June 13, 1970
June 13, 2010
A special card made by Kelsey
Haylee's card
Natalee's card
Mackenzie's card
The girls were so excited to watch Grandma and Grandpa read their cards.
Mom and Dad opening their memory book. I put it in one of those old report folders from when we were kids that Mom has been trying to get rid of. :)
Michael's Memories
1. Mom making a follow-the-yarn obstacle course to lead me to my first Book of Mormon
2. Showing mom that I could ride the little yellow bike without training wheels3. Taking a motorcycle ride to picnic in the desert with Dad - wearing my read toy football helmet, and holding on as tight as I could!
4. Playing in the hole where the septic tank was while Dad and Mom were on a date and I was being watched by a babysitter
5. Dad punishing me for #4 because he had told me not to play there
6. Mom helping me clean my room with the bunk bed where I would make forts and stuff
7. Taking family trips in the evening to Der Weinerschnitzel and then to the property where Dad and Jim were putting a fence up (and Bobby and I were catching horny toads).
8. Sitting on the old green couch in the new house - and being excited to be there.
9. Dad and I taking stray cats (that were looking for homes) and plates of food a few blocks away to see if we could get rid of them. They came back - and I named the first one that Mom and Dad let me have - Susan.
10. Mom and Sister Page taking me and Marc to Groves Elementary at the beginning of first grade - the playground seemed so big!
11. Mom and Dad buying their first NEW car - the Mazda GLC.
12. Taking family trips to Anaheim in the GLC - fully loaded, and with that car-top carrier with the snail logo on top. Didn't that thing break on Lisa and Darren a while later?
13. Mom and Grandma taking us to Provo to look and look and look and look for an apartment, while Dad stayed home for work.
14. Mom patiently picking me up at Westmore Elementary because I was scared to walk home sometimes.
15. Going with Dad and Ron to the arcade once a week for several weeks.
16. Mom picking me up at school, and going to the store to buy an Atari game for the system Dad had just bought. Dad and I used to stay up late playing Space Invaders and Missile Command. I finally got so much better than Dad that he took me to the Arcade so he could win on the Arcade version!
17. Going to a BYU football game with Dad (Air Force was the opponent, Jim McMahon our QB).
18. Mom getting me a Jim McMahon jersey for Christmas.
19. Reading Old Testament with Mom in the evenings - until Lot left S&G.
20. Dad baptizing me in the church building down the street, then confirming me the next day in Sacrament Meeting.
21. Mom crying when she saw the condition of the house when we got back from Utah.
22. Watching TV (like Fantasy Island) with Mom while she worked on church lessons.
23. Playing board games with mom, and not being a very good loser -- it's funny now, right Mom?
24. Mom and Dad going to a high school reunion (Grandma watched us) and getting their picture taken in the orange dress and the brown suit - Mom still had long hair.
25. Mom taking me to sell Scout-o-rama tickets in front of Albertsons all the time so that I could earn points for prizes.
26. Mom and Dad taking us to the O-club pool all summer
27. Dad and Mom motivating me to work on Scouting requirements, Dad helping me with my Eagle project, and being thrilled for me when I got my Eagle.
28. Dad and Mom making it possible for me to get to BYU, when I know it was hard for the family and they were concerned.
29. Mom sending me letters during my mission EVERY week!
30. Mom driving with me out to OH in a car that barely made it!
31. Mom and Dad warmly receiving Cindy when I brought her out to CA in Aug 1999...
32. ...and loving her so much when we married in December!
33. Mom making Mervyn's trips and making sure the kids have plenty to wear/play with.
34. Mom and Dad serving faithfully in their callings and setting an example that I wish I could emulate better. I remember fondly the HT visit with Dad, and the good we were able to do when I was his companion.
35. Dad: "That's what they call a Bocci-ouchy!" Josh: "It's not funny - you naked mole rat." Me (embarrased, and trying not to laugh at the same time): "Josh, we don't call Grandpa a naked mole rat."
36. Mom watching the kids for a week at a time so that my Cindy can spend time seeing her family.
37. Mom and Dad buying Disney passes so that they can spend time with the kids.
38. Dad getting the go-kart so that the grandkids can have fun riding it during Ridgecrest trips.
39. Working with Dad - still: brakes on the cars, cutting down the tree on the side of the house, burying the basketball pole, etc.
40. Mom and Dad's example going to the temple so often, and staying to visit with me, Cindy, and the kids on most of those trips.
Lisa's Memories
1. Mom being my Laurel advisor and giving everyone a picture of the temple when they moved up to Relief Society, but I got the biggest.
2. Staying up late and talking with Mom and Dad about the gospel.3. Letting Mike and I stay up late to talk to each other because we were actually getting along.
4. Going to the O Club to swim in the summers and getting our deep end patches.
5. Mom coming to help when Natalee, Haylee, and Mackenzie were born and Dad letting her, because I know it’s always hard for him when she leaves.
6. Dad coming over to stay with the girls when I went to the hospital to have Kelsey and helping Daren give me a blessing before I left.
7. When Dad gave me blessings when I was sick.
8. Mom taking me to the ER because I cut my leg with the scissors when we were cutting out patterns to sew clothes for my mission.
9. Dad cooking stroganoff when was in the hospital after having a baby.
10. I’ve always noticed that both of you truly magnify your callings. You always give 110%.
11. Playing the reverence game after church. We use that at our house now.
12. Reading the Book of Mormon as a family so we could go to Disneyland.
13. Mom and Dad asking us if we were willing to sacrifice the money they had been setting aside for Disneyland for a humanitarian aid cause (maybe the famine in Ethiopia?).
14. Teaching us to pay our tithing.
15. Dad telling us on the way to school that he’d “sure be starving if it weren’t for this cold” followed by a big snort and gulp.
16. Dad driving me to the ACT and then when I went in the back of the van trying to scare me by “gently” swerving the van, except it made me fall into the window and did a big spider web crack. I thought he might be mad at me but he said he was just so relieved I didn’t fly through the window and out the car to my death.
17. Dad scaring me by making me think he was a coyote when I went out one night to raise the garage door to get my cat off the roof.
18. Dad scaring me by making faces at my bedroom window when there were no blinds in the house yet (I was probably 2 or 3).
19. Watching Press Your Luck in the mornings in the summer.
20. Mom always making sure my birthday was special even though it was right before Christmas.
21. Dad taking us for rides on his motorcycle when we were little.
22. Helping me go on my mission even though it was during the “prime marrying years.”
23. Letting us live with them while our house in Lancaster was being built and while we looked for a place to rent when we first moved back to Ridgecrest.
24. Teaching us how to stay out of debt and live within a budget.
25. Letting the kids come over all the time so I don’t have to take them to doctor appointments, hair appointments, dentist appointments, or even just shopping sometimes.
26. Being completely in love with each other, even though sometimes it can be a little gross.
27. Dad not letting us go to the bathroom on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa’s house and then making water sounds and trying to make us laugh.
28. Letting me take piano lessons and making me stick with it even when I wanted to quit. And coming up with clever ways to make me practice like paying me for my practice time but making me pay for my own lessons with that money.
29. Mom coming with me to the midnight showing of New Moon and the party beforehand.
30. Dad helping me with my physics homework without complaining even though I always asked him last minute and probably would have understood if I didn’t talk in that class so much.
31. Paying us very well for good grades. And making us pay you for bad ones.
32. Paying us to read the Book of Mormon, knowing that we would gain a testimony by doing it.
33. Coming over to give Mackenzie a blessing and stay with the other kids so Daren and I could go together to take her to the emergency room when she had the purpura rash and was in so much pain.
34. Buying me a Cabbage Patch kid for my birthday even though they were ridiculously expensive.
35. Always coming to everything important-awards assemblies, basketball games, piano recitals.
36. Mom being a room mother. I can’t even imagine now how you did it with all those little kids. I still haven’t had the nerve to sign up for that job in one of my kids’ classes.
37. Mom working so hard to make so many new clothes for my mission, even though it was right during the “prime marrying years.”
38. Mom’s patience with us. She says she yelled sometimes but I can’t remember it ever happening.
39. Dad and I going for a walk and him sharing his experience about how he became truly converted to the gospel.
40. Daddy-daughter dates to the ice cream shop and getting bubblegum ice cream.
Congratulations on 40 years of marriage. Because you taught us so well and have been such a good example to us kids, I believe we’ll all be blessed to reach 40 years and eternity with our spouses. I am so grateful to have been born to such good parents and for all my wonderful siblings too. I am so grateful for our eternal family. Thank you for everything!
Jonathan's Memories
-When Dad didn’t believe me that I had to go to the bathroom at the father and sons outing at Lake Diaz. Okay, I just had to get that one out of the way :)
-Mom (and others) driving all night to be with us when Tyler had his first surgery
-On a related note, Dad coming out on very short notice for Tyler’s blessing
-Dad taking me out to Baskin Robbins when I scored enough points in basketball games
-Mom coming out to Inglewood to watch Paul Pierce eat me alive
-Mom and Dad both coming to all those baseball and basketball games, even the out of town ones.
-Mom and Dad helping me out when I needed braces/glasses
-Dad taking the time to play baseball/basketball with me (until he knew I could beat him at basketball :) ) Also playing "bump out" all those nights with mom, dad and the family was a blast.
-Mom staying on me to get my Eagle Scout/Dad staying at the project by himself to make sure nobody messed up the work that had been done/Being able to pin the Eagle on mom – she deserved it!
-Mom coming down to the tournament at Damien high school and then taking me to go see Blair at the hospital.
-Dad baptizing me and ordaining me to the Priesthood
-Dad blessing the sacrament with me my first time
-Mom and Dad going to the temple with me the first time
-Being sealed to my wonderful wife in the same room that Mom and Dad were sealed in.
-Going to Education Week with Mom and Dad
-Coming home from my mission and being with you guys for the first time in two years.
Matthew's Memories
Mom and Dad have always said that their accomplishments are demonstrated in their kids. Here are a few things they have accomplished in the last 40 years. Seven pretty good kids, Seven pretty good kid-in-laws...19 grandkids and counting. Seven temple weddings, five Melchizedek priesthood holders. Six return missionaries. Six seminary graduates. One Veteran of the Iraq War. Six bachelors degrees. A couple of masters degrees. A lawyer. Almost two PhD's. Five Eagle Scouts, which equals over a hundred merit badges, hundreds of campouts, service projects, courts of honor. Two young womanhood recognition awards, four varsity high school athletes, one former athlete still holds several scoring records at said high school. One BYU Presidential Scholar. Countless other awards and recognitions. And to top it off zero convicted felons probably due to the hours and hours of digging weeds each summer. I mean think of it, six kids digging weeds (we all know Amy didn't have to dig weeds), 10 weeks a year, half hour a day, for twelve years, minus summer camps and the fortunate two who had summer birthday's (again, I recognize Amy's birthday is in the summer but she did not dig weeds in the first place), I figure that comes to at least 1500 hours of weed digging and I believe that this forced labor was a major deterrent for committing crimes.
This was all accomplished over years of long nights of building science fair projects, writing state reports, mission reports, parent teacher conferences, driving to away games, activity night at the church, EFY, Scout Camp, Fifty-milers, pet dogs and cats and snakes and fish, trips to see grandparents and to Disneyland. Reading scriptures as a family, family home evening, Kevin doing push-ups for disrupting family home evening. Birthday parties, baptisms, ordinations, callings, church dances, and the list goes on and on. We all love you Mom and Dad and wish you a happy 40th anniversary.
Matt&Ami
Kevin's Memories
Some of my memorable memories of Mom and Dad
• Dad calling Mom his nymph (scarred for life)
• Mom and Dad never arguing in front of the kids
• Dad dressing up like a skeleton
• Dad buying and feeding cereal to us kids when Mom was out of town
• Mom's dancing (scarred for life)
• Me and Dad playing online checkers. I would chat with the people and tell them I was 16 while he would destroy them.
• Doctrinal discussions in the home with Dad
• Mom's singing (scarred for life)
• Mom's dog food, homemade pizza, and burocks (sp?)
• Mom bending over backwards for me even when my requests were, in hindsight, pretty ridiculous and inconvenient
• Mom and Dad catching me and Sony ditching school
• Mom and Dad not punishing me for ditching school to see Puff Daddy because I earned money doing it and I was able to pay off all my financial debts to them with that money
• Dad traveling to Tucson during my formative teenage years
• Dad keeping food on the table
• Drinking powdered milk
• Dad holding a meeting when he paid off the house and telling us not to let any relatives know
• Mom sticking up for me when I spelled a three letter word for a 'gay' on the chalkboard in class
• Mom sticking up for me when I told my P.E. teacher to 'be quiet' and then she (the P.E. teacher) forced me to write a ridiculously long sentence 50 times so I wrote it very small on one or two sheets of paper and then she got mad because I wrote so small and she made me redo it so I used a full sheet of paper to write each sentence the next time and she didn't say anything
Jeffrey's Memories
Things I love about Mom and Dad, written as if I were writing to them:
1. I can't remember ever seeing or hearing you argue over anything, (except how long to cook the brownies).
2. I never heard you complain about helping us kids with anything when we asked for it.
3. You are very supportive of me and my family and have always been willing to help us.
Good memories of Mom and Dad:
1. Seeing you in the celestial room for the first time at the LA temple.
2. When Dad got called to the Stake Presidency, Mom looked prouder than I ever have seen her.
3. FHE games with the whole family like Spoons and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves when we did those types of things.
4. Took me to church every week even though I'm sure it wasn't easy with so many kids and taught me the gospel in our home.
5. Taking us to Disneyland after reading the Book of Mormon. I specifically remember going on the Star Wars ride and seeing the 3-D Michael Jackson movie.
6. Mom patiently waking me up for seminary most mornings.
7. I chose my favorite cereals for my birthday dinner one year, I'm kinda surprised now that you let me have that but I remember it was delicious and I think everyone else liked it pretty good too.
8. When Jurassic Park came out I really wanted to see it. I don't remember telling anyone but we went to see it at the theater. Maybe you just wanted to see it and decided to take me along but it was fun.
9. You always put each other first.
10. Gave me the best example of how to treat my spouse and children.
Amy's Memories
1. Dad taking me out to ice cream whenever Mom went out of town.
2. Mom letting me sleep in their bed whenever Dad scared me.
3. When we went to Disneyland after Tim and I got engaged and Dad wouldn’t let him sleep on the floor because he wouldn’t get a good night’s rest and wouldn’t have any fun if he was tired so Dad made Tim sleep in bed with him. Of course they had different layers of sheets so no leg intertwining would occur
4. Dad teaching me how to park in the church parking lot.
5. Dad playing catch with us in the house and Mom being scared that we would break something.
6. Dad being the tickle monster.
7. Mom would always rent cheap movies for me from Albertsons whenever I got sick and usually there was a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie in the bunch.
8. Mom and I having family prayer in the driveway before seminary. Then we started waking Dad up to join us :)
9. Mom being a great seminary teacher and trying to keep the peace between Kenny and me. Especially when we would play that pencil game that I think Mom eventually banned until we graduated.
10. Mom and Dad taking me to Yellowstone before my first year of college and the picture of us in front of the waterfall.
11. The time that Mom realized my legs were smooth and not hairy and I told her that Lisa said I could do it:)
12. Taking Sunday walks
13. Playing basketball with Dad
14. Mom and Dad visiting us a lot after we got married
15. Dad bribing me to tell him Mom bought a coat
16. Going to Arizona while Dad was on travel and seeing that woman with hairy armpits
17. Working HARD and digging weeds no matter what Matt says :)
18. Mom traveling to my out of town basketball games so I didn't have to take the bus
19. Dad's In-N-Out joke after I threw up at In-N-Out
20. Mom taking me to the Hannah Montana movie and it was just us and another mom and daughter in the theater
1 comment:
Thanks Lisa, you have done a lot of work just retyping and organizing everything! We do LOVE the memory book and remembering. I hope we get 50 different memories in 10 years :)! We'll do what we can to make more!
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