Belated, but .....

In honor of their 3rd decade of life, I thought I'd throw these on here. Happy Birthday LAST week to Cris & Bryce!
Here's an email that I sent to Lisa, who organized a 'running' birthday party for them, with memories from their siblings of their colorful pasts! (mostly for mom and dad who probably didn't get to read these) Feel free to add your own!

"sorry I got distracted yesterday, but I hope this still reaches you in time! Thank goodness this isn't snail mail!Here are some stories: Nicole & I shared a room always and back when we were about 9 & 11 or so, Cris had this practice. Nicole had a little ritual everynight-she'd go down to the bathroom to brush her teeth, then she'd come back to the room & kneel by her bed to pray. I was usually already in bed, and would just watch this every night. Cris would come sneak down, very often, as soon as she left to brush her teeth. He would come running into the room and slide under her bed. She would come back and kneel down for her prayer, and as she started to pray, Cris would reach out from under her bed & grab her legs and she would scream!! This was like every night for a few weeks. I would just laugh every time, as would Cris... Nicole wasn't quite as amused. Also, Cris & Bryce also found this way to torture her one summer, about the same age (which made them about 13 or 14 or so). She hated bugs, so they would go around at night and collect the dead dried up bugs from the windowsills. While she was brushing her teeth, they would come in and drop their days' spoils on her pillow, then leave. Plus, whenever they found a worm when we were weeding the garden, they would throw it at her, or they would start chasing her around the house with it, with her screaming! OK, sorry, enough of Nicole! :)So one little ritual about Bryce: My last 2 years of high school, I had the upstairs girls' room to myself, and Jamie had the boys room & there's the bathroom in between. When Bryce would come home from college for a weekend, he would stay in the (only) boys' room in the house, up with Jamie. It'd be late at night when I was finally getting to bed. Bryce was usually on a similar schedule. I would just be getting into bed, as he was brushing his teeth, and he'd walk into my room and chat a little, but with the toothbrush, that would be difficult, so he'd finish brushing, then come back into my room and sit at the foot of my bed (because my feet didn't usually reach all that far) and he'd chat and we'd catch up and he'd tell me about all the drama (sometimes including girls) at school, and I'd tell him my drama. It was a fun little bonding time. Even the summers when I came home from school, we'd still talk about the traumatic dating experiences and lament together. One TWIN story (kind of)...Mom is always very nervous about her kids. When Carrie & Lisa were back at BYU, they lived with Cris in the Elms and one of them had an early morning job on campus, and they'd have to go up to campus when it was still dark. This of course worried mom, but without hesitation Cris offered to get up early every morning and walk her up to campus every morning. Bryce, likewise, when he found out last year that I worked early in the morning, despite having a family and busy school schedule like Cris, offered to wake up at 4:45 and drive across Provo to pick me up and drop me off at work to ensure that I was safe (& warm)! Despite loving to tease us, they always are very protective and are GREAT brothers!Cris has always been very bright. He worked at Honeywell, I think, with brother Maitland one summer. There was a machine they needed for testing that one day quit working. It was a VERY sensitive machine (I think it measured the dust quantity of the air or something like that) and very complex. Well, Cris went in & tinkered with this thing and had it working again. When the 'real' employees found out, I believe the story goes that they were excited to have it working but told him NEVER to touch it again! The machine was worth a million dollars and it would break the warranty if anyone that wasn't trained from the manufacturer touched it. Also, my freshman year at school, I lived with 5 other girls. Cris was the only sibling on campus, and I never really appreciated it that year because I had just come from home where I had plenty of siblings around, but I learned what a blessing it is and how fun it is to have family on campus. He would show up at my apartment and make me my favorite kind of jello salad-and he would whip the whipped cream BY HAND to make it, too! How sweet! ALL my roommates loved him and whenever I missed his phone call or visit, they would say 'Our brother Cris came by!' Also, my sophomore year, Bryce came to visit and stayed at Cris's about a week before Christmas (right during finals, probably, now that I think of it). We all hung out one night and then I told Bryce I'd cook him breakfast the next morning. I wasn't sure he really was coming, so I listened to him from my bed that Saturday morning. I didn't hear him, so I went back to sleep. Later that morning, when I left the apartment, there was a note on a dirty newspaper that he'd found on the ground that said "I came, I knocked, I left hungry' or something like that. I felt SO bad, because it was such a privilege to have my older brothers around and to do something nice for them, and I totally ditched him that morning!! (I don't know if you want to tell this one, because maybe Besty will feel bad...) but right when I got home from my mission, Bryce & Lisa came to visit. A month before, Besty was supposed to have a big prom date that she was SO excited about. The little punk totally cancelled on her and it was so sad. Bryce & Lisa, while they were up for the weekend, had brought some special dress up clothes, too, and had Besty put on her prom dress and took out all dressed up to this fancy dessert restaurant in downtown Boston later in the evening. I thought that was so sweet of them!A funny story about Cris, that probably is a bad memory for my mom....I can't remember if he or Bryce was the first to come off their mission, but either way, it was a VERY big deal! So (this is before 911) we were all waiting at the gate for Cris to come home and finally we see him walking out!!! We were SO excited! But he walks right by us and is talking to this Argentine family that he sat next to on the plane and was really enjoying talking to them and they had a 10 year old girl, or so, so in Cris fashion, he was chasing her and getting along with her great! He walked with them a little down the terminal, then finally said goodbye and came back to hug his mother a few minutes later! Cris is so friendly!! Gotta love him! It was great to have them back home They both just brought back suitcases FULL of alfajores! And Cris had bought Doc Martens down there becuase they are so inexpensive. We thought he'd bought them from tracting and stuff, but he pulled them out, all brand new and stuff still & said he was saving them! And I think they are still being used and in good condition to this day!!And Bryce got back from his mission loving to make doughnuts and cook and stuff. No one would complain when he'd get up really early to make the donuts and he'd get up early enough to let them rise for a long time so they'd be nice and soft and then he'd have them ready by the time we woke up. Oh yeah, one more. So Cris & Bryce had this good friend, Manasseh, in the ward, back when they were in high school. During sacrament meeting, they would always try to sing soprano, and I'm not sure how many people around us could hear it, but we sure could!! They thought it was so funny! and we would laugh too, sometimes!Anyways, hope that's enough for now!!!I hope the party is a blast and we are so wishing we could be there to see everyone!!!love ya,Katy"