Father's Day 2011: Church, Sleeping Giant & a Car Show

    I have to thank my wife Karen for a great Father's day this year. Of course we started off with church. Bishop White preached about the Spirit of Reconciliation for absentee fathers and their children.

   "And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." http://bible.us/Luke1.17.NIV 

     "Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two." http://bible.us/2Kgs2.12.NIV 

    He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction." http://bible.us/Mal4.6.NIV

     Put those in your notes for bible study. A good word. The choir "SANG." Then it was off to enjoy the rest of the day. For some reason I'm not the kind of guy that likes to sit around in restaurants. So, we had a nice meal at home -- fought off the "itis" --and headed to Sleeping Giant State Park.

I'm not sure what this flowering tree is called, but it is all over the mountain




A climber, I don't think I'll ever get to this level

 

spider's web

A weird Tiki looking head at the park

resting

    It's basically a 1.5 mile walk from bottom to top. I like the walk here because unlike some hiking trails in CT you don't have to walk to the top with motorcycle, car and bike traffic. It's just walkers and runners. There's also more shade, scenery and quiet on this trail. Everyone seems friendly, there are the hardcore runners, walkers and strollers. There were a bunch of families out there this weekend. We met one couple celebrating Father's Day for the first time.

The castle, reward for the walk

leaving a mark behind, i'm sure it'll wash away soon

New Haven skyline from Sleeping Giant

shadow

Climbing with a toy plane, I bet it sounded like a good idea at first

 The first time I went up, I didn't even realize there was a castle at the top, so it was a nice surprise.
   At first it was hard trying to find a pace that was good for everyone, but thanks to my need to stop for nature photos we made it up and down without anyone getting hurt.  Well Almost.

    The only casualty of the day came three hours after we started the walk--- and within eye shot of the car. EJ got a splinter as we were leaving the park. The only time I've ever heard a child scream that loud was when a child had broken his leg. Daddy had to take care of it.. stopping at a Walgreens for a safety pin to push that splinter out.

   He screamed so loud, I half expected DCF to drop out of a "bin Laden" raid style helicopter. With a little help from mommy, we got it done and were off to the next adventure of the day: A car show.

  Those who know EJ understand why. The child has a collection of about 150 hotwheels and matchbox cars. So, he kind of likes cars. I guess you can blame that on daddy too.

Gil simmons, his wife, and Ethan

 
 

    This car show at Heavenly Donuts in Derby was also for a good cause. A cruise night to benefit GIVE2THETROOPS.ORG. Just good ole fashioned American muscle fun. I somehow convinced EJ to forget about hamburgers and hotdogs and get a ice cream cone instead. He deserved it... he did survive the splinter incident right? In the end i had to go home and get ready for work. 

            I got a nice little nap in, but had the weirdest dream. It was about a walk in the park at Sleeping Giant (I'm guessing) and a bear and her cub walked across our path and climbed a tree. No one got hurt. I think maybe i was hoping and maybe fearing something like that would happen on father's day. I hope everyone had a happy father's day. See you next year.