My Dad's the Greatest Dad

It's true that my dad is the greatest dad, but today we're talking about my girls' dad.  Their dad is the greatest dad and made this past week and a half AWESOME for them! 

The day before my birthday, we had a snow day.  The girls and I had a blast playing in the snow.  On my birthday, Braden came home early and took the girls outside and played for 2 1/2 hours.  It started with pulling them on sleds around the yard...

 ...and ended up with making the greatest snowfort ever!

After I took those pictures, he added a slide, which made for a ton of fun the next day when we had 14 kids in our home!  I loved seeing my friends!  And a few days later, he made a recliner and foot rest.  Fun!

 We had Spring Break this past week (early, I know) and it was his goal to do as many fun things as a family as we could.  We went out to dinner, went swimming, went to the Bounce Depot, and on Friday night, he created an in-home movie theater for the girls, complete with movie bucks so they could buy from the concessions stand...

 ...that he set up and made this awesome costume for.  The girls loved it!  We had borrowed a projector from our friends which he set up in the basement, blacked out the windows, and put Christmas lights down the stairs to make it feel more real.  While we watched "Lady and the Tramp" he made s'mores for everyone because after the movie...

 ...it was an indoor campout!  He set up the tent for Keara and Taryn and hung out with them until they fell asleep.  It was a dream come true for Keara.  And they loved having the tent up for 2 days so they could play in it!

But the best part of the week, for me, came today, when I saw the best part of Braden.  This morning, I had to get to church early to practice a musical number I was participating in.  I left a little after 8:20 with Mazie, leaving Braden to bring the three older girls by 9.  When church started and progressed all the way to the speakers and he still wasn't there, I was a little worried that maybe someone got sick and they were going to have to stay home.  Pretty soon it was time for my musical number and they still weren't there.  After we were done, I went into the hall to call him.  I noticed I had missed his call at 9:30 but I called 4 times and never reached him.  At that point, I thought maybe someone had split their head open and he had to take them to the ER.  So I sat down for the rest of the meeting, and as we stood up to leave for class, they walked in!  Their cheeks were red, their hands were cold, but they were smiling, and they had a tale to tell!

After loading the girls in the car (and doing their hair in beautiful braids...impressive), he noticed that we had a completely flat tire.  He tried to get the spare off the bottom of the car, but it was rusted on, so no good.  After a half hour of trying to figure it out, he finally decided they would just walk to church.  Thankfully it was only 18 blocks, but hey, it was 18 blocks!  With three little girls!  Keara and Taryn rode their bikes and he and Avery walked.  But Avery couldn't keep up, so he had to carry her.  Keara's training wheels kept shifting, so she finally gave up riding, which meant he had to push her bike along. 

I was SO impressed and SO grateful that he didn't just throw in the towel and say "Oh well, guess we're not going to church today."  Instead, all 4 of them had to sacrifice to get to church.  He set a great example to me and to the girls of the importance of attending our meetings, and doing whatever we need to to be where we need to be.  I am so grateful for that. 

Over dinner, he decided that next time, he'll take my bike and the bike trailer and get there in less than 45 minutes...