And then there were four... the adventures of Bek, JR, Annie, and Jude: Annie's First Ice Cream and the Sand Dune Palace

So I got to thinking about it: Annie's been to three Friday's worth of Stations of the Cross with me now, and it's a joy to take her and see her grow more and more accustomed to the rhythm - station to station, hearing the prayers... Walking them with her changes me, too. For example: Asking God to "Teach your church, O Lord, to mourn the sins of which it is guilty, and to repent and forsake them; that, by your pardoning grace, the results of our iniquities may not be visited upon our children and our children's children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." with Annie holding my finger makes any lingering self-deception (or willingness to hide it) harder. Still, and this is my real point, it's a little bogus of me to call it 'Daddy/Annie date night.' Don't get me wrong, as worship goes, it's a heck of a service, but as dates go, it's pretty lame. Daddy/daughter 'dates' like that are the kind of stuff that lands priest-kids in therapy (or at least keeps them there for more time than they would otherwise be in for). Sorry, Annie.

So I sat down with Bek this week and formulated a plan: Yes, we still did Friday Stations, but Saturday ice cream at the Marbleslab Creamery the next day, with run-around time at the park afterwards. Much better. Adding to the excitement, it was Annie's first ice cream. We arrived at 11:28 am (2 minutes early) and waited patiently as the store manager set out the chairs and turned on the neon ice cream cone. Annie was skeptical, but was won over quickly. The flavors were vanilla bean and swiss chocolate. Vanilla was a hit. Chocolate, less so, though she kept saying, "Momma!" when the chocolate came up. She was distracted, no doubt, by how much her Momma would appreciate it. After a few minutes, we decided to head for the park, but not before Annie called for my napkin - "paper!" - and cleaned off our table for a dozen minutes or so.

We'll have pics from the park, too, but, without further ado, photos from Annie's first ice cream.