SLC Airport

This is at the SLC airport before I left for Germany on my mission. I am sure I was telling him a story and we were communicating with sarcasm. We shared a similar sense of humor and with his quick wit we were always laughing. He called me "slash" because I went through a phase where I always said slash in all my conversations. He also called me "wom" for most of my life. I am grateful for the close relationship we had. Gary was always there for every big event of my life. He made the trip with his whole family down to the airport to see me off. He was always so supportive and made the extra effort to do things together as much as possible. His family was everything to him. Whenever I came home to visit he was always the first one there and made fun plans for us. He was the life of the party.

Gary and Landon

I love this picture. One of Gary's best known traits was his love for kids an especially babies. He was outside the delivery room actually talking to my Dr. Crouch and making bets about when the baby would come. I know if I would have given him the word, he would have been there for the birth of Landon although he may have passed out in the process. He loved to be the first on the scene and was always so supportive. Landon had RSV so was hospitalized shortly thereafter. I was a fanatic about having everyone use hand sanitizer. The joke when Landon was blessed was that I was going to make all those who participated in the blessing wash their hands with sanitizer before they went up to the front of the chapel. Gary loved to take Landon and run away from me just to get a rise out of me. He was so much fun and always called Landon "midget." Landon actually thought Gary's name was midget. He tells his friends now about his Uncle Gary and how he lives with Heavenly Father.

Germany

This is a picture of Gary when he came and suprised me in Germany. I was at home during a preparation day when the doorbell rang which is very strange for missionaries to have company. I answered the door and Gary yelled (in typical Gary fashion). He and Teresa had come to Germany on business and made arrangements to stop and see me for a day. It was an awesome suprise. My mission president and companion knew about it beforehand so they had made sure we were home. He had rented a car and had an awesome time driving on the autobahn where you can drive really fast. He did fall asleep in traffic and I had to wake him up because of jet lag. We went to Colonge and saw the sites there and they even came with me to visit a member, Martina Masur. She was one of my favorites and I really wanted Gary to meet her. Another awesome suprise on my mission was when the phone rang one Mother's day and it was Gary. I was lecturing him about breaking the rules and he was telling me "rules are suggestions" when I heard Kevin on the line. It was so neat to be able to talk to Kevin because we were both serving missions at the same time although he was in Uraguay. This is the kind of thing Gary was always famous for....making the impossible, possible. Gary hung up after a while and Kevin and I talked. These are some of my great mission memories. Gary also spoke at my farewell. The essence of his talk was surrounding D&C 82:10...."I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." That is one of my favorite scriptures.

California

This was the trip to California before Gary's mission. We took the truck and camper along with Rack-O, Pit and other favorite card games to play. I think this picture was taken at night at Sea World. I know we went to Disneyland although Kevin denies it. This was one of my favorite trips. I remember petting the dolphins in the dark and it was raining. I also remember a trip to Tiajuana where Dad bartered and got me a $5 blanket. I think we still have that. We had lots of great trips growing up. Gary's presence helped to make these vacations fun.

Gary

I decided to create this blog to help me document some of my memories of Gary and hopefully to create a book of these memories. If you would like to post to this blog, please feel free to do so. If you are unsure about how to post to the blog, email me what you would like to post and I will put it on the blog for you. Also if there is anyone else who would like to post on the blog, let me know and I will add them to the author list. I am hoping this will help me to remember and document all the great things about Gary and his life.