Birthday Boy

Today is my beloved’s birthday, which means:

1. He is now my age again after two fun-filled weeks of me enjoying my status as the older woman.

2. I am trying desperately to narrow down what I’m going to cook for him for dinner tonight. The stakes are enormous!!!!! And so are the steaks.

3. I wanted to post some of my favorite photos of him through the years.

After all these years, he’s still one of my favorite things to look at.

This is Marlboro Man with our baby, taken well before I ever started blogging. Few photos make my heart skip a beat as much as this one. He always carried the kids around with him so effortlessly when they were babies. I can’t look at this one for too long.

Todd was so teeny.

This is Marlboro Man when he was a little boy. He lived in the house where he and I live now with our own kids, and when I look at this photo I see my children, I see the man I’m married to, and I see our future grandchildren. It’s a glimpse into the past, present, and future.

I love it.

This is Marlboro Man chopping ice on a frozen pond a few years ago. I love it because it reminds me of how hard he works to make sure the animals on the ranch are taken care of.

This is Marlboro Man jumping over the fence while he was working cattle. He was hurrying from one end of the alley to the other, but it doesn’t really matter what he was doing. All I know is, his chaps are flying in this photo and that renders me completely unable to speak.

This is Marlboro Man making it all better.

Dads are good like that.

In our family, we express love through wrestling.

In that sense, Marlboro Man is the most loving father (and uncle) in the universe.

My baby…with my baby. Help.

My baby with my baby…again.

I realize almost all of my favorite photos of my husband include our children, too. But after sixteen years of having the kids in our lives, I can’t separate the man from the father.

And I don’t think he’d want me to.

This is Marlboro Man changing a flat tire.

I love it when he changes flat tires.

This is Marlboro Man demonstrating his ability to take a nap anywhere, anytime, in any place. All he has to do is close his eyes and he’s out.

I, on the other hand, need a sleeping mask, a soft faux fur throw, a noise machine, and my pillow propped just right.

This is Marlboro Man putting my nephew Elliot on top of a cow.

Another one. Sorry.

I’m not sorry for this.

I’m not sorry for this, either.

This is one of the relatively few photos of Marlboro Man and me together. It was taken a couple of years ago, and I’ve always loved it because it reminds me of the day during that trip that Marlboro Man and I skied together, which never happens because he goes on blacks and I won’t leave greens because I don’t like to fall down, and the ski patrol had to help me down a steep blue that Marlboro Man had tricked me into going on, and when we got to the bottom of the hill and reunited with Marlboro Man, the ski patrol told him, “I was just giving your mom a few pointers—I think she’s good to go now!”

Wait. Maybe I don’t love this photo at all.

Maybe this photo makes me downright hostile.

Okay. Moving on…

This is Marlboro Man looking ornery.

This is Marlboro Man, looking exactly like our son Todd.

I can’t.

I love this one, because it shows Marlboro Man’s mouth, which is one of my favorite physical attributes of his.

I can’t explain it. I just love his mouth.

It’s perfect.

I love this photo, too, because it sums up so many early mornings in our lives.

And maybe I hate it for the same reason.

But of all the photos of Marlboro Man, I think this is the one I love the most. I love it the most, I think, because it’s exactly what he looks like. When I close my eyes and think of him, this is what I see.

I see this, too. (But I wouldn’t necessarily say that out loud.)

Happy Birthday, Marlboro Man!

Thanks for giving me so much to look at for the last 17 years.

P.S. Thank you to everyone for your sweet birthday wishes for MM. So sweet of you!