We loved to go camping as a family and would always take Tippy. Dad used to say that heaven for that dog was all the water he could drink and a whole forest of trees to mark. Tommy and I would be so thrilled to go to the forests. We used to stand in the back of the car or pick up and look for the first pine tree on the beautiful Payette River. Dad always cooked full breakfasts of bacon, eggs, sour dough pan cakes on a big griddle and Mom always brought big pots of stew and chili. Yum! We loved to fish and had much success.

Dad always took us on our ward Fathers and Sons outings. It was wonderful for all of us. One time we had a dutch oven dinner of a large pork roast. That night was one of the few times Dad ever told us about any of his experiences in the war. He told us of some of the fighter plane dog fights they would watch, snipers firing at his POW work crew, night guard duty and shooting at the sound of enemies trying to sneak up on them, laying in fox holes when enemy bombers came and watching our fighters shoot some down, the lousy food they had and when the Army troops came to defend the Island that Dad and his Marines had captured, they had all kinds of fresh, good food and did not share with the Marines. He was proud of being a Marine, one of the Nation’s best.

That night, we were laughing and dared Dad to make his pig squealing sound and we pretended to yell and run around like we were catching and killing a little pig. The next day many were convinced that we were cooking it in our huge dutch oven. We even gave them some. Soooo fun!