My Dad

  I know everyone thinks their dad is the best, and  I'm no different.  

My earliest memories of my dad are of him making me and my siblings laugh.  He is one of the funniest men I've known and he still makes me laugh.  He loved to tickle and tease us kids.   He had a way of making each of us feel special (I think that is quite a feat, what with eight kids).  I remember one summer when he was at school in Reno, he sent me a special letter just for me.  I still have it because it reminds me of how much my dad loves me and the potential he saw in me then.  

He was always encouraging.  He always had time to listen and council his children, and still does.  And he took time to play with his kids, too.  I remember a silly game we used to play when we were teenagers (Kimi & I) where we would gang up on Dad and try to push him onto his waterbed and he would try to throw both of us on the bed.  (He always won.)  

 I always thought he was so handsome, smart, and strong (maybe that's because it was drilled into us, from infancy, in those bedtime "fairy tales" about a prince named Mark...).  

He is such a scriptorian and taught me how to live and enjoy the gospel.  He loves the Lord and lives his life accordingly.  He is a hard worker.  He's ambitious.  He loves the little things.   He taught me to love poetry.  He is able to be silly but is  a deeply spiritual person as well.  Those are some of the things I love about my dad!

I love you Dad!  Happy Father's Day!

Here is a poem he wrote when I was about 12 that I put in my scrapbook way back when.  I ran across it tonight when I was looking through stuff.  Remember this one, Dad?

The Kiss

by Mark Orton

I dreamed a shark came swimming by 

my bed the other night

And saw my sister slumbering

and reached and took a bight

 

Alarmed, I grabbed my pillow

and I beat that shark to death

Though it wasted all my energy

and exhausted all my breath

Happy then, I rested

knowing I had saved my sister

Next morn' I learned the shark was Dad

and had only bent to kiss her!

Here is another little favorite of my Dad's poetry:

Who Knows?

by Mark Orton

If an lowly worm

is the ugly germ

of a lovely butterfly,

Just what and who

might God make of you

in some future by and by?!

These are just about the only pictures I have of  Dad, besides family photos, but they are fun.

Silly Pa (I guess I had enough hair for two back then)

Showin' his guns...just to scare us, I'm sure.