Happy Birthday dad!

I had a hard time finding some old photos of my dad and I on my computer this past week. I think I must've started saving pictures on my computer when I got my digital camera and stopped printing photos! AH! I am going to have to find all my old photos of my dad and scan them in, and find the old cd's and disk's and get them onto my hard drive. But no matter, I found one of the pictures of my dad and I that I truly love. This is us at Moab on one of the BEST hikes EVER. I think this was one of my dad's most favorite place there and it was just gorgeous the day we went. This trip was of significance due to the fact that my dad got notice he was in remission from cancer and we were celebrating that by going to Moab. What a great trip that was!

It's been five and a half years since his passing. Every year, when his birthday rolls around, all of my family have gotten together, and celebrated it even though he's no longer with us. We always get my dad's favorite things. Pizza from Two Jacks, Ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and his favorite drinks, Minute Maid Lemonade, Squirt and Ruby Red Grapefruit. We would toast to my dad and share our favorite memories of him. The last couple of years we've just met at the cemetery and we would do his favorite things and let go of helium balloons and send them his way with our thoughts and love. This Wednesday was a little more relaxed than usual. I got 12 helium balloons, all colors of the rainbow and his two favorite drinks, Lemonade and Squirt. (Turns out, none of us like Ruby Red Grapefruit and it's not to be found anywhere thank goodness! haha) I show up, and my mom was already there. Then Mike and Shelby came with their girls. As they all piled out of the car, they were bringing their camping chairs.... and then my mom brought out her chair... and I thought, "well, I've got a chair in my car", so I got mine out and with that, we all made a big U around my dad's headstone. STRANGE SIGHT I'm sure that was. Mom brought the cups, I got out the ice, and proceeded to play bartender to dad's favorite drinks for everyone.

We just sat and chilled and laughed. My mom had brought yellow roses and had each of use take one and share our memories of dad and put them in a vase when we finished. I know we all have memories of dad... sometimes it's hard to share them when you're not totally feeling it. But something happened. Micaela, my 10 year old niece said something and it just brought tears to my eyes. She said in her cute little voice, "Well, you know how Zoe's birthday is on the 24th of January? (Zoe is my 2 year old niece that was born a day after the anniversary of my dad's passing...) Well, I noticed on his stone that he died on January 23rd. When you die and you get to Heaven isn't that like your birthday? Well, I like to think that Zoe was with papa for his birthday in Heaven." How profound that was!!! (I think that's how she worded it, but I'm still hearing impaired, so I have an excuse. lol. But you get the gist.) I was emotional from that point on, that was just the neatest thing I heard. We've always said, that we knew dad was playing with the youngest kiddies Zoe and Evan in Heaven before they were born. And it was just neat to hear that coming from a smart little 10 year old. I was so grateful she shared that thought. We all opened up more after that and shared the funnies, the times when dad got mad at us, the times when he took us fishing, the times when he helped us with our homework, the kind of man he was, etc.

I miss my dad. I would love that he was still here..... but I'm so grateful he was my dad and feel so lucky that we were all able to have such good times and memories of my dad. We all had our balloons and had a little short moment of thinking our thoughts and we all let go them. We all turned our chairs around and just watched them float away into the sky in peace. It was a good little day. Happy Birthday dad... I LOVE YOU ALWAYS!!!!!