Happy Father's Day

I just realized it's been over a month since I last blogged, but I had to post today to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day.  He joined the Army straight out of high school as a means to a better life, then met my mother while stationed in Korea.  I was born in Texas and we moved to Rochester, NY when I was two.  I felt uprooted when my dad moved us all to Germany in the middle of my first year of school, and was upset when he extended his stay for two more years, because I wanted to come back to the United States to see my friends and relatives again. 

When we returned to the U.S. (after I finished 4th grade), I had no idea what a 7-11 was, and I discovered MTV and music videos for the first time.  I felt like I had missed out on so much, and I was too young to appreciate that I had been cultered well beyond most kids my age.  My father knew that being stationed in Germany was the greatest opportunity for us to travel to different nearby countries and experience a wide range of cultures and history. 

Thanks to my father, by the age of 10 I had been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, toured the Sistine Chapel, seen the Colosseum in Rome, watched glass blowing by master artists in Murano and walked the canals of Venice, walked along the outer galleries of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, visited East Berlin when the wall was still standing, toured endless castles in Germany, enjoyed amazing displays of tulips and other flowers in Holland, traveled through the Swiss Alps, and swam in the Mediterranean Sea.  The list goes on.

My parents scraped together whatever they had in order to afford us these opportunities, and I'm so thankful for my dad in planning each and every trip.  Throughout my life he has worked hard to provide for our family, and he has always supported me in my choices and believed in me to do the right thing.  He loves his family in his own quiet way, and I am proud to call him my father.  I love you, Dad!

And because a post is better with a photo....  Chris and I took a 2 week European vacation in 2008, and I was finally able to see and appreciate the Eiffel Tower as an adult.  This is one of my favorite images from our trip:

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