Happy 56th Birthday Dad!!!

So the 23rd marks what would have been my Dad's 56th birthday. Crazy!!! Weird to think he has almost been gone for 9 years. For those of you who didn't know him, here's a little background.

He was born April 23, 1953 in Preston, Idaho. He was the 3rd of nine children...5 boys and 4 girls. In high school, he was an SBO, was in a rock band, and had long hair for Morgan, Utah (everyone else there was a cowboy). He met my mom while they were both attending LDS Business College, they dated for a while, and got engaged. He then decided to serve an LDS mission and was called to serve in Fiji. Kinda funny for someone who was extremely picky with food and hated the heat :) He loved the people and learned to really love the food. On special occasions he'd make us Taro which is kind of like a potato...SO good, and some other stuff I wasn't quite as fond of. When he returned home, and another year, he married my mom in the Salt Lake Temple. I was born 9 months and 5 days later...and I was 5 days late ;)























He worked so hard his whole life, but spent most of my childhood working for Logan City Light & Power, eventually working his way up to a management position. He held several callings, including Elder's Quorum President, and Ward Clerk.

In June of 1999, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. He was hospitalized in October to prepare for a bone marrow transplant which he received in November. Nasty yucky experience, that was. He fought hard, and improved over the next few months. In April of 2000, he was well enough to go home, and was able to attend my wedding in May. Shortly thereafter, doctors found a spot on his lung...a fungus that had grown due to his low immune system. Over the next few weeks, it grew to the point of causing extreme pain, and they finally operated to remove the majority of the lung it was in to buy him some time, but he never woke up after that surgery. He passed away 3 weeks later on June 27, 2000.

He loved yard work...he had the most beautiful yards, he wrote music and loved to play the piano, organ and guitar...drums too but I never got to hear him on those. He was a quiet guy that didn't like to be in the limelight (I know I know...where did I come from hahaha!), but he loved being with his family. He was a Trekkie, a fantasy book fanatic (he loved Lord of the Rings and just missed the movies coming out), and had a very strong testimony.

I wish many times that my dad could know me now rather than the headstrong teenager that I was when he left, but hopefully he's allowed little visits to check in now and again so he can be reassured that I FINALLY grew up...a little :). I think every little girl wants to know her daddy is proud of her, and I don't think that's something I've ever outgrown.

I know he would have been an amazing grandpa, and I know my kids would have adored him. I kinda giggle when I think about the stories him and Zerin would have come up with, and how Liah would have had him wrapped around her pinky finger, and how Aeden would have had him constantly laughing, and how Asher would have been his little buddy.

Love ya Dad!!!