Ode to a Father

Happy Father's Day!!!

This is my Dad.

Let me tell you a little bit about him:

My Dad is the best man I know.

He is level and calm all of the time.

He works so hard for his family. If I wake up early in the morning (which rarely happens) I can usually find him in his office working. If I go to bed late (which usually happens) I can find him in his office working. He works so hard for our family, but he also takes so much time for our family. He went to all of my orchestra, choir, and band concerts. He came to all of my track meets. He'll come shopping with my mom and my sisters even though he hates it!

He is the most selfless person I know. Every couple of years my mom, sisters, and I decide it is time to buy him some new clothes. He hates to go shopping so we go to the store and buy lots of clothes for him. Then we bring them home and he tries them on. He tells us which ones he doesn't feel like a "young sap" in. We keep those and return the others. He hates this because he thinks he does not need the clothes and the money could and should be better spent elsewhere.

The past two years when I was in nursing school at BYU, I had a lot of clinicals in Salt Lake, so I had to wake up at 5 am to get there on time. I would ask my dad to make sure I was awake on time. So he set his alarm and woke up at 5 in the morning with me to make sure I'd get there on time. A lot of mornings he made me toast and poured me a glass of orange juice to eat for breakfast on the way to clinical.



He loves my slightly-off-color jokes that I heard in nursing school.

He loves little kids! He is so cute playing with my nephews. He was also SO CUTE playing with the orphans in Russia last summer. Boy did they love him!

He was the first (and only) man to give me flowers. The past couple of years he sent flowers to my apartment on Valentines Day. When I graduated from 8th grade he gave me a dozen red roses.

Growing up my Dad would always wake up in the middle of the night with me when I was sick. He'd come into the bathroom when I was throwing up, help me rinse out my mouth, get me a drink and some medicine, and then help me back into bed. I remember getting really sick when I was in Africa. I felt awful because I was throwing up all night, but I felt even worse because my Dad wasn't there to help me :(

My Dad always takes time to be involved with things going on in my life. I love classical music. I play the piano and like to listen to 89.5 (the best classical music station ever!) when I am in Arizona. When I went away for my freshman year of college, I called home one day and my mom said "Dad told me he was driving in the car today, and he was listening to that one radio station you like to listen to, i don't know what it's called but you like it, and he told me it made him think of you and miss you."

My brother Ben is also a great father!



He's a great Father to his darling three boys and I see a lot of the same qualities in him that I see in my Dad. He works so hard to support his family. He is so motivated and takes the time to be with his family.


He was also a father-in-practice when I was a little girl. He taught me how to ride a bike, throw a basketball, and football, and baseball... depending on the season. I think he really wanted somebody to help him practice... so he'd exclaim "Kate! You're so good at this... seriously I was running in to catch the ball because I didn't think you'd be able to throw it very far... but you threw it SOOOO far, I had to run back!!!" He learned the art of flattery young.

Love you Ben!