The Big 6-0

Sixty Favorite Memories with dear old Dad . . .
1 "Special time" breakfast at the Fransiscan Bakery; Ada, MI.
2 Watching you run through the Ada bridge to cross the 10K finish line with your bone-phone draped around your neck.
3 Running the Deseret News 10K with you on Pioneer Day (while pregnant with twins, I might add!).
4 Robinet's on a Michigan fall saturday.
5 Taboganing at a mid-winter Indian Princesses daddy-daughter campout with Holly and the Stoddards.
6 FHE treats at The Little Red Schoolhouse: Superman ice cream and Green River slushies.
7 Waking up to the sound of "Free to Choose."
8 Staying up late to watch MASH with you.
9 Sitting down as a family every Thursday night to watch the Cosby Show and Family Ties. Funny, isn't it?
10 Having "special time" to stay up late and watch a The African Queen and South Pacific.
11 Staying home with you when I had stomach flu and Mom was out of town-- your secretary even dropped off some 7-Up; Troy, MI.
12 Riding home from church in the Cadillac and talking on the CB; Troy, MI
13 Riding to early morning seminary in the Nissan Sentra and the Trooper; Scottsdale, AZ.
14 Riding to the UofU in the gold Saturn and listening to NPR; SLC, UT
15 Listening to you report the Bailey White story aired on NPR during your commute.
16 Guessing what you ate for lunch and where you ate it. At the Rusty Pelican, the Quilted Bear, or the Velvet Turtle?
17 Hearing all the jokes from your week at Rutgers.
18 Bedtime songs on the guitar: Sweet Baby James and "Please come to Boston in the springtime . . ."
19 Bedtime stories about when you broke your arm, got your tonsils out, and the tragic end to Dick's bummer lamb.
20 Bedtime stories read backwards until we refused to hear anymore.
21 Practicing my dreaded volleyball in the backyard before school with a deflated soccer ball.
22 Doing algebra in a puddle of tears at the kitchen table.
23 Playing Stack-of-Kids.
24 Playing Guts on Prodigy.
25 Playing Trivial Pursuit and Jots and Tittles on Sunday afternoons.
26 Listening to the Beach Boys and Garrison Keillor while swimming on Saturday afternoons.
27 Listening to you attempt to read "Lake Wobegone Days" and the Dave Barry Sunday column out loud through fits of thigh-slapping laughter.
28 Visiting the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the luminarias and listening to the handbell choir perform Christmas carols; Scottsdale, AZ.
29 Flying to Tucson on the Hunstman jet with Grandpa for a missionary meeting and a Mormon Battalion monument dedication.
30 Hiking Squaw Peak and Camelback on Saturday mornings.
31 Thanksgiving dinner at Cedar Ridge.
32 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at Phantom Ranch with Mom and Ada.
33 Eating Hiker's Stew with the whole family at Phantom Ranch.
34 Birthday campout (to Seven Springs?) and coming home with Giardia.
35 Mesa Verde campsite 32.
36 The Summer of the Anasazi.
37 Camping at Mormon Lake.
38 Swimming at Tonto Natural Bridge.
39 Discovering Boston as a 15 year old and being forever changed.
40 Ribe, Denmark. Need I say more?
41 Sleeping in hammocks of a tall ship in port; Copenhagen, Denmark.
42 Polpero and probably the world's best ice cream; Cornwall, England.
43 White water rafting in Sun Valley, 1998.
44 Newburyport and Plum Island, 2004.
45 Photographing a moose near Macs Inn, August 2006.
46 Going to a Pistons game at the Silverdome, December 1983 (I can't remember what I was wearing, but the opposing team had brown uniforms with rainbow stripes!)
47 Going to Seminary with you on Friday mornings for donut day; Troy, MI.
48 Sneaking Jolly Ranchers out of your white Sunday box; Troy, MI.
49 Listening to you croon Paul Simon in the black garage house while you held colicky Joseph over your arm.
50 Attacking Disneyland with our printed minute-by-minute itineraries based on your extensive research in the "Unofficial Guide."
51 Going to Les Miserable for the first time at the Grady Gammage Theatre.
52 Hearing you sing your own Les Mis on the karaoke.
53 Seeing Carlos Nakai with the Phoenix Symphony.
54 Garrison Keillor with the Tabernacle Choir at Abravanel Hall.
55 Buddy Mondlock at The Junction, 2000.
56 Art Garfunkle, live with the Utah Symphony. 2001.
57 Buddy Mondlock at the cabin, 2006. Sigh.
58 Coming to visit us at St. Elizabeth's Hospital on the very evening of Eliza's birth; 2002.
59 Trick-or-treating with Eliza, Abby, et all on West Canton Street, 2002.
60 Vermont, December 2005. Hooray for the Poconos, 2007!
Happy 60th Birthday, Dad!
sixty hugs and kisses xoxoxoxoxoxoxo . . .a