Father’s Day 2013 -

My dad and me on my wedding day

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see ANY of my fathers yesterday in person–not my dad, my stepdad, or my dad-in-law. But I’m sure grateful for all of them, just the same. I’ve decided that the role of all my fathers has been this: to lavish me with so much love and support and encouragement that they really made me believe that I can accomplish anything.

And THAT is about the most precious gift they could give me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all three of my dads! (And a very happy birthday to my daddy-o, whose birthday always appropriately falls right around Father’s Day!)

The actual holiday yesterday was spent attending the baby blessing of our nephew Nicholas, stuffing our faces at the potluck afterwards, taking way too many pictures with the new camera, and playing Munchkin with our friends later that night.

Even though I did end up getting a bit sunburned (how typical), it was a pretty stellar Sunday.

Check it out:

Baby Nicholas getting blessed in style!

Lots and lots of nieces and nephews (who all loved getting their pictures taken!)

Matt has this awful habit of randomly turning on the camera and taking a picture in my general direction from below when I’m not paying attention. Most of the time, the pictures make me look like a flared-nostril monster with about 8 double chins.

However, sometimes he gets lucky, like on the picture on the left

(where I’m giving him a smooch despite his bad behavior)

To start honing my photography skills, I’ve been trying to get everyone and their pets to do “family pictures” for me so I can get some good practice in.

Lesson learned here: never expect a serious family picture from the 5 Meidell boys.

Won’t happen.

Of course, it’s also fun having married into such a fun-loving family. Apparently when 5 boys all grow up together, everything turns into a game/competition, like the “Let’s See Who Can Fling Their Shoe the Furthest” game you see below.