5 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

With Mommy still on maternity leave for a little bit more, she took Baby Holly to Sacramento, California for the week to visit family.

We decided this would be a perfect opportunity for you to spend a week at Nonna and Papa’s house in Fort Payne, Alabama; as your first sort of summer camp experience. Meanwhile, I would stay behind here in Tennessee as I work a full time job.

But of course, I would be the one to take you there to Nonna and Papa’s house over the weekend. I saw it as the perfect opportunity for you and I to have our 1^st ever father and son road trip. We were able to score a 2016 Lexus ES 300 Hybrid for the 3 day weekend!

The event began when we dropped off Mommy and Baby Holly at the Nashville Airport at 3:00 AM on early Friday morning and said our sleepy goodbyes to them. We then drove all the way back to Spring Hill and slept in until 8:00 AM.

Next it was time for our haircuts. Then I made us some lunch by reheating leftovers from the dinner Mommy made the night before, and after that, we were off to the movies!

We always love watching movies together so I decided we should spend the whole afternoon at the movies on such a sweltering hot July Friday afternoon, by watching two movies, back to back.

For months now, we couldn’t help but be curious about the new Ghostbusters movie. So I decided to make our viewing very special by opting for us to see it in 3D. I’m so glad we did.

You and I had so much fun watching it together. You liked all the Ghostbusters’ cool gadgets and weapons.

I’m pretty sure your favorite holiday is Halloween. You love scary stuff. For example, your favorite episode of Saved By the Bell is Episode 26 of Season 3, “Mystery Weekend”, the one with the haunted house.

Not to mention, you’ve seen nearly every episode of Goosebumps, plus the movie at least 2 or 3 times by now.

So while perhaps not all soon-to-be Kindergartner boys would be ready for Ghostbusters, you proudly watched it with me and thought it was so cool.

I let you completely decide what our 2^nd movie would be. Instead of Star Trek (which would have gotten my vote), or even Tarzan (which I know you would have loved since it has animals in it), you chose The BFG, which you’ve been excited about for weeks now.

By the way, you took your “big-eyed” Panda, who you dressed up in one of your sister’s outgrown dresses. I think that’s your way of saying your miss her.

From 2:05 to 6:35 Friday evening, we were at the movies. Seriously, how cool is that? It’s not something we would normally get to do, for sure.

As for me, that was the one day of our father and son road trip that I actually took off work for, as the weekend followed. It felt like a real day off for me. Such a good time.

I took you to Moe’s for dinner, as they are able to easily cater to my vegan needs and your vegetarian needs. Afterwards, we headed home to get to sleep as soon as possible; since early the morning, we would be taking the Lexus ES across state lines for our inevitable amazing adventures together…

Love,

Daddy

P.S.

Here’s the collection of stories from our father and son road trip…

Ghostbusters and the BFG

Nick A Jack Road

Cloudland Canyon State Park

Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel

Azalea Cascade Trail at DeSoto State Park

2016 Lexus ES 300h Father & Son Road Trip (Table of Contents)