Happy Father's Day!

I've never been good at taking pictures.  I either feel uncomfortable interrupting a moment to ask for a picture or just plain forget.  After the fact, I always wish that I had taken more.  Starting this blog has forced me to take more pictures (and having a very understanding boyfriend who reminds me to document things helps), but I can't tell you how many times I start a recipe, get halfway through, and then realize that I haven't taken a single photo.  But I still don't run with a camera.  And I don't think I'll ever be comfortable snapping pictures of my food at restaurants (any you've seen to date have been found online).

But, my father is the king of photography.  We poke fun at it sometimes, but the truth is, everyone wants those memories to look back on.  As a young kid, I remember going to our grandparents' house in Cape Cod and setting up the slide machine to project slides on the wall (remember those??).  We got to see pictures of Nanny and Pop in their young 20s, Mom and her siblings as kids, and us as babies.  I want to be able to have those to show to my kids and grandkids.

Check out this badass photo of my grandfather

Dad has taken a photo of us three kids every Christmas morning that I can remember walking down the stairs from our bedrooms in age-ascending order (which got a little more difficult when the youngest became the tallest).  Even though we would grumble at the time (we were anxious to see what Santa brought!), he still insisted on getting the shot.  And I'm glad he did. To this day, at 30, 27, and 23, we wait at the top of the stairs for Dad to get the camera ready (see how he trained us like that? Clever).

A memory of my own that I made today was making pasta with B.  I've only made it one time before and it was with my dad, and that really is what made me so excited to do it again.  It was over Christmas this past year and we had gotten so much snow and ice in the Northeast (this was before moving to CA) that my train home had gotten cancelled.  Instead of waiting around at the train station, I booked a new train for the next day and went back to my parents' house for the night.  Dad and I rolled, cranked out, and cooked the pasta together for the family.  Sharing this experience and a few homemade beers (Dad is also a PHENOMENAL brewer... seriously, this stuff is awesome.  Better than almost any beer you can buy.  He even gets so into it that he buys distilled water and adds minerals/compounds/whatever to it so that it mimics the region that the type of beer is from.  He was a chemist afterall.) makes me so glad that I got snowed in.

As a kid, even though he always had a heavy work schedule, when he was home he made sure to spend quality time with all of us.  I remember one Christmas getting a book on how to braid your hair.  My dear father sat behind me while patiently braiding a fishtail into my hair.

I know these are little things, but it's the little stuff that sticks with you.  I am so fortunate to have so many great memories with Dad and can't wait to make more.  I am so looking forward to our upcoming trip in September to Napa Valley - I am sure there will be no lack of photos!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

And here's a Father's Day story for B's dad:

When B and I first started dating (I think a month in) he went home to Boston and was having phone problems.  He used his dad's phone for the weekend and gave me that number.  I called him one day and when the phone went to voicemail, I got his father's message.  At that time, all I knew was that they were from Boston and I presumed that even though B didn't, his parents must have Boston accents.  So when his dad's message came on, I heard "Hi, this is Maaaahk, leave a message at the beep."  Thinking that his name was Mark, I remember telling my mom, "Oh my gosh, he has the thickest Boston accent!!"

Fast forward a few months, and I learned that his father's name is actually Matt.  Turns out there is no Boston accent at all.  Maaahk = Matt.  I didn't tell B that story until last weekend.

So happy Father's Day to the Boston Dad as well!