Happy Daddy Day!

A moment to honor my favorite dads...

My Dad: It has been nine years since my dad has been around for Father's Day. He was in a coma for his last Father's day so I guess it's been more like 10. He was such a hard worker. He loved yardwork, which was not something I really loved doing as a child or young adult, but it's become a passion over the past couple of years. We would joke that he would work in a yard, make it become as beautiful as it could possibly be, and then we'd have to move because there was nothing left he could do to it. Probably why we moved every five years :) He loved making things grow and making our homes beautiful. He always "protected" his two girls by making the boys mow the lawn, but I'm proud to say I think he'd think my lawn lines were straight as I am a co-primary lawn mower for our rental, and hopefully by next year, this house. He loved music. He loved to write music, he could feel songs. I have been so long without a piano I think I've lost that a bit, but I hope in time, it's something that will come back. He had a testimony of the Savior, and loved his family very much. He would have been an amazing grandpa, and I find comfort in knowing that at some point he got to meet each of my sweet babies on the other side. It's also comforting to know that my children have him watching over them as they go through this life...in this crazy world I can use all the help I can get making sure they turn out all right!

Bryan's Dad: This is our first father's day without Dad, so it's a bit surreal. He was also a very hard worker, to the extreme sometimes. He loved to create, he loved to beautify. When we were working on this house together, and I'd be carting Asher around on my back while doing this or that, he'd call me "pioneer girl." That was my favorite compliment from him...that someone who worked as hard as he did thought I worked hard meant more to me than he ever knew. He loved his grandchildren. Even when he was hurting constantly, he made time for the kids, coming up with this project or that. One of the last things I remember them doing together was sorting a huge bucket of pens into piles of ones that worked and ones that didn't. Zerin, Liah and Aeden all helped him scribble on scrap papers testing each and every pen...there were hundreds! He had a gift with words, and a testimony that has carried through to each of his children. Those who knew him had no doubts as to his love for his Savior.

Bryan: I'm always singing Bryan's praises on here, even if he is a punk half the time ;) so bear with me as I do it again. Bryan is the kind of dad I think most dads would hope they are or can be. He LOVES being with his kids. Anything he is doing, he is always involving and including them. You would be hard pressed to find him without at least two of them when he isn't at work. He has been home for the last two weeks, and I always learn so much about being a mother by watching him be with the children. He manages his time around his family and how he can spend the most possible time with each of his sweet kids.

This last year, as he hasn't been feeling well, pretty much all the time, I have watched him master his body as he puts that pain aside to put on a happy face and play baseball, or build a treehouse, or dig a hole for a pond, or take all 4 kids on a bike ride, or a hundred other things he does with his kids each and every day. He has even helped me tackle potty training with Aeden.

He has taught our kids to pray for each other. A few weeks ago, when his turn would come around in family prayer, he would go through person by person, and thank Heavenly Father and ask for blessings on behalf of each individual in our family. Family prayer now takes twice as long as each of our kids do the same thing. I think every one of them has prayed Aeden will use the big boy potty this week because last night he finally got #2 in the potty!!! Our children know the Savior because they can see Bryan knows Him. They have faith in the power of the priesthood because they have seen and felt his priesthood blessings provide miracles and relief. They have watched him deal with physical pain most of their lives (some of them all of their lives) and are gleening from that example one way of overcoming the natural man.

When I was dating, weighing if this person was right or if that person was right, one of my biggest qualifications was what kind of father would they be? Would he be ready to give a blessing at any time, would he play with the kids when he got home from work or be too busy playing golf or reading the paper, would he be willing to help change diapers, and on and on. I admit, looking at it now, my list was fairly incomplete. But in the best-case-scenarios that I imagined in my mind, I couldn't have hoped for a better father for my children than Bryan. He's my hero :)

The Truck

This is the not quite complete story of my husband's dad's truck. It is a beautiful piece of art, as any of his siblings and mom will attest to, though I'm pretty sure at least his siblings were a bit surprised when it finally emerged from the garage after 15+ years to see that it had somehow managed to shrink a bit :)

This was the truck that Bryan's dad babied. Dad was a talented improviser, and a bit of a jerry rigger, but not when it came to this truck. The interior looks like it just came off the production line. The paint job is a one of a kind (or at least it was until everyone started copying it because it looked so flippin' awesome!). And it has all sorts of little custom detailing he did himself. It is a beautiful, beautiful piece of work.

Through a series of circumstances, and for a variety of reasons, we decided to buy it from his mom, with some hesitancy. It held memories for ALL of his siblings, but especially Andy and Dallin, so it didn't seem fair that any of us should end up with it. It was Dad's baby...and doing anything with his baby without him there...that's just hard. That has been true with most of his things as we have started the sorting and cleaning process, but especially with his beloved trucks. Luckily, Dallin and Alex have born the major burden of the cleanup projects at Mom's house up to this point, and Marne has been Mom's shoulder and rock as she has gone through the house, room by room to sort through years and years of memories. It makes me glad we'll have at least five kids to spread the love around :)

And as fun as it was to dream and hope that Mom would take the truck up as her primary source of transportation, she chose the van. I guess a truck maybe isn't her most practical option at this stage of her life, but man, would she have looked cute :).

With a little nudging (and a lot of elbow grease) from his brother, Alex, last weekend it came out of the garage. It wasn't running, so they towed it to the mechanic. It had a lot of work to be done just from sitting so long, so we weren't expecting to get it back anytime soon. So when his mom came over yesterday, acting like a giddy school girl saying it was sitting in front of the shop, ready to go, we were all very surprised! She gave Bryan a ride to pick it up. He was even in the middle of making pizza (which he loves doing) and he just left! For him, that's saying something :)

When he pulled up to the house behind the wheel of the truck, I saw something I haven't seen for a while....a big, huge smile. He told me later that he felt guilty that a "thing" had made him so happy.

Now backing up for a minute, Bryan has been missing his Dad a lot lately. A couple days ago, when he finished his bookshelves, he got up to go find his dad to show him. He caught himself before he got too far, but he's just really been missing him lately. I think, more than the truck making him happy, he felt close to Dad. And when you are missing someone so bad it aches, that is truly a gift.

Now this story wouldn't be complete without telling you about Aeden. Aeden "helped" last weekend with the whole yanking the truck from the garage adventure. His helping was mostly him screaming loudly each time it moved :) So when he saw the truck in the front yard yesterday, he dropped what he was doing and ran screaming to Bryan, "THE TRUCK! THE TRUCK!" Aeden is a pretty animated kid, but I have NEVER seen him that excited about something. It was fun for Bryan to have a partner in crime, I think. Aeden wanted to take the truck out on the town, but had to settle for a ride around the block. When he asked Daddy to go again, Bryan told him we had to pay money to get a special sticker so we could drive it. Aeden was like, "It's okay, Daddy. I'll make a gicker." Later, Andy took it for a drive around the block. When he came back, Aeden mistakingly thought Andy was taking the truck (for good) and oh, he was not going to have any of that! "You CAN'T take the guck!!!" Good thing Andy has a sense of humor with Aeden's overprotectiveness :) That night, as Alex and Danelle left, Alex jokingly told Aeden to go give the truck a kiss. Without missing a beat, he ran from the house into the 20 degree weather in his jammies, and gave the front wheel well a tender loving kiss.

At least we know it will be loved well into the next generation... :)

Tough as a pioneer...

So today, it was all about the fireplace. No small task considering that we know the person that originally made it...Bryan's Dad! Let me just take a minute to tell you about his dad. You will never meet a tougher man. I am nearly convinced that he was one of the original pioneers...just sent down 100 years too late. He can make ANYTHING out of pretty much nothing. Camp with him was an adventure in and of itself...no other camping trip have I cooked stew with a blow torch, used a cammode as a toilet, or had a tarp big enough to cover half of the uintahs!

So this fireplace he made was as well made as anything I have ever seen. Completely level...bricks spaced perfectly...fans built in...I marveled all day as it slowly came down. It was sturdy enough to outlast the house...and probably the neighborhood :) It has been heartwrenching to decide to take it out, but we kind of have to...so sad (it is so heavy, that in spite of steel reinforcements in the crawlspace, the floor is sinking).

We chipped away a little at it yesterday...making it about halfway down one side of the right hand wall. So today we went crazy...taking out nearly all of it. We even found 2 skeletons buried in the rubble...they were only mice... but STILL ...SKELETONS! The other noteworty item we found was a half-melted golf ball. I didn't know they could melt, but yep.

We even uncovered the original window...it is the only original window in the whole house. We were sad because it lasted this long, but one faulty swing with a sledgehammer, and the glass was gone :(

But still...it is amazing to look at. In the frame above the window, you can see the notches from when it was hand tooled. Fascinating stuff. Aeden, Zerin and Liah even got in on the action. They chipped away a good chunk of the lower part of the brickw0rk. A bunch of hard little workers to be sure.

Who needs a gym membership when you can take out a fireplace??? Seriously though...I think I'd rather go to the gym...I am so sore!