Happy 60th Dad

My dad turned 60 today. This really is a momentous occasion. All of us thought it was a day that needed to be special. Maren came up with an idea to get memories from friends and family from his past. We all jumped on it and the searching began. It was fun and challenging to track down all of his long lost friends and family spread far and wide. I think we did a pretty good job though. We were able to fill a book with memories that totaled 120 pages. When I say we, Maren took on the biggest brunt of this project by compiling all we found and putting it in his book. There was a lot of effort from all of us. Mom scanned almost all of the pictures for the book and helped with finding friends, Smitty helped place pictures on the pages they were to go on, Ryan edited the book, and Maren and I tracked down all the people. Plus, there was all those entries. They were incredible. They range from humorous to tear-jerkers. There were some long stories, David's being the longest, to short and sweet. It was a work of love and I think you will see by my dads reaction that he agreed.

Since it was one of  his only present I thought I would play around with him in the wrapping.

First came the diapers...which you need when your 60...right?!?

Then came the towel in the box that I just was trying to get rid of

Then came "The Book"

He got emotional from the beginning. 

Maren did a great job of labeling each page so at the top it says the name of who wrote.

Then it was time to not just flip through but read it.

He was so emotional through it all...we all were.

The rest of the day you could find my dad reading it.

He would ask how did you get this picture?, or how did you find this person?

I hope he know that we think he is such a great dad/husband that we wanted to celebrate his life.  When reading all the entries there is a common thread in all of them.  His is a life of service, spirituality, healing, compassion, and love.  We loved to read each entry and see that time and time again these traits were talked about.  We all know our dad is an amazing man and it was fun to see that so many others agree.  Thanks dad for being you.  We are blessed to have you as a father and example in our lives.  LOVE YOU, and HAPPY 60th...man your getting old :-)