Happy 70th Dad

Happiest of birthdays to the greatest dad - talk about a milestone - 70 years old.  As a kid I loved my dad, and thought he was great (well, most of the time), but it wasn't until I was an adult that I really discovered what an amazing man and father he is.  Over the last several years I have been so grateful for his wisdom, his patience, the way he has served me an my family, his sense of humor, the way he taught us the value of hard work, and of course, the fact that he is always so willing to talk sports with his only daughter.  Some of my best memories are all of the miles we have run together - me talking non-stop and him only getting a chance to talk when we headed up hill and I got out of breath.  Maybe that is why he always wanted to head for the canyon.  When I first started dating Tim we had a lot of talks about the relationship and I am so grateful for the advice that he gave me and how he has always supported us.   My kids are the luckiest because he is the best grandpa ever and they absolutely love spending time with him.  He may not be willing to admit it, but I think playing grandpa may be his favorite role.

In our family we are known for trying to stretch a birthday celebration out as long as possible and we definitely made sure this birthday had plenty of party.  We started the Sunday before his birthday with all of the family in Santaquin.  He requested cherry pie for his "cake" - I think he does that because it is the only time all year that he gets one.  All of the kids were super helpful and joined in to make sure he could blow out all of the candles.  

His birthday (March 16th) fell on a Friday this year which is always more fun.  Sean came in from Texas to help celebrate, and Ruby and I had the best time going to lunch with grandpa and nearly all of the uncles (we missed you Craig).  After lunch we hugged them all goodbye and the boys headed out for an afternoon of golf. 

When I had talked with my dad a few weeks before his birthday to ask if he had any ideas of what he would like to do to celebrate, he immediately said Top Golf.  We all left our kids behind and had so much fun together.  There was a lot of laughing, a little trash talking and one of us almost fell off the deck.  Somehow I missed getting pictures of everyone (sorry Jami and Jessica), but we were just too busy golfing.  We finished the night at Market Street Grill which was the perfect ending.

On Sunday we completed the birthday circle and had one last party at our house to celebrate 70 years of grandpa being awesome.  The kids loved the balloons and the cake and we all loved one last chance to sing and celebrate an incredible man.  Happy Birthday Dad!  We love you!