Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad and his Dad their last picture before my grandpa passed away

Today would have been my Dad's 48th birthday. He was the most amazing person I have ever had in my life (besides my mom). To put it lightly, he was my hero and best friend. I always looked up to him and cared about what he thought. I wouldn’t do anything unless he approved and was ok with it. He always made my mom laugh. That was one of his many talents. He and my mom would always find the humor in things. I would frequently catch them laughing so hard that tears were streaming down their faces. That was one of my Dad’s favorite things. To make my mom laugh until she couldn’t breathe, and he was a pro at it. I think that’s where I might have gotten my weird sense of humor ;)

My Dad was EXTERMELY athletic. He could beat anyone at anything. His favorite sports were… well anything but he really enjoyed basketball (which is where me and my sisters gained our love for it), golf (he loved to play and watch, I remember we would always complain when he was watching golf, but we loved watching the BYU and Jazz basketball games with him) and football. I always remember we would have Daddy Daughter dates and we would get to go out with Dad one on one. I always looked forward to my turn. Most of the time we would get to go to a BYU basketball game. He would buy me all the treats I wanted and we would have fun while he explained certain things to me in the game that I maybe needed to work on. Another thing I always remember was getting to go to the BYU football games with my Dad. We would bundle up because mostly it was cold and he would again, buy me all the treats I wanted.

I guess you can tell where I found my love for BYU. Yes. It was my Dad. I swear on my life he only owned blue shirts. Every jacket and coat he had was either BYU, Jazz, or blue. Blue was his favorite color for pretty much his whole life, but BYU was always his favorite team. I think he got his love for this place from his Dad and I’m pretty sure it’s in the genes. ;)

My Dad never yelled. OK, well, he did. But very rarely. I cannot even remember a specific time that he had ever yelled at me or anyone else. But I remember that when he did raise his voice, you knew it was bad. But seriously. It like never happened. 

My parents also never fought. Some people may say that’s impossible. Impossible is not a word in my family ;) My Dad never yelled at my mom and he always treated her like more than a queen. He would do anything and everything for her no matter what. He loved her more than life itself, and it showed. From his example I learned how I should treat people and what to look for in a future husband.

My Dad’s favorite treats were ding dogs, éclairs, banana cream pies, chico sticks, butterfingers, almond rocka, and snickers. We all knew that too. He would always have treats hidden somewhere. I remember looking through his sock drawer trying to find the stash. I only found it a few times. He was really good at hiding things. He could make his treats last for weeks. One Butterfinger would  seriously last him all week. I don’t know how he did it. Apparently he just had really good self control.

Going along with that I remember my Dad and his saltine crackers. He always had some in his car and on his way home from work he would suck on them, getting all the salt off and then sucking on it till it was moist. Apparently his mouth was so bug because he would flip the whole thing in his mouth while it was whole. He also loved chocolate milk. He would drink it every morning on his way to work. I remember right after he passed we had some chocolate milk  in the fridge and it went totally bad because he was the only one that really drank it.

My Dad worked at Macey’s his whole life. We now call it the family business and I’m surprised that someone from my family doesn’t own it by now ;) I would call him almost every day and ask him if he would bring me home some apples. He always would without fail (I think I really just wanted to talk to him, I just needed an excuse).

There are so many things I could say but here’s the last. I remember almost every day when my Dad would get home from work we would all wait till we heard the garage open or see the car in the drive way and when he would walk in we would quickly turn the Children’s Primary soundtrack on and sing, “I’m so glad when Daddy comes home.” We would run to him and grab his knees and give him a huge hug and kiss.

I cannot even begin to describe home much I loved him and still love him so much! I’m sure he’s up there smiling and can’t wait to see his family again, cause we can’t wait to see him!

Happy 48th Birthday Dad!