Happy Birthday Dad!!

Hard to believe that you turned 65 today 4 days ago. To us you are timeless. Here are 65 reasons why we have loved you since we have known you:

• Women are to be soft and pretty.
• Classic unrelenting responses to questions like where's mom...."she's on the roof."
• Search and destroy missions.
• One on one time w/him for business trips.
• Hearing him actually say "I love you too" (instead of "me too") for the first time when I was a teenager
• Walking the rake back and forth between the garage where I left it and the shed where it needed to go.
• Riding on top of the hay bales from Marco's field to our house.
• Rotary club fines he was happy to pay when they involved his kids' successes.
• That old Matador that Jeff and I had so much fun playing in because he was trying to 'help out' at an auction.
• Great backpacking trips where I learned to appreciate nature.
• Horrible backpacking trips where I heard Jeff's heartbeat through the ground as we awaited the bear's final attack on our tent until we heard "Little pig, little pig, let me in."
• Hiking the bone chilling Chilkoot trail and alternating granola bars, trail mix, fruit rolls, Ritz and cheese, and jerky for each meal for 5 days while looking on longingly at others' warm cooked meals because dad doesn't like to carry extra weight w/him.
• The Windago.
• Great camping trips riding bikes, taking hikes, and sleeping in that pea green tent trailer.
• Sweetheart of Sigma Ki and many other classic songs.
• Nickel for the first one to jump in the ice cold water.
• For always making me feel like his favorite daughter.
• I love the jig he does to the catchy beat of the dishwasher
• I love when he'll take a half-day from work just to take me kayaking
• I miss him singing me "He watching over Israel" when I was younger
• "Let me know when it's my turn"... ouch, that phrase could stop a charging gorilla
• I love his ability to 'improve upon' stories
• Hanging me from a bear post on the Chilkoot trail
• "O lord it's hard to be humble..."; "Harry Pollet was a worker..."; "May you live a hundred years..."
• Making me mickey mouse pancakes before I went to Disneyland
• I love watching certain movies with Dad because of how hysterical he gets, like Spanglish and Groundhogs Day
• I love that he tried to hide his tears when I went away to Jerusalem
• I love how he'd signal me from the stands at all my games with our upside-down, hand glasses
• Donald Duck voice... I laugh every time
• Taking me to see PG-13 Jurassic Park, when I was only 11! (and then letting me sit on his lap because I got so scared)
• I cherish the few times that Dad got to sit with us at church... especially the times that Mom would give us the evil stare because we're giggling again
• Making ME feel like I was his favorite daughter :o)
• Nothing says "you're special" like a night out with dad at wristband night at Dodger stadium!
• Always glad when Dad was the one waiting up for us when we'd come home after curfew! Sorry, mom, but you were scary! Dad was always asleep and appeared too tired to get angry.
• Ditto for driver's ed w/dad--though, in mom's defense--I can take a corner like nobodies business as a result of mom's unwitting tutorials! :)
• Changed my life when Dad put me on a plane to Finland before I really knew what he was doing. I had previously felt no desire to travel but I found that to be a new love, it solidified my testimony in the gospel when I attended a sacrament meeting that was just like one I might've attended @ home 1000's of miles away and it gave me a new perspective on the world and how self-absorbed Americans can be, versus these people who were very aware of what was happening all around them in the world. A pivotal moment in my life.
• Loved the few times I got to work with dad in our old garage in Thousand Oaks. I still remember him helping me prepare a talk on David and Goliath in that garage.
• Getting my high school diploma from dear old dad was pretty cool.
• One word: NOVA
• James Bond, The Sting, and Hatari, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, all make me think of dad
• I may not have dad's crooked little finger, but I have him to thank when I can't remember something really important I was going to do 5 minutes ago...
• A true appreciation for nature in all its splendor came from innumerable camping, hiking, and site-seeing vacations over the years. (All time favorite: Potty pants natural water slide)
• All of us are beneficiaries of his quiet wit and sarcasm
• Special words of advice, encouragement and the occasional new dress on my mission
• And boy, dad, don't we have them fooled!? Still Daddy's #1 girl!
• I'll never forget my first introduction to a compact disk player when Dad played "Round Up" I thought for sure the cows were out and most likely it was one of us that left the gate unlatched. It wasn't until William Tell's Overture began that we knew we had been duped. I sure wish I can look back and see your laughter.
• Best Catch Phraseology: "Let's argue about snow", "Can't get off the train", " I Can't believe I ate the whole thing!", "Apple, peaches, pumpkin ,sugar, whoever"s not ready holler booger"
• Who remembers his brilliant idea of when we would argue we had to sit across from each other and say "I love you, I love you, I love etc..."
• I loved our annual outing to the Dorothy Chandler to watch Mom sing Handel's Messiah, even if I fell asleep every year
• I loved it when dad would annually do the dishes...we found out years later it was because he didn't trust us to wash the china
• Who can forget his crazy nicknames..Yoder Mcgroder, Cricket, Pilgrim, Sparky, Stumpy
• I'll never forget being panic stricken as he took me to Camp Baker Road to teach me to drive a stick shift..he was calm as a cucumber
• I really believed him when he felt my muscles and told me they got bigger from eating all my raspberries
• I loved being at work and running into people from the hospital who would say what a wonderful man my father is...even if I already knew it
• While I was dying when running the 400 meter dash I loved to see Dad cheering me on in the stands even if I was in last place...again
• I can only imagine how awkward it was to pick me up when I had been taken to the "other" hospital after passing out at track practice. I can still hear the nurses rib you that they got one of "Rogue's" patients.
• Your ever gentle way of teaching us to love the classics, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Bach, Mozart(never will forget seeing Amadeus for Family Night). There are times in the Chorale I will be singing a piece and it will be so familiar to me that I know how all of the parts go. I realize later that it is because it is from one of the many records or c.d's that you exposed us to over the years. I knew the full Hallelujah chorus in college before ever singing it.
• I remember how grateful I was to see your face after getting in my one and only car accident. So calm, loving and non judgemental.
• Your complete trust in my judgement when I brought my nonmember boyfriend to meet you. I guess his being an eagle scout was a plus
• Sitting up front in the middle of the night on our way to Utah..sharing your Ritz crackers and fig newtons
• MacGyver-like ability to fix anything with a bottle of wood glue
• Patience of Job to allow your many children to walk all over roof while "helping" put on a new one
• I'm not sure why, but I loved going to cut wood from the woods. It was work but didn't seem like it.
• Sandwiches on the stairs of Zurich will be hard to beat
• I am sorry you are all misled I must inform you that I am his favorite daughter. After all who did this blog anyway?

Happy Birthday Dad. The childhood you brought to us was so fun and memorable. The wisdom and legacy will never be forgotten. We love you and wish we lived closer to enjoy more of you!!