Happy Birthday, Chris

Yesterday I wrote a post about our granddaughter, Mary, because it was her 5th birthday. What I didn't write about was our grandson-in-law, Chris, and I should have because it was his 26th birthday.

I knew his birthday was coming up but I didn't know it was here already. I won't make that mistake again. A little while ago I called him for his birthday interview. It went like this (oh and, as usual, the pictures may or may not have anything to do with the subject being discussed):

Does it feel any different to be 26? No

Did you do anything special on your birthday? We went out to lunch and went to the park for a little while; and, I played hockey. Did you win? Yes, we won. Did you do anything good in the game? I scored two goals but I just couldn't get that hat trick.

Did you get anything special for your birthday? The best thing I got was the card I got from my two boys and baby girl.

Are you at a place in your life you would have expected to be 10 years ago? No, ten years ago I never imagined having a family. At sixteen I wasn't thinking about where I'd be at this point in my life.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now? I see us, hopefully, in a house with some land. A few more kids would be nice too.

What do you like best about being married? I like being with the person I love everyday and never having to be apart from her.

Was it intimidating becoming part of such a large family? Yes, it was very intimidating at first but it's made me want to have a large family because I think it's the coolest thing in the world now.

What do you like best about being a father? Every day when I get home from work I get to see my two boys and they yell Daddy!!! That's pretty incredible. Just the feeling of being a dad is unbelievable.

Are you overwhelmed at the thought of having three kids so close together? No. We've always wanted to have them close so they'd grow up together.

Are you excited that your third baby is a girl? I'm real excited to have a girl so I can see what it's like to have a little Daddy's girl. I think it'll just be a different kind of love for a little girl.

Off the top of your head, what would you want to pass on to your children that they could take with them into adulthood? I would say always try your hardest and know that you can never change what's already happened but remember that you can always change your future.

What do you enjoy doing in your downtime? Hanging around with my wife and my two boys.

How do you feel about everybody in Amber's family asking you for help all the time because of your amazing skills and work ethic? (First he laughed) I like doing things. I'm a person who doesn't like sitting still and I'm not the type of person to watch other people do things so I enjoy being asked to help.

What else can you tell us about yourself that others might find interesting? I started playing hockey again this year after not playing for four years. I enjoy interacting with kids now but never did until I had kids of my own and found out how awesome they are. Having my own kids opened my eyes to that. And I've always been interested in wildlife. When I was a kid I built a secret pond behind our garage where I kept turtles, frogs, and snakes that I'd caught. When my mom found it, I had to get rid of some of those pets.

Chris almost sounds too good to be true, doesn't he? Well, he's the real deal. Just last week Beth tried to borrow him from Amber for awhile but Amber wasn't having it. And he's helped us so much in the short time we've known him that it's amazing. He's very, very skilled and hard-working and sweet beyond belief. We love him completely and hope his birthday was awesome!

Oh, and one more thing about Chris. If we don't take one other picture, we always take a picture of our visitors just before they leave. It's just something we've always done. Last year, when we visited Chris and Amber, we got up to leave and Chris stopped us. He said they had to take our picture before we left.

That's the kind of guy he is.