Birthday Post for Mama-Reading

Happy Birthday, Mama! Some of us in the family are doing a joint/continuous gift across the year of blog posts for you, so here is the first of mine. Thanks for always making so many memories with us and caring about our own experiences, and I hope this feels like an extension of “birthday season” throughout the year. I figured I’d start with an earlier memory that connects our family. I remember you reading a LOT of books to us. And specifically, I remember that we read books in the car on car rides. I’m not sure if they were our car rides down to Florida, but Have distinct memories of sitting in the captain seats in our Toyota Previa, surrounded by books and Legos and other toys that kept me entertained, and seeing you in the front seat, holding a book and reading to us. I think we read Where the Red Fern grows over the course of multiple days of travel, and it was a beautiful story. I think that’s the only time I read that book, but I remember the whole car getting choked up at the end of the story: Papa driving, you reading, and Mark nd me sitting in those captain seats, listening. What a great way to instill reading into your children, and pass the time on what would otherwise be a long car ride. As an adult now, I’m super impressed by your ability to power through without getting car sick! I also remember reading Harry Potter with you. Maybe we only got through one or two books, and I think it was more for Mark’s benefit than my own, but I know that at some point we were at the Chicago temple while Papa was doing a session, and we were sitting in the grass by the parking lot, having lunch and reading Harry Potter. You did all these voices for the different characters ( I wonder where I got that from later in life :-) ) and it made the story come alive for me. And taking your kids to the temple and having these positive associations with the temple? What great parenting techniques from which to learn. Even as adults, I think the book club was a continuation of this push to read together. We’re a little bit older where you don’t have to literally read the book, but it is still a community feeling around reading that is a precious memory for me. Thanks for that. Hope you have a happy birthday, Mama, glad we can be here to celebrate!