The Best Day for me
This past year has been a tough year for my extended family and me. We've experienced loss in many different ways. One of the most profound ways is having three of our grandparents pass away within the same year. With all of the other changes and challenges that life has put on us, it really has made me stop and appreciate what I do have. Two things God has blessed me with that I can not get over...(1) A family that is there for me through all trials of life...(2) Fatherhood. Reflecting back on how I am now the middle generation in my family's tree and my parents, aunts and uncles are now the "senior" generation has impacted me greatly.

Only 20+ years ago, my parents, aunts and uncles were in my shoes teaching their sons and daughters how to swim, bike, hit the ball, play, laugh and love. Now, this is my greatest of pleasures. I remember how I felt curled up to Dad, reading his birthday cards, eating half gallons of Neapolitan ice cream and throwing it up because I was trying to eat as fast as him, playing basketball with him, going to church with him....and what overwhelms me now is he felt the same way as I do now with Jonathon. As hard and unforgiving as children can be (especially through the teenage years and early adulthood), may we remember that most of our parents did the best they could in their time and there is only one love like a parents love.

This video is a tribute to that. On a lighter note (thankfully) the pictures of me on the bike...Jonathon took those;-) I was so proud of him. He saw me taking photos and he wanted to be like daddy so I showed him how to do it and said "Close you eye" and of course he shut the eye that looks into the viewfinder! Still I think he has quite an angle. Please enjoy.

I wasn't able to spend Halloween with Jonathon so I decided to have fun and dress up thinking of him. I went to work this way, tried to enter a contest Friday night (we got there at 10pm but that was too late! How can that be?), and met up with Jonathon at the airport Saturday morning. As you can see, he thought it was so funny. He kept on saying, "You are man in yellow hat AND daddy". We went to Wendy's for lunch and people would say, "Hey look, there is the man in the yellow hat", and Jonathon would say, "This is daddy". It was so great to be able to do that. I don't know who enjoyed it more...him or me.

We have settled into our new apartment nicely, I've settled into my new job and Jonathon has been doing great in his daycare. He got a bike for his birthday so we have been playing around with that and trying to teach him exactly what to do. He just turned 3 in September and is still growing like a weed. We hope this post finds everyone at a great place and looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months.

Until next time.