A Tribute to Dad

I was sitting in church today listening to the speaker and I began to think of all the things we had done as a family and what a good father Dad was. So, I thought I would write a tribute to the man in my life and remember some of the great things he has done to bring up 5 such great kids.

• tells me he loves me nearly each and every day and sometimes several times
• changed diapers in the middle of the night every night so I could sleep a few minutes more before feeding the baby
• put up with a waterbed so I could be comfortable while pregnant
• snuggled with many a kid
• let you ride on his shoulders while you drooled in his hair
• reading stories to the kids by the hours, and yes, elaborating immensely too!
• telling you kids scary stories and made up stories
• singing the Teddy Bears Picnic until we were sick of it!
• teaching you all to count by 1,2, 5s and 10s when you were very young
• asking the boys how many times the tire goes around when we drove to California
• thinking up the silly magnet game of 10 pieces of magnet on the dashboard so you little kids would have a visual of how far we were on our trip and not ask the inevitable question "Are we there yet?"
• took the "cries" out of each of you with a big spoon while you laid down on your back
• rough housed and played airplane and horsey
• taught you not to be afraid of heights and to jump off into his arms
• regretting some of his early spanking skills on the boys and resolutely determining he would never do that again
• coaching soccer for years when you first started playing
• driving you to many, many, many soccer games, concerts, activities, piano lessons and scouting adventures
• paid you to pick up rocks out of our garden so you would learn the value of work and $
• drove countless Sunday mornings and many an afternoon on the paper route
• gave up his old ways to become a spiritual man and a good Latter Day Saint
• always did/does his home teaching and took the boys along to learn
• is a great Missionary and was so supportive of his own kids on their missions, he even wrote them letters which he never did before!
• giving the boys the Priesthood
• giving a name and a blessing to each of the girls
• being a rock solid Dad to all our kids, we were all the same family in his eyes and mine
• Christopher - hiking with you in central Oregon with your friend at Red Rock
• Kevin - driving quickly to school one morning when a little boy ran too hard into the gym wall and broke his arm in half
• Becky - becoming Superman and flying over the hedges and down the hill when he heard his little girl was hit by a car and having enough faith in you to send you half way around the world to Australia
• Lori - insisting Mom that we buy a guitar for you and sending his little girl on a mission far, far away praying his blond haired daughter would be safe
• Jenno - being so touched that you sang at your Baccalaureate that he had a tear in his eye
• loving to hear all his children sing
• attending many YE and MVHS choral concerts and loving it
• making a select tape of dubbed choral songs his kids had sung and playing it in his car so he could hear them
• worrying and loving you all
• going on scouting and YMYW raft trips down the Deschutes
• teaching you about hiking and camping and the out of doors
• taught you to fix your bikes
• teaching you to ride your bikes on the church parking lot
• then... teaching you to drive your cars safely - again on the church parking lot
• praying for you to be safe while driving your car - not on the church parking lot
• waiting up for you to get home from a date making sure you were safe
• sharing with you stories of his youth to help you understand where not to make the same mistakes
• telling you he would "rip your face off" and then smile
• or telling you he would hang you upside down on the Johnson's tree until your nostrils filled with water unless you behaved
• built a rope swing
• taught you to climb "Mount Tree"
• taught you right and wrong, even making you take things back and apologize to people when you have "taken" them
• played catch on the front lawn
• stuffed many an Easter egg
• gave up his bachelorhood idea of long idyllic family hikes into the wilderness so as a family we could have shorter hikes that everyone could do
• camped in a campground instead of the distant woods so kids and Mom could have bathrooms and water
• tried to teach you some about the world and politics
• hugged and kissed many a boo boo - Lori remember the doosy you got going down the hill at the campground when you were about 6 and then the mosquitos bit you that night and your eyes swelled shut and you could barely see in the morning. Dad felt so badly for you.
• SUPPLIED YOU WITH A SENSE OF ADVENTURE AND DARING which stood you well as kids and as adults
• struggled to learn to use the computer because it was the new thing despite how hard it was
• WORKING MANY, MANY EXTRA OR LONG SHIFTS to put food on the table, pay for missions, pay for college, pay for extra cars, pay for living in a family of 7
• worked with the boys and taught them many things about fixing "stuff"
• made great pine wood derby cars with his boys
• was a great Scout Dad so proud of his Eagle Scout boys
• listened to countless piano lessons and practicing and concerts despite the sound :)
• went to your open houses at school, encouraged you to do your best
• hugged and cuddled you even when you were big
• gave you a Father's Blessing
• is a proud and happy Grandpa of 12 - he so loves and misses his grandchildren
• is a dork, a silly goose, a goofball dad
• remembers how to be a little kid even when he is 60+
• I know there are many more, but this blog is long enough, but I want you to all honor Dad today and remember what a great man, father and husband he has been over the years despite some difficult times.