When you are an 8 year old kid, you want to be 10 to be able to play baseball. When you are 13 you want to be 16 to drive, and 18 you want to be 21 to drink (legally). Then everyone tells you it is all downhill from there. Work till your dead….I don’t think that is true.

As I get older, I LOVE my 30s. I don’t want to fast forward time to another stage. My kids are 11 and 13 and I have no desire to fast forward to when they are in there twenties. I’m excited for when they get there, because my wife and I will still be young enough to want to travel to weird places and drink and experience life with them. But, I don’t need it to just happen, I want to experience this time with them, and watch my wife grow also. After all this time together, I’m still super interested in what she wants or needs out of this life.

The weekends are fun. We go from cheer competitions to dance competitions, traveling and being busy. When we look at the calendar and see there is nothing, we take a night and melt into the couch. I watch some Planet Earth show, the wife plays on her phone and it is a PERFECT night. I enjoy those nights just as much if not more than the nights where kids at a sleepover and we are out drinking and celebrating with friends.

Having two daughters, both getting closer and closer to boys entering their lives is scary. But it’s a challenge I think the wife and I can handle. They were raised to be open and honest with us, even if they did something bad. Not saying they always will be, but they understand the truth is so much easier than a lie. My wife was raised like that and she is basically a saint. I wasn’t like that and it took me a long time to agree with my wife’s parenting style, but so far it has worked. The kids talk to either of us about any and everything. While it may be uncomfortable to start, the result at the end is we are so much closer, and they have a trusted person to come to when the world just doesn’t make sense to them.

Life isn’t perfect. We have leaky tubs, old rotting pipes, broken stairs, bills are piling up, there is more money going out than coming in, but I get to face all of life’s challenges with my three best friends. The wife always has been my rock, and the kids are becoming that also.

This weekend is here. It’s a weekend filled with basement cleanups, and yard work. It’s a weekend like many others I have had, but it’s one I will be proud of and enjoy. I don’t wish to be a different age or in a different place, I like where I am right here and right now.