Normally this blog is a place for stories of action and adventure. However, a member of the team has reached a momentous milestone, and so at this time we want to take a moment to express our gratitude to him. Senior Operative Glenn Eugene Boyd has logged SIX decades on this planet!
For the last 39 of those years he has had the added responsibility of being a Dad.
I want to take this time to put down on “paper” just how much I appreciate him and the job he's done and continues to do for my family and I.
So here it is….60 reasons I have to thank you in honor of your 60 years, Dad.
If you can hold on until 120, I might do it again
J.
1. I’m forever grateful that you gave your life to Jesus and in doing so embarked on a journey that made you a better man, husband and father and ensured that we will meet again in heaven.
2. I appreciate that you were smart enough to take Nancy Ann Weatherby off the market. She is the best mother a boy could ask for! (Holly ties her for this honor.)
3. I appreciate that you have always role modeled how a man should provide for his family. You worked day in and day out pushing concrete for 30 years so that your young family could flourish.
4. I appreciate that even when you were a hoodlum in the early years, you still did enough things correctly to show Gert and Pete that you and Mom would honor your commitments and because of that….(see #5)
5. I appreciate that you nearly single-handedly built my childhood home. I got to start my life living on my own 5 acre wildlife preserve, tree farm, orchard, and playground.
6. I appreciate that you and Mom “broke the cycle” of broken family values. I thank you for that, and my children and their children and their children will owe you the same thanks!
7. I appreciate that you taught me to drive a stick.
8. I appreciate that you took me fishing with you and taught me to be patient.
I still remember the first time I ever caught a walleye and how excited it made you.
I remember you waking me up to my rod swinging with the pull of my first Sockeye (before they were easy to catch).
I remember catching catfish at night at a little pond on the Bridgeport Bar and watching the turtles poke their heads up out of the water.
I have endless fishing memories and I thank you for all of them.
9. I appreciate that you gave me the Bulltaco, the D50, and even my Camaro. They were all noble steeds in their own way.
10. I appreciate that you gave in and got me a pup named Yotte. For all the headache / cost he brought to you, he brought me a lot of love and good times.
11. I appreciate you teaching me to buckle down and put in a good days work; it’s not always easy, it’s not always fair, it’s not always required, but it is always what a man should do.
12. I appreciate that you taught me to be a hunter.
13. I appreciate that you taught Josh to be a hunter and then had to deal with both of us in the field at age 16 with firearms…sounds scary to me.
14. I appreciate the trips to the mountains to get our Christmas tree and getting pulled behind the truck on our sleds.
15. I appreciate that you finally gave in and allowed me to buy Dr. SLOWNO. I loved every second on my bike.
16. I appreciate that you were in the stands for every football game or wrestling match and most softball games you were on the field with me.
17. I appreciate that you put a scope on my BB gun so I had thousands of rounds of training before I ever got to go in the field with a real gun.
18. I appreciate that you left Eastern Washington, your home and your family to work in Seattle and forge a new path for us here.
19. I appreciate the coyote picture you gave me from one of your trips home before we moved. I still have it somewhere.
20. I appreciate the roughly $400K (according to Google) that it took to pay for me for 20 years.
21. I appreciate that you let me race motorcycles.
22. I appreciate the college classes that you paid for probably with serious doubts that it would be a good investment. I proved you wrong on that one J
23. I appreciate that you’re the best Grampa ever!
24. I appreciate how you came over and helped me go door to door the day we lost Kye Yotte Boyd. It was a tough day and having you and Mom there really helped.
25. I appreciate that you jumped on the bandwagon with Derek and I and spent several years logging tons of great, great memories duck and upland hunting. They are some of my favorite hunting memories.
26. I appreciate that you built a playground in your backyard just for your grandkids.
27. I appreciate that you can find baby gates, electrical outlet plugs, and foam padding as permanent items at your house just so your grandkids are as safe as kids can be.
28. I appreciate the trips to the dog park, bouncy house, McDonalds and everywhere else that my boys will look back on fondly for their entire lives.
29. I appreciate that my boys have such a great model of what grandparents are, and get so much love from you and Mom.
30. I appreciate that you have stayed in top shape. It’s great for you but also selfishly allows me to have my Dad and the boys to have their Grampa for a long, long time to come.
31. I appreciate that you gave way that day on the Skagit River while duck hunting. It started a new better chapter for us rather than a new worse one.
32. I appreciate the “pack in" hunting trip we took. No monster muleys, but memories that I will keep forever.
33. Thanks for showing me that most often you can do it yourself. I watched you build things, fix things and drive things that most people wouldn’t even try to tackle and most times J it worked great.
34. Thanks for sharing with me the joy that is dove hunting. I will never forget the first time we went head to head with those little rockets!
35. Thanks for tricking out the SeaHunter so Darrell and I could dive the Pacific Northwest. We had lots of great diving adventures in that little tank of a boat.
36. Thanks for not killing me when I got the Dodge stuck in the middle of nowhere, when Josh and I headed out of camp at midnight, when I forged my report card, etc, etc.
37. Thanks for the mighty A-bolt, it will always be special to me because it was a gift from you and Mom (and because it’s a nail driving weapon of deathJ)
38. Thanks for all of the camping trips we took. We had several summers of great memories with our family camping trips.
39. Thanks for the camping trips that taught me what “real” camping is like, no fees, no concrete fire pits, no showers. Just you, me, the forest, and hopefully a lake or stream with some fish to catch.
40. Thanks for having pigs at the Bridgeport house…I’m not sure why but I always think back on them fondly.
41. Thanks for letting me drive the tractor when you changed the irrigation lines. It made me feel great and very important for an 8 year old.
42. Thanks for always being ready to help me with my projects. We built a fence, play house, moved 10 yards of wood chips, put in a lawn, poured a new patio, and built a play room.
43. Thanks for the great original Grampa art that decorates the boys' room.
44. Thanks for being the kind of guy that thinks hiking from Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail is a great idea.
45. Thanks for always pushing me to do more than just work with my hands.
46. Thanks for letting me use and most often lose your tools, fishing gear, and other stuff. I learned a lot and had a bunch of fun doing it.
47. Thanks for taking me ice fishing…most people have never done it.
48. Thanks for the great discussions we have had while driving to all corners of the state.
49. Thanks for being so financially sound. We don’t have to have everything we think we do. (Nothing wrong with a nice truck though…am I right?)
50. Thanks for helping me coach Cole’s team.
51. Thanks spoiling me and my family at every holiday and birthday.
52. Dad, I love you…
53. Dad, I appreciate you…
54. Dad, I think you’re smart…
55. Dad, I think you’re handy…
56. Dad, I think you’re the best hunter I know…
57. Dad, I think you could do chainsaw carving if you wanted to…
58. Dad, I think you’re are a man of God…
59. Dad, I hope to be a great Dad like you…
60. Dad, Happy Birthday, let’s do 60 more..well, at least 30!
