Happy Birthday, Will!

Seems like only yesterday that Will and I were riding across the USA as a part of the bicycle ride known as the 1989 TransAmerica Bicycle Trek. Will is now officially older than I was when he and I did that ride together. That gives me pause! Nevertheless, Happy Birthday Will!

A sad note about his birthday is that it occurred on the very day that Martin Luther King was lost to us. This fact and a couple of others make the day especially memorable for me. I was near the end of my MS degree program at the time, and Will's arrival meant that my draft status during this time of the Vietnam War changed from 1A to 4A and probably kept me at home. Holding my son was such an awesome experience. I'm happy to say he still accepts my hugs and now hugs me back to boot.

Will was a very happy child. He loved visiting Grandma and Grandpa on the farm.

On one of our trips to California, he met Donald Duck at Disneyland. Love the sunglasses!

He always enjoyed building things, something we encouraged with toys like this giant-sized erector set.

I used to follow the Kansas City Chiefs, especially when Ed Podolak played there, and so Will had a Chiefs jacket. Nowadays, his brother is more the Chiefs fan.

Teaching his siblings the finer arts of popsicle consumption.

I got Will his first serious bicycle when he was ten years old, and he did RAGBRAI with me that same year. (Later, Rob and Betsy also did their first RAGBRAIs as they reached the age of ten.)

I also helped introduce him to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness. He was a double-packer right from the get-go. He loved the BWCA so much that he eventually found a way to work there for the outfitter with whom we always did our trips. He eventually met Sandy there, and they were actually married in a clearing in the forest just outside the BWCA. Today, they own property in that area as well.

For a little while, he played trumpet and participated in the City High band. I like how spiffy he looked in his concert tuxedo/uniform.

Remember that early bicycle riding he did and my mention of the 1989 Trek? Here he is showing off on a road in Montana as we rode together one day during that wonderful shared experience.

Will and Rob became good friends over the years, advancing beyond the simpler sibling affection they shared earlier. I really like this picture of them together, taken as I recall at a softball game.

Here he is with Sandy, that sweet girl he met when working summers in the BWCA.

Now Will is a dad too and a good one, as I've observed and as Sandy as remarked. He and Anders like to play. I bet they will have some of their own adventures as Anders gets older, if not a Trek, then surely canoe trips and other things.

And here he is with Donald Duck once again--this time with his whole family. Will may have grown up a bit, but Donald seems not to have changed much!

Your family loves you, Will! Again, Happy Birthday!