Then we went to my Grandpa Thacker's surprise 80th birthday party. 80 years old! All of his 8 children were there and mostly all of his grand kids (and even great-grand kids). We sang his old songs, laughed at memories, and shared his golden advice. My favorite is "Whatever you put as your first priority I'm confident you can achieve it. So be very careful what you put as your top priority." This man worked with the LDS church seminaries worldwide so you can bet all of my seminary teachers in high school knew my grandpa, and even some of my religion professors at BYU. He also was quite the joker. One of my favorite stories from when he worked in the Church Office Building was when one of his colleagues was late for a meeting and couldn't find his suit coat. He asked my grandpa if he had seen it. And my grandpa nonchalantly asked, "Well, did you look under C?" The man was confused but then it dawned on him. He opened the file cabinet and sure enough under "C" was his coat. So many stories like that. I could go on and on about this man--about his years of service in the mission field, interactions with prophets and apostles, his daily swim in an Olympic-size pool, and the best rendition of "Elmer and the Bear" you've ever heard. Lucky to be his granddaughter and lucky to join in the celebration of such a great man.
Don't ask me how I didn't get a picture of either event, both being pretty important. One of those shoot-myself-in-the-foot-after-the-fact moment. But at least we got a picture of the cutest sidekick to my day. I do what I can.
