Remembering Papa

Today I am remembering my dad or papa as we call him. It has been 13 years that papa has been gone. I never thought that time would pass so quickly without him. The first year he was gone was a long year, but it seems time quickly comes and goes and before you know it another year has passed by.

What I remember about Papa is:


*He would always put us to bed when we were little. Whitney, Taylor and I all shared a room and we would pile in one of the beds and Papa would tell us stories. Our favorites were the three little pigs-which he would use our names for each of the pigs-The little Red Hen, and the favorite of favorites was Chiquita, she's the hot tamale.

*Growing up we had scriptures bright and early at 6am every morning and Papa would come into our rooms and wake us up. He would sing softly and rub our backs to wake us up and I remember laying there in bed awake but pretending to be asleep so he would rub my back longer.


*On our very first day of school Papa was always the one to walk us to school. I always looked forward to the first day of school for this reason. It was like a big treat to have Papa take us to school.

*I also loved it when mom would send papa to the store, because if we were lucky enough to go with him he would let us buy things that mom wouldn't usually let us get-like sugared cereal-which I remember he let me buy Trix once. He also went with us one year school shopping and he let Whitney buy two pairs of shoes. This was unheard of. No one got two pairs of shoes.


*Papa was such a good sport-especially since he had five girls before he got his boy. He would let us do his hair and one time-probably more than he would like to remember-we dressed him up in mom's house coats and did his hair and put mom's clip on earrings on him. We loved it and we had so much fun with him.

*Each Sunday afternoon we would play hide-and-seek in the house. He would come and find us and we would be screaming all the way to base scared that he would get us.

*He also had this scary wolf mask that he would put on and chase us all around the house. Oh-I remember that thing was freaky looking. Just thinking about it makes me shiver all over.


*As far back as I can remember papa had a motorcycle. He would take us up and down the alley, in the street, where ever he could take that motorcycle-sometimes it was in the back yard or in the horse field. This was usually a Saturday afternoon activity. When we got to be somewhat older we got to sit in the front and pretend we were driving which was the best.

*Not only did he take us on motorcycle rides but I remember when I was 9/10 he would let us drive the car. Of course he would be in the drivers seat and we would sit on his lap and get to steer the car. When I was a little older 11/12 he would let me sit in the drivers seat by myself and let me drive. Mostly it was in the school parking lot and if I was lucky it was to a friends house. My friends even loved him since he would let them drive once and a while if they were over.

*And of course I have to mention the time when he asked me to park his truck in the back and as I was trying to make this turn I ran into the wall and he came out to watch me and when I hit that wall there were fireworks.


*Papa always sang in the shower. The song that he sang the most-which was sung at his funeral-was You are My Sunshine. He would sing it over and over and over. He also at times would make up his own songs. We have him on video in his office with Caden on his lap-who at the time was 2/3-singing about her.

*Papa was a cowboy and it's no wonder we grew up with horses in our back yard. Saturday was another day with Papa. He would saddle the horses and lead us around the field. He even took us older kids out to the dessert and we all rode together.

*Papa was also the fun uncle. Every time there was a holiday all the extended family would get together at our house. We would swim and papa would pretend he was a shark and come looking for "little white girls." He would get a baseball game going or start saddling the horses for everyone to ride. He was the life of the party.


*Papa loved the outdoors-I guess growing up on a ranch and being a cowboy would do that to you. I remember going camping all the time-it was probably only 5/6 times but I remember doing it a lot. We would go on hikes at night looking for snipes and get to sleep out under the stars in our sleeping bags. We would always bring lots of soda-which was a treat-because the more soda we drank the more targets we had when it came to shooting guns. I even remember at Father and Daughter outings in the ward that we would be one of the last one's to leave and my friends always wanted to stay a little longer with their dads because they knew papa would bring out his guns and they would get to shoot them.

*Papa also had a temper and some of the words out of his mouth were not so good. I have to admit that it is from my dad that I learned to swear. Okay, this is probably something that I shouldn't admit but it's the truth. I remember he was so mad at me once and I came back with some reply that I said a swear word and he didn't even get mad at me for swearing. I just remember thinking that he was mad at me for whatever I did and not the fact that I swore in front of him.


I am grateful for the time that Papa was in my life. For the fun dad that he was and how special he made you feel whenever you were around him. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not reminded of him. There are of course days when I wish he was still here-like playing with his grandsons, but I guess he gets to be with all his grandkids before they come to earth. I will always love my dad and I will always remember him! I love you Papa!