We all wanted to come together this year and express how much we appreciate all that you have and do for us! You are an incredible father, father-in-law and Husband! Here are a few words from each of us!
I know who I would call if I was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Thank you for all the amazing oppurtunities and experiences you have given to my siblings and I. Thank you for showing us the world, providing a great and safe home for us to grow up in, giving me a great education from Waldorf, Elboya and W.I.C. All the fun times in Osoyoos every summer of my life, letting me do an exchange to improve my French, all the summer YMCA camps, supporting Bree and I going to Spain for Paddle Tennis (even if we didn't win worlds.) Letting me move away at 16 and giving me support through being homesick, school, volleyball and track. Letting, paying and trusting me to backpack Europe with my best friend for 5 weeks. Not getting mad when I became the only Harris child to crash the car, even though it was my fault. Coming to Utah to watch me throw in State, encouraging me to be better, and all the other things that you have encouraged, provided and supported me through these interesting 18 years. Thank you for being a positive influence in my life. I know I have the greatest dad and I love him! I already know I'm your favorite, you've told me at least 100 times. 
PS: I've included a foto of Dad's 60th. I was the only kid there and spoke on everyone's behalf. I remember tearing up in gratitude, if not for myself entirely, then on behalf of the sisters too. =D
Dana:
Dear Daddio,
I sure do love you & feel grateful that I was born to Mom & you. Did you know that I often feel like the luckiest/most blessed person on earth and you have played a large role in my feeling that way! Thank you for telling me that I am your favorite, which I really believe I am, feeling that important & cared for meant & still means a lot to me. During some tough/awkward times socially you helped me along with your encouraging words. I feel like I can overcome any challenge in the world when you are around. You encourage me to be my best, most ambitious self.
Thank you for your help with athletics, from soccer to badminton to track to volleyball to javelin, you were my real coach...the BEST COACH in the world. I love the memories of the wonderful & sometimes painful badminton sessions, you running along side Emily Mackey & I teaching us "how to run properly pumping your arms". Yesterday I taught a couple of little kids in our ward how to run & kick the soccer ball. The whole while I was thinking of you! I love your love of physical fitness which you have passed on to me. Today I went to LA Fitness for 3 hours enjoying one class after another, which reminded me of your visit here when you spent tons of time there both with & without me.
Thank you for helping me with schoolwork. I remember thinking "How does my Dad know everything?". If I ever had a question I knew the walking encyclopedia would know the answer. My goal to be a 4.0 student finally did happen...I knew that I had the smarts in there somewhere because I am half your genes & you are a lawyer & had to be smart to become one of those.
I hope to be that kind of inspiration & coach for our kids & others I come in contact with in all of their pursuits. It is interesting, last year when someone asked me if I teach violin I thought, well teaching is like coaching, I can do that because I have seen my Dad coach me in everything.
I am grateful that you are becoming the Spiritual Giant that the Lord expects of you. Keep striving & being wonderful to your Queen (my Momma)....you hear that....it's an order from DQ!
Maybe I will be a physical fitness nut Mom like you were to me...starting January!
I love you lots. Happy Father's Day! You are the Best Dad Ever!!!!
xoxox Dee Danes (aka DQ)
Paigee:
Trey:
Happy Father's Day Greg! I really appreciate how you always have the time. A lot of people nowadays can never talk long or are always anxiously awaiting their next text or email as opposed to concentrating on the person right in front of them. But you are always in the moment and give your full attention to the person you're engaging in conversation. You have the gift to make people feel like a million bucks (Canadian$), and like the most important person in the world. I really appreciate that and all the friendship, advice, respect and love that you've given me, Paigee and Brooky-line Chunky-time! You are a great father and I sure hope my kids love me as much as yours love you when I'm your age! That means that you've lived a good life; you've been a good man. Thanks for being a great man that I know a lot of fledgling young husbands and fathers, myself being the a prime example, constantly look to for guidance.
With love and respect-
Trey Clark
Ooh! Ooh! Dont' forget about ME!
I want to say Happy Father's Day from your FIRST Granddaughter! Thanks for being my favorite Grandpa! You are so fun and I can't wait to learn badminton and tennis and learn how to swim with you!
Love Brooklyn (;
It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ~Kent Nerburn
First and Foremost Dad, Thanks for being such a great example to us of a wonderful husband! This has proved invaluable for us married kids.
Forever thank you for the wonderful children and happy home afforded me by YOU.
Always,
Your Maryjoy
The Best Fathers are also the Best Husbands - Sariah May
Victoria :For once, I get to start!
Daddio!!!!!!!
Thank you for teaching me and always wanting to play tennis and badminton with me. Also for coaching my soccer team (but sadly all I remember is eating oranges) Also for teaching me to ski at Big Mountain. My moment of eureka as a 5 year old was realizing the only way was down. Thank you for teaching me mentally as well. I seem more educated to people about geography, politics and the Stock Exchange and don't say like nearly as much as most teenagers because of my daddy.
I know who I would call if I was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Thank you for all the amazing oppurtunities and experiences you have given to my siblings and I. Thank you for showing us the world, providing a great and safe home for us to grow up in, giving me a great education from Waldorf, Elboya and W.I.C. All the fun times in Osoyoos every summer of my life, letting me do an exchange to improve my French, all the summer YMCA camps, supporting Bree and I going to Spain for Paddle Tennis (even if we didn't win worlds.) Letting me move away at 16 and giving me support through being homesick, school, volleyball and track. Letting, paying and trusting me to backpack Europe with my best friend for 5 weeks. Not getting mad when I became the only Harris child to crash the car, even though it was my fault. Coming to Utah to watch me throw in State, encouraging me to be better, and all the other things that you have encouraged, provided and supported me through these interesting 18 years. Thank you for being a positive influence in my life. I know I have the greatest dad and I love him! I already know I'm your favorite, you've told me at least 100 times.
P.S. Your teeth are beautiful!
A father carries pictures where his money used to be. ~Author Unknown
Brianna: To COME
Brig: Happy Father's Day Dad!
You really deserve this day because you're one of the best fathers of this generation. Thanks for all your support and advice to us. It's great to have a bit of you in who I am everyday.
Brig
PS: I've included a foto of Dad's 60th. I was the only kid there and spoke on everyone's behalf. I remember tearing up in gratitude, if not for myself entirely, then on behalf of the sisters too. =D
Dana:
Dear Daddio,
I sure do love you & feel grateful that I was born to Mom & you. Did you know that I often feel like the luckiest/most blessed person on earth and you have played a large role in my feeling that way! Thank you for telling me that I am your favorite, which I really believe I am, feeling that important & cared for meant & still means a lot to me. During some tough/awkward times socially you helped me along with your encouraging words. I feel like I can overcome any challenge in the world when you are around. You encourage me to be my best, most ambitious self.
Thank you for your help with athletics, from soccer to badminton to track to volleyball to javelin, you were my real coach...the BEST COACH in the world. I love the memories of the wonderful & sometimes painful badminton sessions, you running along side Emily Mackey & I teaching us "how to run properly pumping your arms". Yesterday I taught a couple of little kids in our ward how to run & kick the soccer ball. The whole while I was thinking of you! I love your love of physical fitness which you have passed on to me. Today I went to LA Fitness for 3 hours enjoying one class after another, which reminded me of your visit here when you spent tons of time there both with & without me.
Thank you for helping me with schoolwork. I remember thinking "How does my Dad know everything?". If I ever had a question I knew the walking encyclopedia would know the answer. My goal to be a 4.0 student finally did happen...I knew that I had the smarts in there somewhere because I am half your genes & you are a lawyer & had to be smart to become one of those.
I hope to be that kind of inspiration & coach for our kids & others I come in contact with in all of their pursuits. It is interesting, last year when someone asked me if I teach violin I thought, well teaching is like coaching, I can do that because I have seen my Dad coach me in everything.
I am grateful that you are becoming the Spiritual Giant that the Lord expects of you. Keep striving & being wonderful to your Queen (my Momma)....you hear that....it's an order from DQ!
Maybe I will be a physical fitness nut Mom like you were to me...starting January!
I love you lots. Happy Father's Day! You are the Best Dad Ever!!!!
xoxox Dee Danes (aka DQ)
Glen:
Well Greg,
I wouldn't have to be writing this if you (and Maryjoy of course) didn't make the most wonderful daughter EVER (please notice the "absolute"), but since you did, I am obliged to do so. Thanks for being the man you are, full of knowledge and good/helpful advice. For raising a great bunch of kids who I've been lucky enough to get to know and love.
Someday when Dana and I have our little tribe, I can only hope they love and talk about me as your kids do you.
Hope all is well this Fathers Day for you. Please know that I'm loving your daughter more and more everyday, that I'm always trying to do all that I can to make sure she is happy and safe. You are right when you tell me how lucky I am to have her :) Once again, thanks for all you have done to make my life better! We miss you and wish you were here.
Happy Fathers day!
Glen
p.s.
You should come over again, just bought 50 lbs of the sweetest oranges EVER and 25 lbs of grapefruits, not to mention fresh avocados, limes apples and pineapple. You are always welcome here (along with Mary Joy of course) to do a little IN-N-OUT burger and fries, for lunch, then dinner at the steak house for a pound of the best steak EVER , then top it all off, a little Dairy Queen just because! (I still can't believe you ate that much)
Good times.
Well Greg,
I wouldn't have to be writing this if you (and Maryjoy of course) didn't make the most wonderful daughter EVER (please notice the "absolute"), but since you did, I am obliged to do so. Thanks for being the man you are, full of knowledge and good/helpful advice. For raising a great bunch of kids who I've been lucky enough to get to know and love.
Someday when Dana and I have our little tribe, I can only hope they love and talk about me as your kids do you.
Hope all is well this Fathers Day for you. Please know that I'm loving your daughter more and more everyday, that I'm always trying to do all that I can to make sure she is happy and safe. You are right when you tell me how lucky I am to have her :) Once again, thanks for all you have done to make my life better! We miss you and wish you were here.
Happy Fathers day!
Glen
p.s.
You should come over again, just bought 50 lbs of the sweetest oranges EVER and 25 lbs of grapefruits, not to mention fresh avocados, limes apples and pineapple. You are always welcome here (along with Mary Joy of course) to do a little IN-N-OUT burger and fries, for lunch, then dinner at the steak house for a pound of the best steak EVER , then top it all off, a little Dairy Queen just because! (I still can't believe you ate that much)
Good times.
Paigee:
Daddio,
You are truly the greatest! The greatest Dad, Grandpa, example and teacher!
Every year I hope I can thank you, let you know how much you mean to me and how grateful I am for you! Every year I feel like I fall short. I always will though, because every year you do more, and every year I realize more how lucky and blessed I was to have parents like you and Mom! You have given me an incredible example to model my parenting by and I am most grateful for that! I think of the Skiing in Montana, the Summers in Osoyoos, the Saturdays (and Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays etc.) at the Glencoe, the sledding in the backyard, movie nights with popcorn on Sundays, Family Home Evenings on the Fireplace and at the Piano, Pancakes on Saturdays. and Trips -well, all over the world! You gave us every opportunity available and always made me feel like I could be and do anything I set my mind to. Now, raising an almost 2 year old, this is invaluable!
I love our pictures like this. In our home, we have the one of us when I was about five, then one of us at the wedding like this. You make me smile!
Thank you for always putting us first. For making our childhood so full of joy and wonder! For making our adult lives richer, by just being Dad!
Have a Happy Father's Day!
Love, Your Paigeee (;
"Old as she was, she still missed her Daddy sometimes". ~Gloria Naylor
Trey:
Happy Father's Day Greg! I really appreciate how you always have the time. A lot of people nowadays can never talk long or are always anxiously awaiting their next text or email as opposed to concentrating on the person right in front of them. But you are always in the moment and give your full attention to the person you're engaging in conversation. You have the gift to make people feel like a million bucks (Canadian$), and like the most important person in the world. I really appreciate that and all the friendship, advice, respect and love that you've given me, Paigee and Brooky-line Chunky-time! You are a great father and I sure hope my kids love me as much as yours love you when I'm your age! That means that you've lived a good life; you've been a good man. Thanks for being a great man that I know a lot of fledgling young husbands and fathers, myself being the a prime example, constantly look to for guidance.
With love and respect-
Trey Clark
Ooh! Ooh! Dont' forget about ME!
I want to say Happy Father's Day from your FIRST Granddaughter! Thanks for being my favorite Grandpa! You are so fun and I can't wait to learn badminton and tennis and learn how to swim with you!
Love Brooklyn (;
It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ~Kent Nerburn
YOU did a great job at both though!
Brooke & Mike:
Dear Dad, Daddio and Grandpa Greg,
Happy Father's Day!!! I would first and foremost like to thank you for being my wonderful Dad. As I grow older and even as I start a family of my own, I realize more and more the importance of father's in the home, and the real great influence you had in our family.
Here are some of my favorite memories of YOU as my Dad:
My Dad to me means:
Dad I love you. I cherish you in my life and feel so fortunate that you have been such an involved, and even crucial part of my developement as a person. I love you. Thank you for your love and enthusiasm in my life and in Mike's life and now I look forward to the relationship you will have with our little Hannah! Joy!
Love to you on this special day!
Love your "favorite" :) eldest daughter.
xoxonth,
Brooke
Maryjoy
Happy Father's Day!!! I would first and foremost like to thank you for being my wonderful Dad. As I grow older and even as I start a family of my own, I realize more and more the importance of father's in the home, and the real great influence you had in our family.
Here are some of my favorite memories of YOU as my Dad:
My Dad to me means:
- finding excitement in turning your compost, delight in opening a new can of fruit from the Okanogan, awe for the world and what it produces, a weekend cowboy, you would love to have a ranch with lamas or buffalo, love for the Rocky mountains, excitement in a tree ladened with fruit, adorer of children (his own and others), thrilled to see birds from our kitchen window, thoughtful to call family not present on Christmas, one of two funny twins, friendly to all and kind.
- Love for your family. You love being with your family more than anything else and that shows and we love it!
- Pure excitement to see the before and after of pouring bleach on the cutting board in the kitchen and calling us kids over to watch the miracle of the stuff go to work to make the board bright white again.
- Singing. "Good night, little baby good-night, sleep tight, every-thing is alright, little baby good-night" or "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine"
- My Dad is hard working. One thing is for sure, you were not one to come home and watch t.v. or be lazy. You worked hard at work and played hard at home and on the weekends. It is a amazing to think I don't remember you ever saying you were tired. A few times on the badminton court or talking late into the night, I tried to out-do you but eventually, as the janitor was trying to sweep around our court, or my eye-lids were closing on their own, I had to finally give into the fact that you loved spending time so much that I had to call a time-out! :)
- You picking up garbage in the park (just by example, you showed us the outdoors is something to be cherished, not trashed). I loved it when you came home from a walk one day and announced you had finally been paid for your service, as you found a $50 bill amongst the garbage bag full of trash you found in the park. I also remember when you stopped in the middle of the road and told some kid to pick up his trash he had just littered; and that the world was not his trash can. Or the time you told the guy in the hot car next to him to use his trash can, a__hole! These are really funny examples of how passionately you felt about the environment and the pride you had to keep your Canadian home beautiful.
- I remember Friday nights at the Glencoe, swimming or playing badminton until past our bed-times, then going home and eating "mid-night snack" together. It was fun to be doing something active all together, and also it was fun to be staying up with Dad. Shreddies still mean good times with Dad and is my all-time favorite cereal.
- Awards. I also remember how you would give out awards on the way home from an outing. Each kid would get an award announced, something that they had done well or sometimes just funny things that you had observed that we had done. It was fun to wait to hear what our individual awards were.
- You are a great example of always seeing the positive. You knew you loved Calgary, the Glencoe, the mountains so close by to our house, you love exploring the beauties of the Alberta prarie and also the people around you. You were always proud to show or tell guests about the wonders of the area in which we lived.
- My Dad loves talking and getting to know people. We could always find you talking to someone, either in the Glencoe (when it was time to leave and we had to page you twice!) or at church, or wherever we were. The fun thing is that you are great at talking to people of all ages and stages, male or female. Often I'd find you talking with parent and making their little kids smile. I enjoy hearing the things you learn about the people you meet. I guess you ask the right questions because you end up extracting really interesting information from people, either about their lives or what they know. And if we were to ask you about it, you would probably say something like "yah, people are fasinating" I know it was both you and Mom's influence that brought people from all around the world into our home, often hosting them for many days, or maybe just a dinner appointment. It allowed our family the opportunity to see and meet people different than us and value them.
- Blind adoration for your kids and your wife. You were a great example to us kids growing up of adoring your wife and being completely bias when it came to bragging about your kids. I loved hearing you say to us kids how wonderful our Mom was/is. I loved hearing you quickly settle into telling whomever you were talking to at the time about your family and how proud of us all you were. I also enjoyed hearing the stories about us that you would (often braging might I add) about your family. It showed where your focus was. One thing is for sure, our Dad loves his family.
- Creativity. My Dad was great at making up good-night stories, songs to sing to us, that often rhymed
- I also really love seeing you as a Grandpa. I was a real thrill to see your shoes come walking through that door at the hospital. It was wonderful to see you hold Hannah and I charish the video I have of you swaying and dancing with her singing "hold me baby, all through the night oh, baby, do you want to dance!"
- Playing badminton. Of course this is one of the greatest memories of time spent with you Dad. Hours and hours on the courts, early morning before school or late into the night as everyone had gone home. If there were free courts, you offered to play. I was so lucky to have a parent that was both knowledgeable about the skills needed to play and also willing to spend the time to develop those skills. You are the reason I won nationals and not some of the other kids I played with. You showed me how to put in the hours, you encouraged (and paid for me) to play as many tournaments as possible and you put the crazy idea in my head that I could some day win nationals. You taught me first-hand how believing you can do something is half the battle. Believing in your kids was one of the best gifts you have ever given us.
- Goals: for some reason this attribute of yours really stands out to me. I remember you excitment in telling us kids that you were drinking water each time you went past a water-fountain, or that you had started climbing the stairs at work rather than taking the elevator. Also, your enthusiasm for goals in your own life, encouraged us to make goals in our own lives. The first day of the New Year I love the tradition you started of writing our own goals and checking off the accomplished goals of the last.
Dad I love you. I cherish you in my life and feel so fortunate that you have been such an involved, and even crucial part of my developement as a person. I love you. Thank you for your love and enthusiasm in my life and in Mike's life and now I look forward to the relationship you will have with our little Hannah! Joy!
Love to you on this special day!
Love your "favorite" :) eldest daughter.
xoxonth,
Brooke
Maryjoy
Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. ~John Wilmot
AND OF COURSE TO OUR TWO FAVORITE GRANDPAS!
Grandpa Harris,
You have been a constant source of love for us throughout our lives. You are an example of living a good life, full of faith, service, love and charity. Thank you. Thank you for your visits, your generosity every Christmas and birthday, and mostly your example.
Grandpa Sevy,
Happy Fathers day! You are our summertime memories! Bite marks on our arms, Tabasco Ketchup, Water skiing with you behind the wheel in the blue boat, your Bear hugs and life lessons! Thank you!
Love your Grand kids and kids.
AND OF COURSE TO OUR TWO FAVORITE GRANDPAS!
You have been a constant source of love for us throughout our lives. You are an example of living a good life, full of faith, service, love and charity. Thank you. Thank you for your visits, your generosity every Christmas and birthday, and mostly your example.
Grandpa Sevy,
Happy Fathers day! You are our summertime memories! Bite marks on our arms, Tabasco Ketchup, Water skiing with you behind the wheel in the blue boat, your Bear hugs and life lessons! Thank you!
Love your Grand kids and kids.
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