The Parable of the Bicycle

The Bike

Some of you may have heard of the Parable of the Bicycle.  It is contained within the book "Believing Christ" by Stephen E. Robinson.  In that story, a little girl wants a bike but only has 61 cents.  She despairs that she will never have enough money to buy a new bike.  The father, however, takes her 61 cents and makes up the difference so that she can get the bike that she had longed for.  The lesson of the parable is that as long as we put in our best efforts, the grace of Jesus Christ will make up for our deficiencies to help us receive the blessing of the Atonement.  This is not that parable.

My parable of the bicycle lacks an inspiring, uplifting theme.  It's the story of a father who tries to put in his best efforts to be a good dad, but realizes that his son is about to turn 9 years old and still doesn't know how to ride a bike.  In fact, that son might be the only kid on the street who doesn't know how to ride a bike.  The reason is that the son's bike was the right size for a four year old (and may have been lost the last time we moved).

The father worries that there are certain things that dads need to teach their sons and he worries that if his son doesn't even know how to ride a bike, he may be missing out on teaching his son other important life lessons as well.  The father resolves correct that mistake, get his son a bike, and teach him how to ride it.  It's never too late to do the right thing.  So maybe there is some hope at the end of my parable after all.  :-)

S.'s Little League Pic

Does this parable sound a little too autobiographical? Well, obviously it's not about me...  *cough* *cough*

Anyway, I figured that it was time to get S. a new bike.  I put a lot of time and effort into trying to pick out the right bicycle.  As a kid, I had a Huffy BMX bike.  It was blue with yellow mag wheels.

The really "cool" bikes when I was a kid were the Diamondback bikes.  I remember being envious of my friends that had those bikes.

I found both types on Amazon.  Then I went to my local bike shop and found a Haro bike that looked really cool but was the most expensive by far.  It has a hand brake and has a freehub, which means that you can pedal backward without actually braking.

I struggled with which bike to buy.  Did I want to spend all night or all weekend putting a bike together?  Or do I want to shell out the extra bucks and get the more expensive bike that is already put together?

Well, if you've seen the picture above, you know which one I chose.  Convenience won out over frugality.

I picked up the bike this morning and I was excited to give it to S.  I stashed it into the closet and hoped that S. wouldn't see it when he got home from school.  He didn't and I wheeled it out at after we did cake and ice cream tonight.  Judging by S.'s reaction, I think we have a winner.  I'm excited to teach him how to ride it.  I have a sneaking suspicion that he's going to figure it out really quickly and take to it like a fish to water.  S. is a really good athlete and he seems excited to start riding.

S. Prepares to Blow Out His Candles

As much as I enjoy riding, I hope that S. can learn to enjoy it as much (if not more than I do).  And maybe it's not too late to learn from my own parable of the bicycle.  :-)

Happy B-day R.!

You were not quite 3 on this trip to Sea World

Dear R.--

Happy Birthday!  I can't believe that you are 11 years old--to the minute!  I still remember going to the hospital and the second that you were born.  We were so happy to welcome you to our family and you have brought us much happiness since then.  I still remember holding your little hand as the nurses worked on you to get you breathing seconds after you were born.

As a brand new dad, I was trying to calm you to stop you from crying, but the nurses (who were a lot smarter than me) told me that it was great that you were crying so that you could exercise your little lungs.  

You before you left the hospital

I really do appreciate your love of learning.  It has been so fun to spend some extra time with you these past couple of weeks.  You blow me away with your thirst for knowledge and the way that your little brain has an almost unlimited ability to absorb information.  Like last Saturday, how we had that in depth conversation about black holes.

You are so talented and you have such a good heart.  I love that you also love music.  A talent that you must have gotten from your mom, since we don't have to remind you to practice the piano or the saxophone.  My mom would always have to remind me to go practice and I never did.  I love that you are so excited to play that you will do it on your own.

I also love your enthusiasm for new things and for life in general.  I hope that you never lose that.  It will serve you well in life.  That enthusiasm will lift the spirits of those around you and help them to feel happy as well.  I love that picture at the top because I can see the enthusiasm and happiness in your face as you reach out to pet that dolphin.  I had that picture on my desk in my office every day for years until I began to worry that it was fading to much, so now I keep it in my desk drawer.

I love that you love basketball

I also love that you love basketball.  I remember hearing you tell someone that basketball was your "natural sport."  It was so cute and I have had a lot of fun being able to coach you in different seasons and shoot hoops with you.  I look forward to being able to do that with you for many years to come!

Thanks as well for being such a good big brother and example to your younger brothers and your sister.  You are so gentle and tender with them.  That is because you have a good heart and a capacity to love others. That is a wonderful blessing that you have been given from Heavenly Father, so I hope that you always appreciate.

I know you are excited for today.  But even more important than your birthday is always trying to be the best person that you can be and to be kind to other people.  And always remember that we love you every day--not just on your birthday!

Love,

Dad

Princess in Pigtails

Happy Bday E!  I love the look of wonder and joy on her face.

We celebrated E.'s birthday today.  I've referred to her before as a princess and she couldn't have looked cuter than she did today in her little pigtails.  She turned 4 years old (recently)!  It was fun how excited that she was the whole day as we celebrated her, even though I'm not entirely positive that she understands exactly what a birthday is.  She just knows that it was fun and boy was she excited for it!

Here are a five simple tips for making a fun birthday celebration for a four year old girl:

Pink!

1.  Think Pink:

Little girls love the color pink.  They also like sparkly things and they like princesses.  Please note that E. got a pink princess cake and got to wear a pink sparkly shirt.  We're already off to a great start!

Here's a funny little story about E.'s birthday celebration.  She picked out the pink princess cake all by herself.  When it came time to pick the balloons for her birthday, however, E. picked some Angry Birds balloons because she said that she wanted R. and S. to enjoy them.  I thought that that was very sweet and cute of her to think about her brothers on her birthday.  Sometimes you just get lucky and you get kids that are a lot more awesome than you deserve as a parent!  :-)

2.  Keep the Festivities Ongoing:

That way no one gets too bored.  E. started by opening presents with the fam earlier in the day.  Later, we went to Chuck E. Cheese.  All in all, the festivities lasted 6-7 hours.  Nearly enough for dad to come home with a headache from all the booyah at Chuck E. Cheese's!  E., however, didn't seem to mind--at least until bedtime.  At which point, I realized that maybe getting her all tuckered out might not have been the best strategy after all!

Opening Presents...

3. Let Someone Else Do All The Work:

And by someone else, I mean Chuck E. Cheese!  Yes, nothing says "Keep it Classy, San Diego" like taking your kids to Chuck E. Cheese for their birthday party.  I remember going to this fine establishment when I was a kid, but I think the place is even more white trash now.

The kids, however, don't seem to mind.  They run around, grubbing after those tickets that the skee-ball games (and other arcade games) spit out and then you get to spend 30 minutes shoving tickets into the ticket counter so that your kids can get a 25 cent prize like a cheap pair of plastic fangs or an eraser.  Remember to bring some friends to keep your kids occupied.

E. Took Ride After Ride on the Merry-Go-Round

I don't think that I could have kept E. off the merry-go-round if I'd tried.  She must've pumped about $10 worth of tokens into that thing.  At one point, I had to get her off of it so that another group of kids could use it.  I wasn't sure if she was ever going to forgive me--or get over her despondency!

Luckily, we found the "Etch-A-Sketch" machine (see the first pic above) and I was able to distract E. for a few minutes until we could get back on the merry-go-round.

If you're really lucky, your kids' friends will bring their parents so you have someone to talk to--thanks Royal and Nicole!

4.  When in Rome?

Try to maintain a sense of dignity at a place like Chuck E. Cheese, even though that can be hard to do.  Here are my top 4 white trash moments from our afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese's:

#4 - Having to kneel down to shove literally hundreds of paper tickets into the ticket counting machine so that my kids could by their cheap plastic prizes.  Not only did I have to wait about 30 minutes to complete this ordeal (between waiting for the people in line ahead of me and then to get my own tickets counted), but--to make matters worse, I was getting trampled by the people waiting behind me in line.

Literally, the parents of these kids just watched their kids step on me, trip over me, and trample over me.  I couldn't believe it!  I was never so happy as to see the last of our tickets get sucked into that dang machine!  Then I got out of there as fast as I could!

#3 - Seeing a dad take his kid into the bathroom and then whisk him out of the bathroom with nary a glance in the direction of the faucet.  I sure hope that they weren't planning on eating off those hands!  Is it any wonder that I made sure to wash my hands very well before I ate?!

#2 - Getting the high score in both the basketball shooting game and the football throwing game.  I guess it's a measure of how few games there were that were even somewhat interesting for adults.  Mostly, I played with R. and that was a lot of fun.  The white trashiness is that I was actually proud to pull off those accomplishments.  But I couldn't really help myself!

#1 - Many of the people themselves.  Sorry I couldn't get any pictures, but my favorite was the woman with 3 inch letters--in gang-style font--tattooed over her chest.  I can't even imagine where she came up with the inspiration for that!

5.  Remember It's About the Kids:

My personal belief was that we stayed about 30 minutes too long, but the kids were having a blast.  E. is only four, so I wonder whether she will remember anything from her bday celebration this year at all.  But I'm pretty sure that if she does, they'll be happy memories.  And that's what matters the most!  :-)

On This Day You Were Born...

8 Years Ago Today...

S., eight years ago today, your mom and I went to the hospital to wait for you to be born.  The doctors put Mom on some special medicine to help you come faster since you didn't seem to be in much of a hurry on your own!

At first there wasn't much for us to do but wait.  I think we caught up on some reading and I do remember watching the NCAA basketball tournament on the tv in the room.  Maybe that's why you love sports so much!  

We were so excited once you were born.  After spending some time with you and mom, I went home to get your brother R. and bring him to visit.  I love the picture above because R. was so excited to meet you and he was so gentle with you.  To this day, I love seeing you guys play together and I hope you'll always be as close as I am with my "little" brother.

You and your older brother have always been close!

Look at those baby blues...

As a baby, you were very alert.  You always wanted to be able to look around at what was going on around you.  Your smile and laughter have brought a lot of joy to our house over the past eight years.  We feel so blessed that Heavenly Father sent you to our home!

I love this picture of the "boys" of the family...

S., we love you and are excited for you as you turn 8 and prepare to get baptized.  Thanks for being such a great example to us!

Even as a baby, you had such a cute smile!

Grandpa Richards

Grandpa Richards was born February 6, 1886

My mom emailed us today to remind us that my great-grandpa LeGrand Richards had a birthday today.  He passed away in 1983 at the age of 96!  I was only 8 at the time, but I still remember going to his funeral.

My mom reminded our family that we need to remember him and they example that he set for our family.

My mom's email reminded me of this picture that my cousin texted me last month.  My cousin LeGrand (guess who he was named after??) found this picture while cleaning out the family barn in Mesa.  What's cool about the picture is that LeGrand picked up the picture while still wearing his work gloves and took a pic on his phone and then texted it to me hundreds of miles away in California!  Isn't technology amazing!!

I love him for sending this to me because it has me, my sister (wearing the hat), and my "little brother" (in red) visiting Grandpa Richards' office in Salt Lake along with our Shill cousins (from L --> R: Emily, Sally, LeGrand, and Jon).

As a kid, I idolized the Shill cousins who were all older than I was.  Maybe they knew how much I looked up to them, but probably not.  The truth is that I still look up to them and admire and love them today!

Who would have guessed that this photograph, taken over 30 years ago, would have a future Air Force fighter pilot, two future doctors, three amazing mothers, and me sitting at the desk of an apostle?  I'm grateful to be part of such an wonderful family!

Happy Birthday Ocho!

"Choose to be happy,"

Said Grandma and so you did.

Your smile blesses us.

Think Pink

We celebrated E.'s birthday party yesterday. I came home from work Friday night to find the family room and kitchen decorated to the nine's. The house was decked in swirls and sprinkles of pink, black, and white.

I knew that my camera could not do it justice, so I waited until Saturday morning to take these pictures. They still don't adequately capture it. I can only imagine how the room must have looked to our three year old. I hope she always remembers it.

(Note the black and white and pink tutu...)

(...pink tutus, pointe shoes, and pink clouds suspended from the ceiling...)

(...mini pink cupcakes, books, crayons, dancers...)

(...and some serious 3-year old swag!)

The party started off with some coloring. The girls took their efforts very seriously. Miss J. oversaw their efforts...

Then it was story time. Unfortunately, time constraints prevented the girls from hearing all of the books--there were just too many to choose from! E. got so excited that she jumped up to try to read one herself.

It didn't work out so well. Apparently, they haven't gotten to the "Reading" module in E.'s preschool! ;) Luckily Miss J. was there to restore order to the "dance studio."

(E. loves to "read" ballerina books. Her eyes literally light up when she gets a new one. Even though she doesn't really read them, she can look at the pictures and dream...)

After story time, the ballerina princesses put on their new pink tutus and went out to bounce on the trampoline. All that hard work must have tired them out...

Of course, even little ballerina princesses need to rest up for the "piece de resistance"--the recital.

Because what pink ballerina princess party would be complete without dancing? And these girls danced their little hearts out!

All in all, the party was a great success. And if it's even possible, I think the moms had even more fun than the girls did. And I wasn't the only one that thought that!

Happy Birthday to our little pink ballerina princess! I hope that you and your friends always dream of fluffy pink tutus, pointe shoes, and fun dance recitals!

Pink Tutus...

My cute wife J. has a birthday today. I wasn't sure that I wanted to reveal the exact day publicly, but given that it's all over her Facebook account, we're not exactly talking about a state secret here. Plus, I think I can trust all 5 of my "regular" readers (given that I'm the oldest of 10 siblings, that's not really saying all that much!) to not steal her identity!

I just wanted to take a second to rave about my wife--J.--as she celebrates 31 years on this Earth (again).* ;)

Here's just one (recent) example of why J. is so rave-worthy:

Our youngest is turning 3 soon. She dreams of pink tutus, she loves to read books about pink tutus, she's having a birthday party soon with pink tutus, and even her invitations to that party are pink tutus. Somehow, J. came up with the idea for the invitations (above) and managed to pull it all together.

As J. would say: "Can you even stand it?" Actually, I was way impressed. J. always comes up with these types of fun ideas, but this one may have been her best yet. I'm not a "crafty" person, but you don't have to be an expert on crafts to recognize how darling those invitations are and appreciate J.'s creative genius in putting them together. I can't wait to have a house full of little ballerinas in pink tutus running around for the party.

I'm constantly reminded of what a great mom J. is and I have no idea where she gets the energy to keep our house running so smoothly. J., I know I don't say it enough, but our kids are blessed to have you for their mom and I'm lucky to have you for my wife. I love you!

*Since J. didn't put her actual age on Facebook, I don't think I'm at liberty to disclose it here. I just guessed at 31, but I actually think she looks younger than that! :)