Fathers' Day Thrills

Fathers' Day was a little unusual this year. We had PLANNED on having a simple, quiet day with our family and eating grilled hamburgers for dinner.  My dad was out of town, and David's dad lives in Idaho, so it was just going to be our own little gaggle of Gees.

The day started out pretty much as all Fathers' Days do - with breakfast and gifts, then church meetings.  Shortly after arriving home from church, however, I received a phone call from my dad.  He was in Philadelphia.  He called to tell me that someone from his ward called and said that his basement had flooded.  He asked us to go over and check it out.  So David and I left the kids at home and went over to my folks' house.  As we drove up, this is what we saw:

There were a whole lot of cars parked in the neighborhood and lots of people carrying rugs and furniture out of the house.  To say the basement flooded would be an understatement.

Luckily for my parents, they had hired a teenaged girl in their neighborhood to water their flowers.  When she went over to water the flowers, she found water spewing out of their sprinkler box, flowing down their outside stairs, and filling up the basement. A pipe had broken underneath their newly-poured driveway. The poor girl ran home and told her dad, who called the Elders Quorum present, who rallied the troops.

By the time David and I got there, most of the heavy lifting had already been done!  The basement was empty, the carpet had been pulled up, several shop vacs and fans were running, etc.  My main purpose was to direct traffic, to try to salvage photos, etc. and thank people. It was amazing and humbling to see so many neighbors and friends sacrifice their Father's Day to help my parents.

By the time David and I got things buttoned up at my parents house, it was getting late and we were exhausted.  So our Fathers' Day hamburger plans got pushed off until Monday.  I think nobody minded - it's super fun for my kids to get to scavenge for dinner!  They never get to eat breakfast cereal at night, so they thought it was cool.