some thoughts on my dad turning 50.

 {me + Pops, Victor's Cafe, NYC, 2004}

my dad turned 50 yesterday.
which means i can now technically call him my old man.
and which also means i am 1/2 his age.

now if i could just be 1/2 as smart, 1/2 as healthy, 1/2 as hard-working & 1/2 as generous, i'd finally be on the right path to becoming the person i want to be.

it's weird thinking of Pops being 50 (i call my dad Pops...and Ellie calls him Pops too. i like that). 50 sounds so much older than 49. but i really don't consider my parents to be old. when does that change? is it when your conversations become more about ailments than day-to-day stuff? or is it when they stop coloring their hair and go completely white/grey? or maybe it's when they lose their teeth or when they become bald? i don't know. but for now, my parents are the youngies that i want to grow up and be like.

some things i just love about my Pops:

Pops loves cheerios.
as in, he eats a bowl of cheerios for breakfast most mornings...and then grabs several handfuls of cheerios throughout the day. i love how he loves cheerios because everytime i eat a bowl of cheerios, i think of him.

Pops is a real tease.
like i remember many instances while growing up being in tears because of the incessant teasing. he would take bites off of my plate (i never learned how to share), laugh when i told him that it wasn't funny (i'm reminding myself of Ellie), steal some of my prized cotton candy (even though he undoubtedly paid for it), and tickle me when i wasn't in the mood to be tickled.
but Pops wouldn't be my dad if he didn't tease. and i've learned to love it.

Pops is the cutest grandpa.
i love seeing him with my girls.
he's not the most lovey-dovey human on the planet.
but the way he lights up just when he sees them makes me light up inside.
and the way he will do whatever Ellie asks him to do (even color or sit in her princess tent or take her on the crazy bumper cars at Disneyland) is simply heart-warming.

Pops is a quiet, yet powerful example.
i can remember countless mornings as a teenager coming downstairs to the laundry room to get my socks out of the drier (i love warm socks in the morning) and finding Pops reading his scriptures or kneeling to pray.
i remember him talking to us about honesty- and how basically all other attributes stem from being honest with yourself, others & God. more importantly, i remember him being 100% honest in every thing he did. i don't think he even knows how to exaggerate- that's how honest he is.
and one of my favorite memories is on the night before my wedding, i remember him coming to find scared-19-year-old me, who had disappeared from the chaotic bunch downstairs to pace the upstairs rooms back and forth. he calmly suggested giving me a blessing to ease my nerves and fears. and it worked. as blessings always do.

Pops always calls to check in.
he makes the effort to come and see me + my lil family pretty regularly, as he travels to San Francisco for work pretty regularly.
he's adopted M as a son (which happened almost instantly).
he makes me laugh.
i just love him.

i'm lucky.
lucky to have Pops be my dad.

happy 50 years, old man!
i hope i look as good as you do when i hit the big 5-0.

xoxo