Today my heart hurts that I’m not able to celebrate such a BIG milestone with my Dad. I remember his 50th birthday like it was yesterday. We decorated a Burger King crown for him to wear and bought him a huge cookie cake with a guy bouncing down the hill since he was officially over it. Now he’s 70. And while I’m so thankful that he has his love, Audrey, to make his day special…it just doesn’t feel right to not be able to give him a hug and tell him in person how much I love him on such a big day!
Since Dad is a blog reader I thought it’d be a fitting tribute on his birthday to post pics of us together through the years. I’m so thankful that my parents were always hardcore about picture taking. My dad’s father died when he was in college and he didn’t have a lot of pictures of his dad. He made sure we all have TONS of pictures of him through the years! I get my love for photos from him 🙂 Looking through these and remembering about our times together made me a little sad. The hard thing about growing up is that you don’t get to make as many special memories with your parents like you did as a kid. I want so badly to be able to spend more quality time with Dad and especially for my kids to be able to have more memories with him!
I have so many fun times with my dad. His outlook on life is all about FUN and that really influenced me to want to make sure to give my children fun times throughout their lives as well. My dad had to travel a lot for his job while I was growing up but he always made time to be there for our big events in life whenever possible. He was at so many of my chorus productions and we spent so many weekends with him on the lake. I will always remember when he drove down to Florida with my boyfriend’s dad when we had a bad wreck. He didn’t have to come, as my boyfriend’s dad had it handled, but he wanted to be there to get me and that meant so much to me. I’m so thankful I spent my high school years living with/near Dad. We had so much quality time together and it really strengthened our bond in away that probably wouldn’t have been possible if I’d stayed living with Mom. I’m thankful for the awesome vacations we have taken together. Memories made while vacationing are just extra-special and I credit my dad for giving me that taste of the world that turned me into the lover of travel I am today!
Even though we only live 4 hours away now, it’s tough to get to see each other nearly as often as I’d like. I miss my dad. I miss his hugs and our talks and my prayer is that we have many, many more years to make many more memories together. I hope I always have his youthful outlook on life. He may be 70 today, but I promise you he’ll tell you he feels 35 😉 There aren’t too many people like my Dad and I love all the unique qualities that make him, him. From his many collections (Elvis, Portland Headlight, Polar Bears, Corvettes…), to his love of oldies music, to his awesome taste in food (anything with peanut butter, powdered donuts, MILK!), to his brand loyalty (which I inherited for sure…LLBean for life!), to his passion for the color blue (his house used to have blue carpet, blue walls and blue furniture), my dad is MY DAD and there is no one else like him! I’m so thankful to be his little girl 🙂
Happiest of Happy Birthdays to you Dad! I hope the years ahead are as joyful, happy and FUN as the years behind. I love you always! I will be listening to “Endless Sleep” today in your honor 🙂 xoxoxo
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