Life Sketch Question #5 - What are some fun things you did as a child. What are some you have done as an adult.

My parents can definitely attest to the fact that I have always tried to have fun in everything that I do. Several examples include

• Turning the chore of cleaning my room into a basketball game. The toys matter better "balls" than clothes did, but it made the job fun.
• Vacuuming was always a game to me. I enjoyed (and still do) trying to make neat "vacuum" marks on the carpet.
  
• Riding my bike to school was not only exercise and a good form of transportation as an elementary school kid, it was also a difficult battle of "Robotech" and I barely made it to school in the morning and home in the afternoon each day.

Even though I've always had a fairly happy demeanor, such that everything was "fun" to some degree, there are still some great memories of incredibly fun things as a kid. Just the other week, I was telling a friend about the one family vacation that we took when I was little. I must have been in the 7th or 8th grade. We were pretty poor growing up, so we never took vacations as a family. But this one year, we went on a one-day family vacation to the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad and took a ride through the smokies. It wasn't much, but all of us remember the experience. I will never forget the smell, the cool breeze, the sun, the sound of the train, and the great fun that we had. I'm sure we argued or fought over who would sit in which seat (all kids do), but I don't remember if we did. I only remember having a really fun time together as a family.

I also remember and loved yearly canoe and rafting trips in the mountains of North Carolina. I remember how nervous I was the first time I went rafting down the Nantahala River. I thought I was going to die and it didn't help that one of the other boys was in full tears while I was trying to be brave. It was a little cold and the river was running high and fast! I was terrified right up until we hit that first big rapid and we all got soaked but we were all safe. We laughed and I was instantly hooked! One of the best experiences of my life! Since that day, I have always had a special place in my heart for riding down the river, either in a canoe or in a raft!

There are so many fun things that I did as a kid, I can't put them all down on this blog, but I have to mention one more. I will never forget how much fun it was to be the drum captain for the West Henderson High School Marching Band my senior year. It was so cool to work with such great friends to put together our routines for the year. I really enjoyed percussion and I've always been a "go-team" kind of guy, so this was the perfect thing for me. In hind-sight, I've often wondered if I would have been happier playing on the football team instead of beating my drum during half-time, but I know in my heart that I made the right choice. The friendships that I fostered during my Marching Band days are still alive today in many ways. I would never replace this experience.

Marching Band brings my thoughts to another fun set of experiences. My best friend RJ Carter and I loved to test drive cars. Our love for doing this started one late summer on the first day of band camp. We both randomly showed up early to band camp (we didn't have cell phones, so to this day, I'm not sure how we planned this one out!). He was dropped off and I had my car. So, since we had a few hours to kill, we drove to Greenville, SC (about a 45min drive) so that we could test drive cars together. We pretended to be brothers that were looking to get new cars for graduation. We drove a bunch of cars and were even allowed to take a car for the afternoon once. I had a bunch of fun with RJ in high school. We played golf together as much as we could (we still do whenever I get back to NC in the summertime). We were even thrown off a golf course once for doing 360's on the wet grass and flipping a golf cart! We also loved to play tennis. We played early in the morning at the YMCA on clay courts or we played late at night after work on hardcourts. We were both on the drumline and we were together all of the time. Most of the "fun" that I had in high school was with RJ and I will forever cherish his friendship!

As an adult, there are many fun things that I have been able to do. My mission to Paris, France was not only one of the most important things I've ever done in my life. It was also one of the most fun things that I've ever done! I'm running out of time for this post and I'm behind on some others, so to save time, I'm just going to list a bunch of the fun adult things that I've done:

• Traveling to Paris and London with Amy in 2009 to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. I'm not sure that we'll ever be able to top that trip!
• Jet skis in the ocean in Indonesia. Definitely a top 10 lifetime experience!
  
• Attending the temple in Manhattan and enjoying the city on a business trip
• Getting my MBA at Duke University. Amy and I call these the "dark years", which is very true! It was probably the toughest 2 years of my life, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. These years shaped me to some degree and I did have a bunch of fun with a great group of people as we learned about business!
• The birth of all 4 of my children are definitely lifetime highlights. I'm not sure that I would call these experiences "fun", but the excitement of having children, as well as the many fun experiences is still going on!
• BYU undergraduate studies was a blast. I can thank my best friend Matt Mills for some of the most fun experiences ever! Matt was a companion in France and my roommate for about a year (before I abandoned him after meeting Amy).
• Family Vacations -- Amy and I have been blessed to be able to take the family on vacation pretty much every year. We have done DisneyLand, SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Preserve, the beach, Durango and southern Colorado, and we've done the Grand Canyon and Zions. We love to camp and hike in Rocky Mountain National Park! Two years ago, I took Ashtyn on a backpacking trip in the mountains for one night. I consider this one experience to be one of the best that I've ever had. I can't wait to take the family on more backpacking trips.