Smelling pits

Now, I have to say that I still laugh out loud every time I think of Chelsie saying at the funeral that one of Stephen’s favorite memories of his dad was that Steve would let him smell his armpits. That may have been the best story told that day – and there were a lot of good ones. That is one heck of a good dad – to let his little boy smell his pits. Really, I think it made a lot of the fathers reevaluate their status as fathers and whether we measured up based on all new standards… and I suspect that many may have fallen short. Just one more example of a standard Steve set that was hard to match.

Memory from Mike Washburn. 

Emails

Just this week I was planning a manager meeting for work and Thanksgiving Point came up as a location to hold the meeting. I soon realized I was in tears and reflecting back because normally I would have hopped on the computer to e-mail Steve and joke with him back and forth several times before getting around to actually booking the meeting that he would have eventually crashed "just to check up on us and see what we were meeting about" (as he did in the past). I miss Steve. 

Memory from Natalie Watson. 

Toast in Paris

I am sitting here looking at your 40th Birthday party photos of you, Steve and all of us (Madsens, Homers and your cousins) at dinner in Paris, France two years ago today. How lucky I am to have had that experience and memory with you and Steve. That was a fairytale evening Mary Ann. I remember how charmed Steve was with you that night. He must have commented fifty times how beautiful you were in that little cream cartigan sweater. Cathy Madsen and I kept remarking to each other about the endearing way Steve treated you. I will never forget the incredible tribute he gave you as he stood and "toasted you" on your 4oth.

Memory from Annette Bell. 

Taking time off

I can see Steve's smiling face in my mind. He always said "What's up Nano!" (nick name John Whitaker gave me) When I go back to TP I always look for Steve's white landcruiser. It just seems like he should be there.

Now the Holidays are coming. The first year without a loved one is so hard. I have another memory of Steve standing in front of the red show barn by the Nativity with me. I told him that it was my first Christmas without my little Andrew who died that summer and I needed some time off. He was so kind and caring and told me to take all the time I needed.

Memory from Nanette York. 

Characteristics

For those of you who never had the privilege of working with Steve, he was the ideal employee; smart, team builder, motivator, visionary, willing to stick his neck out, natural leader, enthusiastic, engaging, great communicator (up and down), passionate, dedicated, enjoyed the ride, incredible work ethic, dependable, and a smart ass, and a friend. What more could you want? If it sounds too good to be true, it was. That’s why he is the ideal. Something tells me the gene pool didn’t stop with him. I’ve seen all of these characteristics in your kids; yes, all of them.

Memory from Mike Washburn. 

First kiss

When we first moved to Draper in 1999, one of the first people we met were the Williams. Steve was given the unfortunate assignment of being our home teacher and that led to us becoming friends. Anyway, one day Steve and MaryAnn dropped by one Sunday afternoon and we invited them to come in and visit. Our kids always loved to see the Williams family. My girls loved to see Chelsie and Alex and my oldest son liked to play with Stephen. My youngest son, Tanner ,was seven months old at the time and for some reason had always really liked Steve. So when Steve and MaryAnn were sitting on the couch I explained to them that I had been trying for weeks to get Tanner to give me a kiss. But for some reason, everytime any of us tried he would always turn his head and whine. Well Steve (who was laying on the couch at the time with Tanner on his chest) looks at Tanner and says,

" Hey Tannerboy, give me a kiss."

Then without any hesitation, Tanner leans forward and plants one right on Steve's lips. Then Steve looks over at my bewildered face and says,

"Maybe he wanted me to be his first kiss."

To this day we still tease our sweet Tanner (who was baptized last month) about his first kiss. Oh, and by the way, it took me another 3 months to get him to kiss anyone else again.

Memory from Amy Collins. 

First responder and singing to Bob Dylan

Story number 999 about Steve being " Johnnie on the spot" or ever prepared for any incident: One time Steve, Richard, maybe Don (lot of years gone by, can't remember if all four of us were there!) and I were coming out of a couple day camp out in Canyon Lands. It was just dark and we were heading back home when we came over a rise in the road and there was a Chevy Blazer rolled over in the middle of the two lane road! There was a young woman laying there on the road and a couple others standing by her. The accident had just happened and we were the first people on the scene. Steve was driving and immediately pulled over and jumped out of the car and started helping. He started first aid on the person laying in the road and we started figuring out how and who to contact out in the middle of nowhere! The young lady was injured but it was not life threatening and the others had minor scratches and bruises and were shook up but were okay. No one could act quicker and think faster in an emergency than your father and husband! He was a sight to behold checking out that young lady for injuries as we helped him and the other people in the roll over.

Rich and I were talking again about things we miss about him and the adventure trips we were able to go on to the Wasatch, the Grand Tetons, the Wind Rivers, the Grand Canyon, the Sierra's/Tahoe region, the Uinta's, the West Desert area, the Sawtooth Mountains. I can still remember when Steve and I were young and had the energy to drive to Grand Targhee early in the morning from Provo to ski because Targhee had just had a great powder dump. All the way there and all the way back (in one day after skiing crazy all day), we sang along with Bob Dylan (I had a tape of his all time greats). We were hoarse when we got home, the skiing was fantastic and I can remember us skiing and stopping on a ridge and looking across to the Grand and saying we would climb it someday. Well, we climbed the Middle Peak of the Grand, but not the Grand itself. All four of us did that climbing trip along with some friends of Steve's from work in Idaho Falls.

Memory from Von Phillips.