him on track.
About his painting which he found as a hobby later in life my sister said he told her"If I had known I loved painting so much I wouldn't have done anything else". We all have paintings of my dad's in our homes, I have about 10 of them and love them all from a large portrait of Rita w horses to a beautiful giant painting of tulips I sent as a photo and he duplicated just beautifully!
Thanks dad, for everything, for being the best dad any father could be and most of all for showing all of us that your can do anything you set your mind to. We love you.. and I love you! Happy Fathers day!
here are some additional photos of dad

dad and his father

mom and dad 35 and 30 yrs old, both so cute~