Days in the life of the Hays: Happy Retirement Dad!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Happy Retirement Dad!

One of the hardest working people I know is my Dad. He was always working hard to better himself and in turn make life better for his family. It wasn't about making more money but about creating opportunities. He worked for the state for 26 years. They tried time and time again to get him to move to Austin but he refused to move his family, despite the pay raise and other incentives. He stayed at a job that didn't require him to travel until us kids were all graduated and out of the house. And because of that, he was at the majority of our activities, softball, basketball, stock shows. Dad was always there. When Anthony graduated from high school, Dad started traveling more for work - but only after all us kids were gone. Pretty cool Dad huh?

Anyway, after 26 years, Dad retired on June 30. They had a really nice retirement party for him at work. It was really neat to hear all the nice things people said about my Dad. None of it was a surprise but it was really cool to know that others appreciate Dad as much as we do!

I picked the kids up early from school and we got down to the party just as it was starting. Carli immediately spied Grandma and pretty much stuck with her most of the time we were there. :)

Actually all three kids were never far from where Grandma was...

Grandma thoroughly enjoyed having people come talk to her and compliment her on her son. She was all smiles and very proud.

This is Ms. Monica. She worked with Dad for a long time and was his assistant. The girls love Ms. Monica. We usually would stop by to say hi to Pa on our way to Alto and the girls always ended up playing ball, or in a paper box, or drawing a picture with Ms. Monica. She is a very sweet lady.

The people at work gave Dad this really awesome cedar rocker. The kids thought it was just perfect for them!

Dad really enjoyed getting to see all the people that came to congratulate him.

Pa with his pumpkins...all smiles.

All these folks worked with Dad for a long time. I know lots of names, but I can't really put them to the right face. :) Funny how that is. They all knew my name, the names of my kids and all sorts of things about me. That was pretty cool, because it just showed how proud Dad was of all of us too!