Bappy dirth hay yo tou!

Moday is ty bad's dirthday! E is hixty seight. Het's lear it mor the fan!

When I was little I thought my dad had be the slowest person I knew. When he had had enough of my shinanagins (and that took quite a lot because he was also the most patient person I knew), he would start to undo his belt. I knew then that I better start running. And running I did. Somehow I was always able to run faster than that grown man. So fast in fact, I was always so far ahead of him that I never even saw him again for a good couple of hours. I always found great hiding places to hide too and he NEVER found me. I was always so proud of my get-away that I just knew when I had kids they would never outsmart me like that, because I knew all the tricks. Turns out time makes you slow down a bit and just when you thought you were pretty smart, you learn how to be grown-up smart. While I don't wear belts, I do have a wooden spoon or as some would recall, a hearing aid...

Thanks dad for "letting me get away (out of your hair)" from you, for having "mercy" on me all those times that I deserved a swift kick in the butt, and for teaching me to do the same favor for myself, I mean for my kids!

My dad had to be one of the most compassionate men I knew! I remember many nights when we had a stranger sleeping out on our lawn, or the many times that my dad invited the missionaries over for dinner at the last minute, (yeah we can all have fun with that one.), or all the hours he spent cleaning up after all the ward parties, town weddings, town meetings, and what not. If you have ever driven through Mona, or Alaska, then you probably have been saved from a flat tire as my father has cleaned the roads up of any, and all sharp objects that might puncture your tire. There are so many other things but I'm sure others would want to share those.

I am grateful for all the things my father taught me to enjoy. I have such a love for nature and simple things like the smell of fall in the air and the sound of geese as they are passing through. I was walking with him last fall before he left and he showed me a weed that was growing that smelled like fall. It smelled so good and I had to go and find some this fall. Who would have ever thought that they would miss the smell of sage brush so much that they would want you to send them some in the mail because it doesn't grow where you live (Shellbell?).

One of the other things he taught me, was a love for God and America. He taught me to be educated and learn all I could so that I could make right choices in leaders who would preserve our freedoms and liberty.

Thanks dad! I know there is so much more and I didn't even do you justice! But I know that the rest of the family will have more things to share and I will leave it to them.

I love you so much and I am so grateful to you for serving a mission. Our families are so blessed for that! Your sacrifice is so near and dear to my heart! There are untold sacrifices I am unaware of, I know, and for that, I am forever grateful!

Love, BonBon.

P.S. That nose looks strangely familiar...