Happy Birthday Rob!

Rob will be celebrating his first birthday north of 40 on March 5th. I thought I would take the occasion to post some favorite pictures of him.

From the get-go, he has always been adventurous. Note his snazzy (actual cloth) diapers with the engraved sterling silver diaper pins. (I wonder if he still has them?)

When we went out to the farm, before Mom and Dad retired, he loved watching Dad milk the cows.

I liked his initialed cap. (Will had his own WD version, and they made quite a pair.) Rob always paid attention to what his parents had to say (well for a few years that was true anyway).

He loved orange popsicles--remember when they came as twins instead of singles?

Rob has always looked good in hats. Here he tries out my Stetson. It actually fit him pretty well.

When he started working for the City of Iowa City as a construction inspector and supervisor, he first worked on the new city water plant, just north of town. He gave me a tour of the facility while it was under construction and showed me what his responsibilities were. Needless to say, a father can be very impressed and proud of the work his (previously) little boy was now doing.

But, I'll always be most proud of the kind, caring, and dedicated father he has proven to be. This photo, which I took when we were on one of our boating outings at the lake one summer, illustrates what I mean.

Of course, he'll always be a Hawkeye, and his girls won't have a chance to be anything else either. That's just fine with me!

Rob is a good uncle too. He can be kind of a ham, and with Henry as a co-conspirator, anything can happen.

Rob and all his girls make up a wonderful family. I love them all.

 Happy Birthday big guy! I love you very much, as I'm sure you know.