Happy Birthday, Papala!!

Top 20 Papala Memories (I tried for a “Top 10”, but there are just too many!):

1. Splashing in the ocean with you in Antigua (one of my earliest memories)
2. Watching you build me a doll house in the basement of Glen Rock
3. Helping you in the garden
4. Flying kites, windsurfing, sunfishing, motor boating (“we’ll stick it out”), barbecuing and building sand castles on the Cape
5. Hiking in Klosters, spending nights in SAC huts, and “gloepfer broetle” in the Vereina Tal
6. Learning to ski (on ice) at Campgaw and Vernon Valley
7. Carving pumpkins for Halloween
8. Summer barbecues in Wyckoff
9. Snorkeling in the Caribbean
10. Skiing in Klosters: “Meghan’s Delight”, Drostobel (“most difticult”), Meierhofer, “Wo geht’s den hier nach Kueblis”, “typewriter”, Lothar, “TBT”
11. Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and racing to the top again the next day
12. Barking at a group of Japanese tourists in Hawaii
13. Kalapathar!
14. “Muh”-ing at wildebeest, watching them cross a river, and going on a fog-enveloped hot air balloon ride in Africa
15. Sharing oysters and a glass(es) of wine on the deck of “Mazi’s Cottage”
16. Climbing Table Mountain in South Africa
17. Gorilla trekking in Rwanda
18. You pushing Naomi back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in her stroller in Basel in the first weeks after she was born
19. Watching you play with Naomi in the pool in Terranganu
20. Watching you pflotsch pflotsch with Naomi in the tidal pools of First Encounter Beach
    

I have so many wonderful memories with you that this list could go on and on. Thank you for having given me the best childhood any kid could ever hope for. Thank you for your patience during my impossible teenage years. Thank you for the great times we’ve spent together all over the world. Thank you for being a wonderful Papala to Naomi. And above all, thank you for your boundless love and support these last 38 years!

Love, Haes