It's my husband's birthday today! He's 44, just like me. We had three families over for dinner and family home evening to celebrate. I bought prime rib eye steaks, made some dinner rolls, and green beans. Aren and Scott brought baked potatoes and toppings, Caroline and Fred brought a tomato mozzarella salad, and Julie (and Zach) brought fresh fruits. It sure is easy to pull off a dinner with 16 when you have four households helping out with it. We had brownie sundaes for dessert and Kelly had a fun birthday. I didn't take a single picture, unfortunately. I looked through my pictures to find a random picture of my husband and came up with this one from our Caribbean cruise last year. Happy birthday, Honey! For the rest of you, here are some fun facts about Kelly:
- Kelly is the oldest of three, with two younger sisters, born to two Idaho natives, Marlene and Dee. He has a great family.
- From birth, he lived in Colorado and grew up in a house on a small lake, where his parents still live, and with whom our kids anxiously await spending a couple of weeks with every summer.
- At age 19, Kelly served a faithful LDS mission to Bahia Blanca, Argentina, back when LDS missions for elders were 18 months long, rather than two years. He speaks Spanish fluently.
- Coming from a family of electrical engineers, Kelly followed in his father's footsteps and became an electrical engineer, even working for the same company, Hewlett Packard, just out of college.
- Kelly graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, and also received a Master's degree in EE from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
- Among Kelly's interesting jobs in the past, Kelly worked as a white water river guide in Moab during the summers while a student at BYU, as well as a ski instructor at Sundance in the winters, where he taught me how to snow ski while we were in college.
- Kelly is a great dad and taught our kids to read from the time they were age 3, by patiently going through the book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." He is a very patient and loving father and I have never heard him raise his voice.
- One of the things that impressed me when I was dating Kelly was his talent and passion for music. He plays the piano and was a keyboardist in several bands. He wrote a song for me (music only) when we were dating, one of the sweetest gestures I'd ever experienced.
- Kelly's favorite holiday is the Fourth of July, which is also the date that he was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1974 at age 8.
- Kelly is a wonderful husband and my BFF, and my love and admiration for him continues to get better with each passing year. I'm grateful for the challenges we've overcome together and look forward to life and the future with him.
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For the record, the Kelly has always said that the title of that book is misleading. Those 100 "easy" lessons weren't always easy, and sometimes only a half a lesson worked. It is an awesome book that we've recommended to several of our friends and families who have had exceptional results with it too. It's a must-have book for all parents with small children.