Biggest Kid

The biggest kid in our house is Doug. Sure, he may be 47 (next month), but he often forgets that. To illustrate this, a few years ago, while doing some fall camping, Doug shimmied up a Quaking Aspen tree. He thought the tree would bend under his weight, but it broke instead. The results were damaging for his head but hilarious to us onlookers. Thank goodness Noel was there and could stitch him up! Last weekend, on our annual fall camping trip, he tried it again--seriously. He didn't require stitches this time, but his body is still aching from the inevitable fall. Brittany took this picture. You can see that no one is at his side, because we were all rolling on the ground with laughter.

When Doug isn't kidding around, he is working. Always working. With a son on a mission and a daughter's wedding approaching, he has added a large extra load of patients. In any spare time he has, you can find him sleeping on any nearby couch. This is one of my favorite pictures of Doug. It was taken a couple of years ago at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

Doug really does a lot more than climb trees, work and sleep. He is also working toward his PhD in Physical Therapy. It is a slow process, but he's sticking to it. Surely he will be able to pick up the pace when the wedding is over. At Church, Doug is kept busy with his calling as the Stake Young Men's President. He loves this job and the people he gets to work with.