April 3, 1982

Happy Birthday sweetie! 28 years ago, our lives changed forever. We took that next step of being parents and never turned back. It has been a totally fun ride!

Rob, you didn't come with an instruction booklet or a "how to" manual, but I think we did ok, don't you? We learned lots of things with our first born child. Now I can use all that stuff on my grandkids. So from now on, they will get cardboard boxes for presents, since that's what they play with most. Dirt washes off! Weird. I thought you would surely die if you got dirty or heaven forbid your Osh Gosh overalls got dirty. But guess what....they wash up pretty nice too!

You didn't grow any weird warts from holding worms, frogs or snakes. Even though you didn't like them much. You did grow lots of facial hair though...probably from all that cheese.

I've always said that you are our gentle one, our tenderheart. That's why you got a Tenderheart CareBear. You hated to do the insect collection because you just couldn't bring yourself to stick a pin through the insects-even though they were already dead. You still don't kill things. You catch and release. You've got the kindest soul around.

The things you have taught me are too immeasurable to count. But here's some that I can think about-patience, Lord of the Rings x 3, geo-caching, frugality, sacrifice, humility, unconditional love, and Joe Polka.

I know we aren't supposed to be prideful, and I try not to be. But my heart swells just a little bit when I see the good job you are doing in your life, in your family's lives. You are a good provider, a good husband, a great dad, a terrific brother and an amazing son. How we love you!

Thanks for your love and always being there for our family. Happy Birthday son!