This has been sitting in draft for a long time. It’s not a particularly great photo. I can’t even remember why I took it. But, here it is anyway.

Today is my Mother‘s birthday. Last night, she came over to our vacation home here in Grafton, WV bearing two baking plates filled with cinnamon rolls. Our kids LOVE her cinnamon rolls and associate them with Christmas morning. Since this morning is our last morning in Grafton, she wanted the kids to have a special breakfast.

Today is her birthday, but her focus was on our kids. This is love.

I often chuckle when someone tells me, “you’re a great Father.”

Often, because the comment usually comes from those who really have very little clue whether I’m a good father, bad father or otherwise. I imagine they’re overly influenced by the sheer number of children we have in this house. They get to see almost nothing of my parenting skills. Of course I’m proud when people comment about how well behaved my children are. And they are. But they’re still young.

My children are 15, 10, 9, 6, 5 & 4. I appreciate the kind words about my dad skills, but those who, with the very best of intentions, say “you’re a great Father,” should check back in 20 years. In my opinion, the real measure of a “great Father” is a combination of how he conducts himself AND how his children turn out as adults. Bill Lublin, for example, is a great Father.

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the birth of Bill’s son, Hal. If just one of my sons turns out to be anything like Hal Lublin, I’ll be a very proud Father. He is kind, authentic, intelligent, creative and ridiculously funny. If any one of my sons conducts himself with the same degree of integrity that Hal Lublin does at age 33, perhaps then I’ll stop chuckling when people attempt to complement my parenting. I don’t know. Maybe, I’ll always chuckle.

I sure hope I get to find out. Happy Birthday, Hal. I’m honored to know you.

My oldest son ran into my office yesterday and said, “Dad, get your camera. The sunset is amazing.”

Tonight, my middle son did the same thing. My kids seem to love the fact that I love sunsets. They’ve come to understand how important it is to me and they take joy in alerting me.

I love that my kids get me.

Rocky and I both attended our High School reunions this year.

We flew to Beavercreek, Ohio for my reunion. We had wondered whether the expense was really worth it, but after my reunion she shared with me how much fun she had watching me interact with old friends. A small part of me thought she was just making me feel good. A much larger part of me knew that Rocky doesn’t play that game. So, it should not have been a surprise when I found myself smiling from the inside out while watching her interact with her old friends.

From a technical standpoint, this is not a great photo. It was a poorly lit room and all I had was my iPhone. But I love it anyway. It has captured joy and frozen one of those “old friend” moments that made me smile.

And some things are not. This morning, after sleeping only three hours, I obeyed the alarm and walked outside to this amazing sight.

What’s amazing is that when you encounter one of these things that are worth losing sleep over, like this sunrise at Miami Beach, it makes all of the little things that you’ve been losing sleep over seem utterly insignificant.

Every day is a new day.

Photos are amazing. I was looking for something else today and stumbled on this photo of one of my sons playing in the ocean. I am not sure I was living in the moment captured in this photo, but I am quite sure he was. And right now, I am not living in this moment either. I am living in the memory of this photo.

I’ll get back to today in a little bit.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a photo here. Way too long. And it’s not because I’ve not had anything good to share. It’s because I’ve had too much.

This has been an exceptionally great summer with the kids. We’ve been to six National Parks and seen some views that are simply unable to be captured properly on film. And we’ve made some great memories. Last night at the Citrus Classic Balloon Festival, I’m sure we made a few more.

My three oldest boys ran, jumped, rolled, stared, laughed, sang and danced themselves into a state of pure joy. There’s not much better.

My 8-year-old son has been running around with one of our digital cameras lately. He’s shooting photos of random objects, brothers, sisters, friends. And the floor sometimes. This photo was taken while he as supposed to be in a time out in his room. Clearly he found a way to keep himself busy.

I exported the files from that camera today and saw a world that is unfamiliar to me. The photos were all from a perspective I can’t see. Everything was a bit skewed. There are photos of people who appear to be larger than they are and images taken at angles I would never think to use. And images shot through window screens.

What strikes me is that I could us a bit more of this childlike perspective in my life.

Every once in a while fate delivers a nice surprise. I flew into Denver early for REBarcamp Denver. It would probably have been my preference to get in a bit later in the day, since the conference wasn’t until the next day. But the flights were cheaper earlier in the day, so I grabbed the cheapest flight, thinking, “I’ll figure out some way to spend my time.” The day before the trip, Christian Sterner sent me a message on Facebook asking if I wanted to go on a hike in the Flatirons. It wasn’t hard to figure out this is why I had flown in early.

Thanks, Christian. And thanks to Kori Covrigaru and Chad Gagnon who joined us. It was a great hike.