THE MOSTEST!

Tomorrow would have been my Grandpa Cox's 89th birthday. Ever year when this date approaches, it makes me reminisce about the great memories I have of him and what an amazing & incredibly spiritual person he was. He was always such a great example to me. He showed me that if you work hard, you can accomplish all that you want. He taught this to my mom and thus she taught it to me. He also never wavered on his faith. He showed me and all around him how important Christ was in his life, by being like him through his Christ like actions.

Grandpa had an incredible vegetable garden. I remember him working in his garden, in his blue coveralls and his wide brimmed safari hat. He would find bugs on his plants and showed us how to pop their heads off. He didn't use pesticides to kill, just his two fingers. I loved going out to the garden with him, he would always let me pick some fresh peas and carrots, just so I can eat them while we walked along with him. He had a very long walk way, (well it wasn't that long, but it seemed that way because I had shorter legs) that was lined with an incredible array of grapevines. Every year we would get together to harvest the grapes, strip them from the vine and spread them out over Grandpa's homemade fruit dryer. (an old screen). We would come over periodically through the next couple of days and his back porch was full of shrivelled up grapes. We even did this with the apricots from his huge apricot tree. Mmmmm, nothing was better than his fresh raisins and dried apricots. I would eat so many that I would get sick. But that is a memory and taste I will never forget.

One of my most favorite memories was, after a long walk in the garden on those hot St. George afternoons, we would go down that long path along the grapevines, which he called the "ICE CREAM ROAD" and head right into his bedroom. In his bedroom was a standing freezer filled with Vanilla, Neapolitan, and Maple nut ice cream. There we would pick out the ice cream of our choice, I would usually go for the Neapolitan and he would go for the Maple Nut. From there we would head for the kitchen, grab a couple of cones and scoop ourselves some yummy ice cream. We would just sit at the table and enjoy the cones and the great company. My favorite ice cream to this day is Neapolitan and Maple Nut.

Grandpa was amazingly smart. He would get his globe of the earth out, a flash light and show us how the earth rotated, why the seasons were so different because of the tilt of the earth, and how the sun shown differently as the earth rotated. He was always showing us new thing, how things worked and most importantly why. I remember hearing stories about him, how he fixed a helicopter, even though nobody thought that was possible in the dinky town of St. George.

But my most favorite memory of my dear grandpa was his ability to get down with the grandkids and play with us. He drove us around in his wheelbarrow, as we sat on top of the fresh grass clippings. He played "Sail Around Big Hawk" with us until we were laughing so hard that we were sick. He would play little tricks on us. For example, he would say, "I bet I can jump higher than the house." Of course we all took the bait, there was no way he could jump higher than the house. So he would take the littlest leap and would say, " PAY UP." But of course we would argue that he didn't come close to jumping higher than the house. All he would say was that the house couldn't jump therefore he jumped higher than the house. Another example of his playfulness was when we would get to eat with them at dinner, and he would always challenge us that we could not open our mouths to eat without bending our elbows. Which was very true and we eventually got the joke after many attempts.

Last but not lease by any means. He had a couple of sayings that our family cherish and we will always carry with us and pass on. My most favorite was he would always try to one up you on how much we loved each other. He would say I love you and we would reply we love him more, and he would of course reply back that HE LOVED US THE MOSTEST. It became a game with him and everyone to say "THE MOSTEST" before anyone else said it. Finally when our little visits would come to an end, much to our dismay. He would scoop us up and say, "Take your time leaving, but hurry on back."

I am so grateful to be able to have such great memories of my Grandpa and so grateful that I had such a great man for a Grandpa. I will always cherish his memory and pass it down to my kids. So they will know what a great man he was.

THE MOSTEST GRANDPA!