Father's Day and Snowbird

It was hard for me to figure out how to do this post because I want to honor my Father on Father's Day, and my husband who is the father of my children. Then because we are at Snowbird on Father's Day, which we often are, I want to say something about that. But maybe that will be another post. So this will be a tribute to my dad and my husband, with some of the photos being at Snowbird!

This is a photo of my dad with Nico, his first grandson, at Snowbird, June 1986. When I told my parents they were going to be grandparents I asked my dad what he wanted to be called and he said, "Oh, Bro. Bramwell will be fine." ha ha! We called him "Grand-dad".

Here is first-time father, Doug, with little Nico at Snowbird during the same visit. It was a lot of fun watching Doug being a dad. He has adored every one of his children when they came into our family. He has always been a hands-on dad, never afraid to take care of the yucky business and ALWAYS ready to go adventuring with the kids.

The next pictures are about the wonderful bond between father and daughter. I have the greatest dad in the world. He was always a voice of calm and logic. One of the greatest gifts he gave to me during the hard years of growing up was his willingness to sit and talk with me and listen to me, and then speak very logically to me about my options and then tell me to "keep in there pitchin' ". The tape that plays in my head of my Dad's voice is of him telling me, "Shaun, you are so talented. You can do anything in this world if you set your mind to it." And I believed him.



I have very little memories of this day at the ocean. Mom will have to identify if it was the Gulf of Mexico. I remember being somewhat terrified of the waves, but my dad took good care of Kathy and me.


This is here just because we are so cute, Kathy on the left and me on the right. I do remember the band-aids on the knees. In my memory the waves knocked us down a bit and our knees were a little scraped, but the band-aids made everything better.

This is a photo from my mission when Dad and Kathy came to visit. They were getting ready to leave and Kathy snapped this picture.

And this is Doug with his daughter! This is at the pool at Snowbird, June 1999. Father's Day didn't fall during our time at Snowbird in 1999...

...but this was our Father's Day dinner in our back yard in 1999. Doug with all his wonderful children!

The following two photos are very dear to my heart. After dental school in Virginia, we moved to Colorado Springs for an Army residency. While we lived there I took a trip to Utah with my three boys and we picked Kathy up in SLC, and then we all drove to Fairfield, CA to visit Mom and Dad. Kathy and Dad gave me a bit of a break one afternoon and took the boys on a little hike and had some fun adventures. Kathy took these photos of Dad with little Freddy who was a year and a half. I had a room-mate, Connie, who always called my Dad "Fred" because he reminded her of Fred McMurray. So even though our Fred was named after Doug's brother who died while we were in VA, we also told Fred he was named after Grand-dad!

The next picture is Mom and Dad at Snowbird watching my boys in the pool. My Dad was going to be the mission president in the Dominican Republic and they went up to Snowbird before they left. They got another room for any of the family who could also come up. I'm really glad we made the effort. We were there on Father's Day and I made a Father's Day dinner for Dad and Doug. It was the last Father's Day I spent with my Dad.


And again, this photo of my Dad at my wedding reception. Truth be told, I have pretty much been crying through writing this whole post because I miss my dad a lot. He was my biggest fan.And here is something amazing. One time, a few years after Dad had died, some of us kids were together (I can't remember exactly who was there) and someone, maybe Mark, said something about being Dad's favorite child. Then someone else said, "No, I was Dad's favorite." And I remember being so stunned because I was sure that I was his favorite! And I thought, "What an amazing gift to give your children, to leave them with the feeling that they each were your favorite!"

Well, without question, he is my favorite Dad! My Mom made a really good choice for her husband! I am blessed with really wonderful parents.