Who’s Your Daddy?

Happy Father’s Day to the all the Papas out there.
From me, on behalf of all of us, we love and appreciate you.

My parents got divorced when I was pretty young, but I was lucky enough to remain close with my Dad. We saw him often and although he wasn’t there every day, we felt his love daily.
I have really great memories with my Dad.
My Dad has the most amazing vegetable garden. It makes me crazy jealous that I live in a concrete paradise. He makes the world’s best tomato sauce. It really is amazing. I live 3,000 miles away but make sure I steal some from his freezer, quadruple ziplock bag it, and throw it in my suitcase every time I’m there. It’s literally worth the risk of ruining all of my clothes. He takes such great care and pride in the garden, it always puts a smile on my face. He has definitely given me the desire to challenge him to one day having an even better vegetable garden than his!
I lived on Long Island growing up, so we were close to the water. My Grandpa had a sailboat which he let his four sons use whenever they liked. Our family took full advantage of this treat. We spent many summers on that boat. We would camp out on the boat at Fire Island every weekend we could. Even the bad moments, like when I spilled my final cup of hot cocoa and was forever banned from drinking hot liquids on the boat ever again or when we came back from a day at the beach and hung our towels to dry which later blew away, or when my Dad grilled up hot dogs and sausages for dinner and seagulls swiped them off the grill right before our eyes, or when we went for a 20 mile (perhaps less) bike ride, through the sand, to an ice cream shop in town only to realize it was closed, or the many sunburns my very white skin got, even those memories have now become smiles in my heart.
I always felt that the time he spent with my brother and me was very precious to him. He made sure to fill it with great experiences to fill a lifetime. For that, I am forever grateful.
Our family has made some great (and often pretty funny) memories, I’d love to hear yours!
Don’t forget to tell your Dad (or any Dad for that matter) that you love and appreciate them. Don’t get sucked into that weirdness of saying “I love you” if you don’t usually say it and now it feels forced. Get into a habit of saying it. It’s really important that we tell people we love them. You never know if it’s your last opportunity.
My Dad had a brief visit with cancer and kicked it in the ass. He could not have, a lot of people aren’t as lucky. I’m glad he did, I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
I am so thankful for my Dad (I’m sorry, but boy do my parents look gorgeous on their wedding day!). He worked really hard to give us a great life, and was definitely successful.
I love you, Dad. Happy Father’s Day.
This and this will always remind me of you Dad :).