Making it a Meaningful Father’s Day

Thank you Artifact Uprising for sponsoring this post! All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Twenty-nine years ago my dad was celebrating his first Father’s Day. I was a month old and probably stinkin’ adorable. He then became not only my father, but the father of two other little girls and a boy. And those girls all got married and added three son-in-laws to the party. Above and beyond, he has been a father figure to so many – an outstanding feat from a boy who never met his father until he was 18. Basically my dad is a super hero 😉

This year I thought it would be fun to do something a little more meaningful. I wanted to give the gift that would make my dad cry. Haha! While there are wedding photos and photos all over Facebook and all the walls of our more recent memories, there are so many good film prints at home in boxes. Their grainy quality and muted images reflect the time they were taken – on film cameras in the 80’s & 90’s. You didn’t know if anyone was blinking. You didn’t straighten, crop, and edit. You didn’t know if two photos would end up on the same frame creating a double exposure. You didn’t know what any of it looked like until you got the photos back from the one-hour photo. And they still breathe so much life – even the imperfect ones.

While I am a digital girl who takes waaaay more photos than I need and edits all the ones you see, I have a desire to still stay true to the life that is in those snapshots. I try to capture the moments, places, people with a little more freedom to take those imperfect photos. So I texted my mom and told her I was coming for those old photos in boxes and she tried to round them up for me.

I sat on the floor of my parents living room – the same house they moved into 29 years ago – sorting through all the memories we have in that home, in Colorado, and on our adventures. I was ridiculously nostalgic as I sorted the hundreds of photos. I was looking for ones of my dad and the kids. I wanted to find those stories of fatherhood all wrapped up in birthday parties, vacations, and family events. The Easter egg dying, hikes, recitals, and baseball games. I found them. I found soooo many of them.

I went home with my stack of photos and spent the next four hours scanning them all into my computer (as I repeated “this will be worth it” over and over and over to myself 😉 ) I wanted to do some kind of photo gift from Artifact Uprising, but I wasn’t sure which one. With the large amount of photos that I fell in love with, creating a book to contain them all was the clear choice. I also wanted a couple other photos to put in a desk display for my dad’s desk. A book filled with Fatherhood stories and some desk accessories for his home desk and his work desk. I am just spoiling him with pictures of me 😉

The truth is, this Father’s Day I just wanted to honor him. He is the unsung hero & constant role model in my life. From the trails of Colorado to the front-lines of entrepreneurship, he has inspired, encouraged, and gone before me. If there is a dad in your life you would like to honor this Father’s Day,  use code OAKxOATS4AUFD17 for 10% off your order at Artifact Uprising (1 use per customer, expiration 6/30/17)