Basketball has been a kind of first love in life when it comes to sports and that never really changed but bad knees put an end to my playing days many years ago. When our son came along the dream of spending time with him and teaching him some of the things learned playing on a team that ultimately won the state championship was very exciting to me. But after two years of Tee ball and one year of baseball and Saturday morning basketball, Heath had all the ball playing he wanted. Dream crushed! Tiffany also played two years of Tee ball and she was finished as well.
A couple of years went by and suddenly Tiffany decided she wanted to play Saturday morning basketball. That first year she played basketball, I got to help coach the team and it was a thrill. Her team went undefeated that year and it was a fun experience for her and for me. In the spring she decided to play softball and soon found she could hit a softball as far as anyone her age. She ultimately played three years of basketball and five years of softball. The time that I got to spend with her helping to teach her about basketball and softball left me with memories more precious than fine jewels. It presented opportunity for closeness with her that was otherwise far too rare in our relationship during her first 18 years.
Fortunately during their time at home, I was able to spend time with Heath doing other things besides playing ball. As it turned out, he liked hunting and fishing, though more fishing than hunting, so we got to do some of that together as he was growing up. He also liked camping and the two of us had opportunities to camp and a few times our entire family went on camping trips. The camping trips that he and I made when it was just the two of us were great times that help to cultivate a closeness that was very special to this father. Those were some very enjoyable times and are treasured memories that I look back on with immense pleasure.
During the time the children were growing up the family took several vacation trips along the way. Although we had some really good times on those trips it seemed like there was a lot of time spent fussing about what we were going to do and where we were going to go. Strangely enough, once the children grew up and their mother and I began to take trips with just the two of us, all that fussing went away. I can't recall Lynn and myself having any argument about what we would do when we got to our vacation destination. Because of our ever increasingly cluttered lives, the time we have had to spend together on those vacation trips has actually been some of the most pleasant times we've spent together as long as we have been together. Those are times that I've looked forward to with excited anticipation as the opportunities come around.
Life in my world has rarely taken the path my imagination planned out and the child-rearing experience certainly was no exception. Even so, the relationship that I have with my children in their adult years is pleasant and we see each other often. For that I am thankful. I truly am looking forward to spending time with my little grandson as he grows up and fully expect that there will be things in our relationship that turn out differently from what I've anticipated just as with his Dad and aunt.
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