happy birthday, dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!

My dad is pretty much my favorite guy. Besides, you know, for Carl and Nathaniel. Here are some things I love about my dad:

1. He is a hard worker. He does a ton of stuff. He works countless hours at his actual job, then spends his other time taking care of my handicapped older brother, as well as a bunch of single mothers and widows etc. in our ward at church. He is a serious hero for all the work and service he puts in to make this world a better place.

2. He loves nature. My favorite memories from growing up involve him and this beautiful Earth God gave us. He would take us camping in the forest and on the beach. He took us canoeing and kayaking and rowboating. He taught us how to catch crawdads in the creeks near our house, and helped us catch salamanders and insects galore. No matter where we go outside, it's guaranteed he'll see tons of wildlife out there. I feel like he knows what most of it is that he sees, and he tells us about them all. Spending time with him in nature is enlightening and amazing.

3. He is up on current events. He always knows what's going on. I really respect and admire his opinions on things. He thinks through what he believes and he acts on it. I think this part of him has really influenced me.

4. He is a loyal guy. Even when things have been really hard, he's always been there for all of us in my family.

5. He is a sacrificing person. I learn a lot about sacrifice watching him take care of those around him even when it hurts him personally--like when it hurts his back to lift my brother, but he still does it day in and day out, because someone's got to do it. My dad sacrifices so much for those he loves, and even for those he probably doesn't love. I admire this so much about him. I hope I can always give as much to others as my dad does.

6. I feel like my dad has a very open heart. Over the years I've kind of collected a wide variety of friends, and I feel like he and my mom have really welcomed them more or less into the family. I remember once one of my friends left our area, and kind of ran off and got into some trouble, and my dad offered to pay her way back here where her support system was. Can't remember if she took him up on it or not, but I was really touched that he would offer that. At the time I don't think she and I were really talking, and I was in college so I missed all the drama.

7. He is super handy. I'm pretty sure he can fix anything. He fixes all sorts of stuff. Refrigerators. Lights. Walls. Bathrooms. Electronics. He finished our basement almost single-handedly, as I remember. He is just fantastic with tools.

8. He is a great cook. I guess that in his youth he worked as a cook at a Mexican restaurant or something like that, and it shows. I can't remember eating something he made that I didn't like. He just always makes great food.

9. He is a spiritual rock. He knows his scriptures really well--and if you'll recall, as Mormons, we have like 10x as much scripture as anyone else around. If you know your scriptures well in our culture, it's really saying something. But he is up on those guys. He doesn't talk about his testimony a lot but he lives it every day.

10. He is a great dad, and now he's a great grandpa. I love my memories of playing "Monster" with him on the playground; he would run around and pretend to try and catch us. He could always move faster than we could but he would pretend he couldn't. Now I love watching him with Nathaniel. It makes me so happy to see them together. I hope he will help me teach Nathaniel to love nature as well as he taught me to.

My dad is amazing. If you don't know him, you're really missing out. He's the best.