Original Post -6-20-11
This weekend I got to see what it means to be a husband and a father to my wife and daughter. To some this may not seem like a big deal but to me this was incredibly humbling. My wife and daughter simply asked me to take the day off on Friday which I did, not knowing what was in store. First off, my nine-year old-daughter took me out to breakfast. As she paid for the meal I could see out of the corner of my eye a father whispering to his son, “Will you look at that, that little girl is buying her daddy’s breakfast.” He wasn’t condescending to his son but thought my little girl was a great example of the honor that a child is bestowing upon her father. I was really proud of her.
While we were gone (and unbeknownst to me), my wife packed up the car. When we got home from breakfast they simply asked me to sit in a chair and then they blindfolded me to where I couldn’t see a thing. I was led to the car and 4 hours later (yes, I kept the blindfold on the whole time) they ripped it off and there we were in Pigeon Forge, TN at the entrance to Dollywood Theme Park, If you’ve never heard of the park, please look it up. The rides are amazing.
Needless to say, I was pretty surprised. Soon after we checked into our hotel and then went on to the park to get out season passes. I wore a bandana in the id picture. We only had a couple of hours to ride some rides so we took advantage of what we could. After a few hours of fun we went back to the hotel and my girls handed me two presents. This went on all weekend. We’d go to the park, come back and I’d get two presents. It seemed like every time we had to leave the park and go back to our room I was getting presents.
One of the rides we rode was called the Barnstormer. It’s essentially a giant swing that catapults you about 100 feet in the air. My daughter became addicted to that one. I couldn’t ride it first thing because I was had a bellyful of pancakes but I did go back and what a thrill. They also have something called Adventure Trail. You put on a harness and climb about 75 feet up and walk across ropes and ledges. I can’t believe my daughter braved that one with no problem.
By the way, if you’re in Gatlinburg be sure to stay at the Red Roof Inn. What an amazing and friendly group of people.
This may all sound like a common every day thing in a lot of families and having a great time IS a common thing in ours but here’s the thing; my wife and daughter went through a TON of planning to pull all of this off and me (the detective as my wife refers to me as) not noticing any of it. That is very humbling to me. It’s the little things. As I kept telling my daughter, you don’t have to try – just be who you are and have fun and that’s good enough for me.
For that advice, I got two books, two mugs, 3 shirts, and one iPod alarm clock.
The biggest present was time away with the family. And that’s what made it incredible.
Love you my honies.