It's Father's Day

(Sorry about the boom picture, Dad. I couldn't help myself.)

• Even though my dad has been cool since being a dad, he was way awesome before he became a dad. He had his pilot's license and raced motorcycles. He has boxes of trophies in the garage from all the races he won. I used to love looking through all of my parents' old things in the garage, and while I didn't "ooh" and "ahh" over the trophies, I thought they were pretty darn cool.
• My dad was one of the first computer/electronic geeks that there ever was. He's super great with computers, and he likes to upgrade them frequently. We were the first kids on our block to ever have a VCR or a video camera, and before any other video game consoles came out, we had a Vextrex. There was that space ship flying game that I loved to play, but could never get past those darn angled tunnels. Dad loves to get the newest gadgets that are available when it comes to phones, MP3 players, cameras, laptops, planners, you name it.
• My dad loves to travel. He also lives by the motto, "home by another way." We used to go to California and back again by way of Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, the Red Wood Forest, the Oregon and California beaches. Our vacations were always so fun, and a lot of times we didn't know which way we were going to go and what we were going to see. Mom would just say, "Let's see where Daddy takes us."
• When Dad used to send us to our rooms when we were in trouble, it didn't matter how long he sent us there for, all we would have to do was wait a minute or two, then poke our heads out the door and sweetly say, "Daaaaad, can I come out now?" and he would let us come out, "as long as we were sorry."
  
• My dad baptised me when I was eight. I remember standing in our living room with him teaching me how to hold my nose when I went under the water. About that same age, I remember him teaching me the box step in our living room, too.
  
• My dad is a very hard worker. After moving to Washington, while we were getting settled, he was working two or three jobs sometimes. He also works really hard on the house and yard. My parents always have a project going on. They have completely transformed their house from having hairy wallpaper and so many things wrong with it that would leave Dad scratching his head and saying, "Why would anyone do that to a house?" to the beautiful home that it is now. My parents remodeled the storage room by the garage to be a huge master bedroom, and he put in the fireplace while my mom was visiting me in Oregon. The fireplace turned out absolutely beautiful!
• My dad is a bigger guy. When I was in high school, a couple of times I put on one of his shirts and a pair of pants with pillows stuffed in it and walked around, pretending to be him. He was always a good sport about it.
• My dad doesn't swear or curse. His choice phrase is, "Oh, fiddlesticks."
• When I was a Merry Miss, Brooke Harker and I sang a song at a talent show to pass a requirement off for our Faith in God Award. We saing, "My Daddy is My Favorite Pal."
  
• My dad was the worst with our names growing up. The kids in our family are Christina, Michael, Philip, Carrie, David, and Kimberly. So many times he called me, "Chrary," and he called Christina "Cariss." We were a little older when Kimmy came along, so I don't remember how she got mixed into our names. When he wanted one of the boys, he'd say, "Philip-Michael--David! Whoever you are, get over here."
• There was a time when I was in high school I heard someone say something at church that upset me. It was right before sacrament meeting, and I was planning on walking out to go cry in the bathroom if necessary, but when I reached the back of the chapel, I found my dad there welcoming people, and he gave me a big hug and took me to the bishop's office to talk to me.
  
• My dad loves to listen to Paul Simon and James Taylor. Those were the tapes we'd listen to when we would go on vacation, and to this day listening to anything by those two artists makes me want to jump in the car and drive somewhere. I remember a time our car was broken down somewhere while we were on vacation and the kids spent the time waiting for the tow truck trying to remember the words to the James Taylor song about all your ducks being in a row. (In line, in line, it's all in a line. All my ducks are in a row-ooh-oh-oh. They do not change, they do not move. They have no where to go.) I think that's the only reason I have that song memorized.
• Also, whenver he travels, my dad has to have his traveling hat. The hat of choice has varied through the years, but it's usually been some form of a fedora. Sometimes it's normal ones, sometimes it's Indiana Jones ones bought from Disneyland.
• Speaking of Disneyland, my dad loves Disneyland. Now that all the kids are out of the house, my parents have been able to go about once a year when they take my grandma down to California for the summer to visit her other family. They actually went a couple of weeks ago, and when I asked them to take lots of pictures for us to see, he said that they don't take pictures because they want to just have the memories in their heads, and since they're getting older and can't remember things like they used to, it means they get to go back more often.
• My dad says, "perdy" instea of "pretty." When I went to my first Homecoming dance I was still a bit of a tomboy, and my dress was the plainest dress in the world, I didn't do anything special with my hair, and I didn't wear makeup yet, so I had just a tiny bit on. But despite all of that, my dad said that I looked "real perdy."
• My dad is great with cars, and I still go to him if I need help with one of our cars. It's amazing to me how he can just turn on the engine sometimes and know exactly what's wrong with the car.
• I love my daddy. He is always willing to help whether I need him for advice, information, or just to have him listen to me when I'm excited about something and Mom's not available to talk to. I'm so glad to have him as my dad!