Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Happy Birthday Angel

Bobby would have been 19 this year. It's hard to believe that the last birthday wish I will ever give him was a "happy sweet 16" to which he replied, "those are for girls!"

This year, Luke and I made a plan. We would celebrate Bobby's birthday by doing things he loved.

We started our day at my parents house where we barbecued some ribs, it wasn't even noon yet. Bobby was a self-proclaimed carnivore- it just made sense.

Then we made our way to Wahooz with dad, where the three of us waited in line with a bunch of 12-year-olds to play laser tag. After our glorious red team victory, we made our way to the Go-Karts for a few laps of "let's all pass Kayla." We had a blast, which is exactly what Bobby would have wanted. We walked out of there laughing, sighing and already reminiscing.





After our morning of goofing off, we headed home to pick up mom. We decided that Bobby would request his favorite meal on his birthday, so we made our way to Smoky Mountain Pizza for way too much teriyaki chicken fettuccine with a side of meat lovers pizza. How did this kid eat so much while somehow maintaining his notorious abs? Not fair.

Our next stop was the Nike store. If you knew Bobby, you'd know that his closet was a whole lot of Nike attire in every color. We were all sporting our Nike t-shirts on our way to the IMAX theater to see the Avengers. I know he must have loved this part of our day.




Once the movie was out (and mom woke up from her not so sneaky IMAX glasses nap) we drove home in Bobby's car blaring music the whole way there.

We ended Bobby's birthday with a little tradition we've started since September 2012. We climbed a ladder onto the roof of the home we all grew up in, and we lit 4 lanterns sending them off one by one until they were tiny flecks of light. These were Bobby's birthday candles sent with a tremendous amount of love. Happy birthday sweet boy, we will celebrate your life every day until we see you again.