Friday, January 5, 2024
My brother, Britt will always be remembered as a kind and gentle soul from just a young boy. As his big sister he was always easy to be around with his sensitive, and quiet personality who often preferred to listen in a room full of people. My brother was a lot like me I always felt deep inside. My parents took Britt, James, and myself on many road trips, adventures camping, seeing ghost towns, and amusement parks. One early camping adventure we will always remember was in the High Sierra Mountains in the middle of summer, so we all had packed shorts, and swimming trunks, etc., and we stopped at a little store and an older man told us see those cumulus clouds that means it might rain, and we all left thinking he was a crazy to think it could rain with the warm sunny weather we felt on our faces. However, the next morning we woke up to a wet and cold tent, discovering snow everywhere for us as kids was fun, except for being cold an waking up with our tent went inside. This was the first time we saw yellow snow! We packed up an went to Lake Isabella were we enjoyed swimming and warming up.
Other camping trips including Sequoia National Forest, which included our first adventures into Crystal Cave, we all enjoyed being scarred of what was ahead. One trip included going horseback riding, but Britt was just too scared and started to cry so he just watch us for awhile, looking back when he was just a little boy, it's hard to believe how little he was since Britt grew up to be the biggest and strongest in our family and enjoyed doing things none of us could or would want to do - he grew up to become a daredevil in so many ways compared to rest of us.
My dads brother, uncle Mitch was a forest ranger when we were young, and he lived off the grid when he was young, so going to visit Mitch was always an adventure, just getting to the places he lived was always going on back-roads and dirt roads that took a bit of time to get to. Once we were all in this small trailer on top of a hill near Malibu, which had a chain tied to a tree, it was windy that night and we were rocking around, Britt, James, and I all had big eye's just looking at each other.
Britt, James, and I learned to love the outdoors and appreciate nature, and all living things from the experiences my parents made sure we enjoyed as a family. We took so many road trips I could never count them. We all have so many wonderful memories as a family and Britt will forever remain in those memories from long ago as well as our most current family adventure this past Mothers Day. We went sip lining to check off a bucket list item for my mom, and while none of us have every done ziplining before, Britt was the first to take that leap, and he made it look so easy like he had done it hundred times before, holding on with just one arm like a monkey in a tree. Over the weekend we also rented an electric boat and enjoyed sight seeing in Moro Bay, we saw sea lions, otters, pelicans and other sea birds, and witnessed a search and rescue vessel take off fast leaving some good size wakes for our little electric boat to ride. Britt was the captain of our little boat, we enjoyed a few hours out in the bay before going back to shore to enjoy lunch, and sightseeing along the boardwalk.
As Britt became a man I have always admired him for all of his qualities, a person with a good heart who was always honest, sincere, and made everyone smile with his wonderful sense of humor, big bright smile, he loved having a good time, and always good company. When Britt became a father, Jake was born premature, when we went to visit him at the hospital watching Britt feed and hold Jake was so touching, and when Britt and Kris decided it was best for one of them to be at home with Jake (Jake had to wear a heart monitor after being at the hospital for around a month), Britt became the best stay at home dad I have known, watching and caring for Jake, and then being very involved in taking Jake to soccer games, dirt bike then dirt motorcycle riding, Britt spent not just quality time with his son, but made Jake is #1 priority.
Britt always made friends easily and has more close friends than anyone I know, which is a tribute to the kind of person he was, he cared for his family, friends, his heart was solid gold. My goal going forward is to remember all of the good memories and do my best to live each day in the moment, to appreciate the time we all had with Britt, and to honor him by being the best person I can be, and keeping Britt's smile alive.
