Memories....

I've been thinking a lot about Travis, my brother, today. Since Travis isn't here to be embarrassed or stop me, here are some cute stories of my favorite big brother:

When Travis was really little, he would run down the hall to the living room and jump up in the air and kick his leg out as he said, "Bo-Nee-Nee-Nee-Now!" (It's really more of a sound like you're playing a fake guitar I think. Really no idea where he got it!)

Another thing he used to say is "I cowboy daddy-bear!" to a tune he made up. This was when he was like 3, I think. I'd have to ask Monica and Melissa and Charlotte and Sarah what it meant and the whole story behind it.

My dad had a shop he worked in in our backyard- attached to our carport. He did wood-work and fixed cars and things in it. I remember playing in our backyard with Travis and Sarah and my younger siblings and even our neighbors, we lived next door to the Jenkins, and they had a brilliant idea. We got all of the sawdust from the shop and spread it all over the backyard. We had a huge Oak tree there, so grass didn't grow there anyway. My dad had built us a swing set and we were going to have a circus. The swings were the trapeze act, we used my dad's saw-horses for the tight rope and a picnic table and bench for the stands for the audience. Travis was going to be the ring master and I was so excited to walk the tight-rope.

My cousin, Earl, lived with us for a while and he and Travis decided to make a homemade Slip -n Slide. They used black garbage bags I think and lots of soap. I think Earl even put my dad's shaving cream at the end for us to slide into, like on Nickelodeon.

Travis liked to experiment with things. He had some Black Cats and lit them in ant beds. When that wasn't fun, he moved onto dog poop. Yes. I know. He didn't get away in time and we teased him for the longest time for having eaten dog poop! LOL Classic!

We loved to play Cowboy and Indians. I remember one time my mom let me play with him with my shirt off- I must have been 2 or 3 and an Indian.

I remember making tents out of blankets in his and David's room. Travis had lots of tricks to make them last. Like Sarah said, he was creative. He had lots of ideas and made things I never could have imagined out of legos or even dirt.

In high school, he figured out a way to program his calculator to have different formulas to use on a test. His teacher realized what he'd done and asked him to remove them- she didn't know how to program them or remove them and never thought to tell anyone that it was against the rules. He was way too smart!

He was almost fluent in Spanish before his mission. He learned way faster than expected. He served in the Guayaquil Ecuador Mission. While he was there President Gordon B. Hinckley visited the mission. He got to hear him speak and he said it was such an incredible experience. He should have still been in the MTC at that time, but since he already knew the language, he was able to be there earlier.

To be continued...