Three Kids and a Dog: Father's Day 2026

We spent this year's Father's Day in Michigan per usual. Austen, Peyton and I went up early on Friday before the USA's World Cup game which we promptly watched once we arrived and got settled. My brothers and their families met us up there while Tom and Hailey joined us much later that evening after Hailey's hockey practice.

Friday, we hung out after the game. While the guys played games in the yard, Peyton and I taught my sister in law and niece how to play Mahjong. My brother and sister in law made flank steak on the grill for dinner with homemade chimichurri sauce. After cleaning up dinner, we hung out and caught up before building a fire outside and waiting from Tom and Hailey to arrive.

The Pickleballers @ Root Beer Barrel

On Saturday, it was an early morning of golf for Tom, Austen, Papa and Mike. Others did a run and a walk while the rest of us lounged around and made breakfast (Peyton made her avocado toast and I made the pancakes). After that a few of us headed to Bundes for coffee and then walked into town for shopping at my favorite store, Vintage Charm, and to peruse the Farmer's Market.

We arrived back home about the same time as the golfers and my other brother and sister in law made some lunch. We then decided it was time to play some pickleball so we drove about 15 minutes to Douglas where they had 8 dedicated courts. We did a few round robins of play for almost 90 minutes before declaring it was time to head to the Root Beer Barrel for some root beer floats.

After that it was home to hang out before dinner and play some more Mahjong before most of us retired prior to midnight from the long and very full day.

On Sunday, we woke up to cloudy skies but no rain. Breakfast was made for the Dads and gifts were open. (Tom got a wooden grill cleaner with an old school Sox logo that Austen and I found at his U of I Mom's Weekend. Papa got golf and tickets to a Sox game with us.) Everyone headed out around noon/1pm and then we decided to play some yard games ourselves before the rain that was coming. We got about two hours in (and Tom did a quick mow of the lawn) before it started coming down. We ate leftovers for dinner and left about 6pm to drive home in the rain.

I think it was a good Father's Day for all but especially Tom because he got to spend it in his favorite place - Michigan!