Howdy To Be Simply Happy Friends! Another year and another opportunity to celebrate an awesome guy in my life: Guillaume (a.k.a., Frenchy)! Father’s Day 2016 for us was celebrated a little differently this year because we actually have to shuffle ourselves to the airport, crossing the pond over to France. We are pretty excited about this international trip because this will be the first time in over six years everyone has been together! Big year, too, since Jacques, my father-in-law, turns the big 7-0! But, I am rambling to the point I have lost focus here…. Father’s Day!
So, this year we still wanted … no, needed… to celebrate Guillaume because he honestly is one of the best dads around. In fact, I oftentimes find myself in marvel watching him horseplay with the kiddos, or even just listening to him in casual conversations with the kids. Of course, there are many more sprinkles of fatherly moments and traits he has that should I opt to write them all out this post would turn into a novel.
How did we celebrate this awesome dad? Well, for starters we celebrated on Friday at one of his favorite local restaurants, Eurasia Sushi is a family fav – but, Guillaume REALLY likes his sushi. He has liked it for quite some time, and can be accused of getting me hooked to it in my early twenties :). And, with him putting more rigor to his triathlon and cycling time trial racing, he can always walk away from a sushi meal feeling guiltless. Eurasia Sushi is one of our favorite local sushi spots, most notably because the food has always been served fresh and the service is a great balance of friendliness and cordial timeliness. So, it is no surprise to me that Guillaume chose it as his preferred place to celebrate his honor! (Selfishly speaking, I am really glad he chose Eurasia Sushi, too – I love this place!)
Amelie could eat EurAsia’s vegetable tempura any day of the week! Father’s Day was no exception apparently!
Another Eurasia dish favorite for Amelie? Their udon noodle soup 🙂
The Tuna Tatar is the right combination of tuna sashimi, avocados, caviar, small jalapeño chunks, and a sauce only Eurasia Sushi can say! These are like a Japanese nacho – super tasty!
After enjoying a few of our most favorite dishes Guillaume, harnessing his more simpler side, suggested just spending the remainder of the Friday evening by the pool with the family. What papa wants, papa gets (we sometimes refer to him as Papa, the more prominent name for “dad” in French)! Add that to the list of reasons why I love this guy – he enjoys most the simpler moments!
Enjoying some poolside fun to celebrate Guillaume for Father’s Day!
Guillaume, Max, and Amelie stopped doing flips in the pool long enough to let me take a snapshot of the three of them – Happy Father’s Day Guillaume 🙂
Our evening wasn’t over yet, though. We always get him something, whether it be a homemade Father’s Day card or a gift. He has been mentioning for a few weeks now a new cycling outfit he has had his eye on. I also have been making mental note to the constant groaning he’s been expressing to how his computer is on it’s last leg. Amelie and I planned a little prank to make it seem as if we didn’t have time to get him anything because of all of the planning we’d been doing for the trip to France.
We thought we had it all figured out until … OMG, you should have seen Guillaume when he thought he would have to do his laundry Friday night because he needed to wash his cycling gear for his early Saturday morning cycling time trial race! It was obvious he had his heart set in getting a new cycling outfit for Father’s Day, which actually isn’t like him because he is not one to normally to expect gifts. I couldn’t stand seeing him too long with that little glimpse of disappointment, so when he was swimming in the pool and wasn’t looking I snuck into the house and grabbed the gifts we got him for Father’s Day. (Actually, we kind of pegged these as Father’s Day + Birthday gifts because they were a little on the pricey side.). Sure enough, when he saw the bags he perked back up and was happy to find he not only got the cycling suit he wanted, but he also got an iPad Pro with the pen reader!
I was taken aback by the funniest part of the evening by the fact although he was happy to have gotten a new iPad Pro, the cycling outfit had him so giddy he immediately ran into the house with it to try it on. A few minutes later I couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t come back outside. I walk into the house to find him wearing the new outfit, and walking out the door with his cycling bike – the guy was going to go “test” the outfit out in the neighborhood on a Friday evening! This triathlon and cycling sport is seriously can take over a man – I mean, for real?!?!? LOL! Oh well, at least he was happy 🙂
Sneaky fella tried to escape the house to ride his bike with his new cycling outfit without telling us! SO busted Frenchy!
I love that Guillaume still has a vivacious will woven into his character, and this is an example Amelie and Max both get to live with. I love how his simpler nature gives the family pockets of calm restitute, a time we draw most to just sit with no distraction for conversations. His drive for constant self reflection and improvement are also areas the kids have started to appreciate and mirror because of him. He has offered patience to them in their time of frustrations. He embraces them during tears and sadness. He cheers them on constantly as they work hard in their sports, academics, and activities. He offers words of wisdom when they hold doubt or curiosity. He takes the time to explain things so that we can teach them the beauty of different perspectives. And, of course he plays pranks and jokes around with them because life isn’t always meant to be so serious! It is all of these things we celebrated this Father’s Day 2016 – thanks Guillaume for being such a great dad!
And as I sit in reflection of just how awesome Guillaume is I also know there are many other great dads I have seen roaming the earth, and am even lucky to see many of them on a daily basis around. Xavier and James, Amelie and Max’s god-fathers also deserve honorable mention for their constant role in there lives … They love them to the moon and back! On a daily basis, I have quietly admired the dads I see that walk their kids to school in the mornings, and those that you see riding bikes or throwing the ball around the neighborhood with the children. Inspirational fathers are all around us, and we are a better world because of them. So, to all of you great fathers – Thank You!
If you have a father in your life that has been a positive figure in your life, out of curiosity, what is the most admirable trait they possess that you want to celebrate on Father’s Day in their honor? And, what are you doing on Father’s Day to celebrate that special guy? Post them below in our Comments section … I am interested in hearing what our fans are doing to celebrate great dads! — XOXO, Bridge
