A birthday letter to Will

Legos!  Pre-dawn!  Sibling excitement!  

 Dear Will:  Today is your 9th birthday, as I reminded you several times today.  You wanted to wait to truly celebrate until lunchtime since that's when you were born, but it was perfectly fine to open presents pre-7:00 a.m. because, of course it was.  Instead of a birthday party this year, you opted for another day of skiing and you invited a friend and his mom to come along.  More pictures and stories about our skiing day later!  For your birthday this year, Reina picked out some Broncos legos, Daddy found you some new ski points and a shirt, I searched for more sports socks and lucked out with some Star Wars socks too and your big present, the Millennium Falcon Lego extravaganza was a joint present from us and Grandma and Pop-Pop.

The Millennium Falcon and a tired Dad behind the box.  

 Oh Will, I can't believe you are nine.  The last almost-decade has flown by.  Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and just spend a few hours with toddler Will.  But then I remember the diapers and maybe it's alright to back in the future.  Will, you are a delightful kid.  I love watching your enthusiasm for sports, both the kind you play and the games we watch together.  You are turning into a sports analytics nut and you ask me questions like "who was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49'ers in 1996?" and I don't know.  We google lots of sports questions.  Your list of favorite teams is long and slightly weird; Denver Broncos, Wyoming Cowboys, Minnesota Gophers, Minnesota Vikings, Golden State Warriors, Colorado Rockies, Oregon Ducks, and whoever else happens to be playing at the moment.

We also love watching you play sports.  You just finished basketball and you have soccer and baseball right around the corner.  You are already talking about football in the fall.  You have a lot of enthusiasm and you are a great team player.  In basketball this year, I had to pay you to shoot the ball because you were worried about being a ball hog.  Shoot the dang ball, kid!  You have a good shot!

Will, you are learning so much in school.  You read like crazy and write stories about Willy the Walking Waffle.  You have some good friends at school and your teachers tell us that you are kind to everyone.  What a good thing to know.  You are a good big brother and if I act like I'm not paying too much attention, I can catch you playing with your little sister and giggling like crazy.  Your little cousin thinks you are pretty cool and she just might have you wrapped around her finger.

You still love Legos and they still litter your room.  You are saving up your allowance and birthday money to buy your own video game thingamabob.  You are working your way through the Harry Potter books and you love Star Wars and a bunch of other movies that involve battles, heros, villains and did I mention battles?

Obligatory photo of Coco and a ribbon.  The weird pink thing is her tongue.  

Happy birthday Bobo.  May 9 bring you lots of fun and adventures, appropriate amounts of screen time and more Legos than you know what to do with.

Notice the big piece of cake cut out of the side?  The dogs sampled the frosting before we could cut into it.  Happy birthday Will!