Happy Father's Day!

I missed doing this on Mother's day, but today I wanted to celebrate Father's day by bragging about my Dad a little bit. I know a lot of people like to think they have the best dad in the world, but my siblings and I are really the only ones who can actually collect the prize and frame it. HISTORY My Dad grew up in Waterloo, Iowa where he was born with a beard. Growing up he tamed wild salamanders and hunted gophers. He sneezed his way through elementary school and then survived through crazy black girl razor fights in high school. His family and friends also spent a LOT of time on the Mississippi river where they water-skied and caught giant snapping turtles for lunch. Dad learned to play the trumpet and would often go to the bar on the wrong side of the railroad tracks and play jazz with all the black folk with his Levi jeans rolled up, white shirt and penny loafers. He was the original James Dean. In college Dad was known was as "The Fish." The rest of his days at UNI are a blur, as he won't tell us about them and his best friend Dane Sommers has also been sworn to secrecy (the old "you don't tell my kids and I won't tell yours" thing). I know that he had some crazy times as one of the popular stories about "his friends" that he tells where "he wasn't there" involves a police chase and a corn field. There is also a mysterious picture of him wearing some underwear on his head. He claims he knows nothing about it. He met and married his sweetheart at the ripe old age of 21. He finished his masters degree in geology and then started working. Interestingly enough, he wanted to be a lawyer but didn't want to spend his life in a cubicle. Little did he know that the geology department sucks you in with their cool field trips for a few years and THEN throws you in a cubicle (or in Dad's case a nice office with a view). My Mom joined the LDS church when they lived in Louisiana. It wasn't til 12 years later in Texas that Dad followed her great example. Ha-no one would believe that THE Craig Davis was getting baptized and so many people came they had to meet in the chapel. Dad is the father of six marvelous kids (I'm his favorite) and 11 grandchildren who he loves very much. CALLINGS, AWARDS, ETC. Dad is quite the guy. Since he joined the church he's only ever had 3 callings. First he was in the bishopric, then he's had over a bazillion scout callings and now he's in nursery and scouts. When we first moved to Texas my Dad and a couple other guys started the largest scout troop in Houston (big deal-Houston's HUGE). They were infamous for a while in scout history. In his scouting career he's received so many awards I can hardly remember all of them. But, here are a few. LeRoy Golson Award (very distinguished) Scouting Family of the Year Unit Commissioner of the Year Scoutmaster of the Year Silver Beaver And so many other Pine Tree awards I can't even recall Other Random Information Because he was so involved with scouting, he was a favorite among all the guys we all hung out with in high school. My brother's friends knew that he was the voice of Jack In The Box. Every time he'd leave and go on another "business" trip, a new commercial would come out. They were obsessed with this for months. He always has a handkerchief (AKA snot rag). He doesn't drink after children. On one of the scouting trips he took, Blake Rhalston kept taking off his smelly shoes. My dad repeatedly said not to. Blake didn't listen, and his socks ended up on the freeway. Blake is still whining about this 10 years later. Jonathan Kay was fascinated with my dad's beard. I remember the day he witnessed something that is usually only captured on a high speed camera-my dad coming his beard. He keeps a comb in his pocket so he can straighten it out and when Jonathan saw him comb his whole face in less than a second he was impressed out of his mind and couldn't stop talking about it for months. He's not a cowboy. In fact, he hates country music.

He shaved the beard into a goatee, and now people think he is Colonel Sanders. He's been mistaken for Steve Martin and Richard Dreifus more than once. People are very disappointed when they see him at the airport, ask for a signature and it comes out, "Craig Davis." He's the best husband ever. He's been shopping patiently for hours with my mom at antique stores so she can find this certain drawer for a sewing machine and I've never heard a complaint. People fear and love him. He is intimidating... he's really smart and knows everything. He wrote the dictionary. He can make things explode just by looking at them. He has traveled to more countries than I am old. I think so anyway. He has spent a lot of time in Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Greece, Europe, China and like four hundred other places I can't even keep track of. He's dined with ambassadors, presidents, and all sorts of VIP peoples. I have had numerous people at church over the years pull me aside to tell me how lucky I am to be his daughter and how much they love and respect him. Dad has a unique cough. Whenever we go somewhere and lose site of him, we listen for his "Eh heh" cough and we can find him. He likes to canoe, rock climb, mountain bike (face first), hike. He can name every kind of rock. My least favorite as a kid was the "Levarite." ... Leave it right where you found it... FAVORITE PHRASES "YOU KIDS DON'T DO DIDDLY-SQUAT!" "You couldn't find your butt with both hands!" "You're as blind as a bat!" I am so lucky to have a dad like my Dad and I love him so much. He's the kindest, most forgiving man on the planet. His great example of what a man should be like will be in my heart forever. I hope I can raise my kids (whenever they get here) to be like their Grandfather.