The little things

In honor of Father's Day 2010, I want to let my dad know just how much he means to me. I usually buy the typical Father's Day card and write a little something in it but I have come to realize with the recent passing of my mother that sometimes you never get around to truly telling your loved ones how important they are in your life until the opportunity is gone.

So Dad, here's to all the little things....the little things you have taught me and shared with me on this path called life...they are really the big things...the things that mean so much to me:

Thank you for the family hikes, the family bike rides, and the family picnics at Farragut State Park...and thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to take us kids fishing at Hayden Lake (even though it was me you were usually fishing out of the lake).

Thanks for teaching me how to mow the lawn, how to pick potato bugs, wash the car and clean the pasture. Thanks for teaching me that girls can do anything boys can do. Thanks for teaching me that it's okay to dig in the dirt. Thanks for teaching me how to be tough...physically and emotionally. Thanks for helping me build the kite for my 6th grade kite building competition....we made it from one of the large black plastic garbage bags...It flew like no other kite...I won that competition.

Thanks for our road trips to Canada. Thanks for driving all the way back to Kelowna's Flintstones theme park because Wendy, my best friend, left her coin purse...you knew it had sentimental value.... .and thanks for listening to the same 8 track recording of the band Queen the entire way there and back. Thanks for putting up the Boy Scout tents in the back yard and letting my friends and I sleep out during the summer.

Thanks for not getting angry at me when I dented the Buick...(it was really Jeff that did that by the way) Thank you for letting me date Jeff even though he had long hair and his car burned oil...ha ha.....Thank you for walking me down the aisle, for loving my children, and spending quality time with them. Thank you for always setting the example and thank you for not judging others for making mistakes...Thanks for being there for me when life was rough. Thanks for helping us kids out with major home improvement projects both physically and financially.

Thank you for loving my mother...for loving my brothers, and for teaching us to be honest, respectful and hardworking. Thank you for the wonderful home you provided us...thanks for all the cats you let me adopt......thanks for the incredible amount of patience you taught me.

Thanks for letting me build stuff out of your wood scraps when I was little...and years later doing the same for my kids. Thanks for being a hero in my eyes: I was pretty young but I remember when you climbed that fire escape to alert an elderly couple that their apartment was on fire. I thought that was courageous.

Thank you for being a wonderful son, husband, father and grandfather, and thank you for keeping our family traditions alive. Thank you for making the family garden a reality....for buying us a greenhouse and building raised beds...thank you for protecting the garden when Jack Frost threatened to destroy it. Thank you for monitoring the propane in the greenhouse.

Thank you for the way you would joke around with mom and the kids and make them laugh so hard that tears would pour down their cheeks...Thanks for being amused when the kids would play with the toy sunflower that sang the tune "You are my Sunshine" for the umpteenth time. Thank you for cooking breakfast for mom and doing the dishes after you retired...she really liked that. Thanks for staying with me at the hospital when I was sick.

Thanks for being supportive of your family...Thanks for teaching me that life is so much more than fancy cars, exotic travels and expensive homes. Thanks for teaching me to do what's right.... and most of all... thanks for teaching me "Family First"...no matter what. I love you with all my heart for all these "little things".... Happy Father's Day dad...You are the best.