Hello everyone, and Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there, but especially to mine because he's the absolute best! Just as I said in my Mother's Day post, there aren't enough thank yous in the world to express how grateful I am for all that you do and have done for me daddy, but I'll give it my best shot...
I know that in the beginning after I was born you didn't have any idea what you were getting into with us. You probably wanted a boy, but instead you got me, so I became daddy's little girl. I looked like you and acted like you, so naturally I wanted to do all the things that you did. You taught me how to fish, how to swim, how to make whistles out of tree branches, and which plants to avoid when walking through the woods. You showed me how much fun the outside world really was and I'll always be grateful for that.
Fast forward a few years later and you found yourself with zero boys and three girls, you were out numbered, but you didn't care. You took it upon yourself to show us the ways of the world and you taught me a love for the natural world that I will always cherish. You were and still are the leader on all of our adventures and you love to surprise us, no matter how much we protest otherwise. Since I was born we've been on so many of your adventures that I've lost count, but they are some of my very best memories and I'll never forget all the amazing things we've seen because you took the time to show us and teach us how to really look.
Dad, you and mom are the ones who've taught me what love really means and continue to set an amazing example for how it lasts. You are our hero, our knight in shining armor, our spider killer, and our protector. You make us all feel safe and you are always the first one to come to our rescue if ever we need it. You never even get mad when we tease you. You put up with all of us girls and make it look easy.
People are always telling me how similar we are. We don't talk much unless we really know a person, though your a little better at being social than I am. We love the outdoors and all the fun things you can do in it. We have the same nose and eyes and, according to mom, the same scowl when something makes us mad. We don't always like to share our feelings, but we both care. I know one of my jokes is really funny when it makes you smile. I'm proud that these are traits that we can share, even if I don't always show it.
You always love to make us laugh, and even though we pretend like we hate it when you try to embarrass us, now that I'm older I'm finding out that I don't mind it all that much. You are a dare devil who scares mom, and sometimes me, half to death with all of your crazy stunts, but you somehow always come out unscathed. Something we're all thankful for. You are the one who pushes me to take risks without even trying and you make me want to be brave like you. That's something I think people forget about their father's, how truly brave they can be. And dad, I think that you are by far one of the bravest people I know.
Mom always tells us stories of how you were back before we were born and of all the crazy things you did. To me those stories have always sounded like something out of a movie, but even now I still see glimpses of that crazy guy sometimes when you do something like jump off of a cliff. Over the years you've helped to push me to get out of my comfort zone and do something brave. I'm always the first one to follow you up that cliff and the first one to try out the rope swing because I want to make you proud of me. I love it when we go hiking or canoeing together and I still remember the time we saw that bald eagle on the river. We may not always see eye to eye on everything, but when it comes to most of the important stuff we tend to agree.
I know I've told you this before, but when people ask that question, "If you could only bring one thing with you to a deserted island what would it be?" I always say, "My dad," because I know that if I had you with me there, we'd be sure to survive for at least a few years. Your so resourceful and you seem to know just about everything there is to know about everything. You wouldn't need tools because you'd just make your own and you'd catch fish right out of the ocean. I'm sure after just a few months you'd have built a house out of sticks in some tree and we'd be living in style on that island.
People are always telling the three of us how lucky we are to have a dad like you and now that I'm older I finally understand exactly what they mean. Not everyone out there is lucky enough to have a dad who will teach them how to drive, who will buy them their first car, or who will take them on unforgettable vacations. Not everyone's dad will buy them a puppy for their birthday, or pick them up from school even if it's out of the way, or encourage them in everything they choose to do, even if that something is next to impossible to succeed in. And not every dad will build a tree house with two levels in the backyard, complete with rope and bucket pulley system to deliver things back and forth from the ground. What I've come to find over the past twenty years is that everyone is right, we are lucky to have a dad like you because you aren't like other dads. You're our dad, and we couldn't ask for anyone better.
So thank you daddy. Thank you for always being there when we need you and putting up with our crazy nonsense. I hope you know that we appreciate everything you do, even if we don't always show it. Thanks for not getting too mad when you have to tell us more than once to clean up our rooms. Thanks for loving mom and showing us what a good man looks like and how he acts. Thank you for showing me all the wonderful things that nature and the world have to offer and thanks for coming to all of our boring elementary school plays, all the band concerts, dance recitals, and sporting events, and sitting through them until the end. Thank you for making us laugh and taking us on so many wonderful adventures that we'll never forget. Thank you for being the kind of dad that actually cares about where we are and what we're doing, and thanks for fixing everything we believe to be unfixable. Thank you so very much for teaching us to be brave and tough and strong, and for giving us this amazing life that we so often take for granted. You can't imagine how grateful we are for it all. I hope you have the best Father's Day ever, even if we won't get to share it with you this year just know that we wish we could. Catch a few fish for me on the river! I love you so very much and no matter how old I get, I'll always be daddy's little girl.
Love & Chaos,
Sam
