The Big 3 . . . Oh!

Well, yesterday Brady hit that big milestone: number 30. We tried to send his 20s off in style with a big party, lots of friends, and lots of food. For those out-of-towners who couldn't join us (I think we had enough food for you all had you shown up), I thought I'd share a bit of the celebration with you. Last week I emailed family and friends and asked for "Brady Trivia." I typed up the fun facts and put them in fortune cookies. Throughout the party, people would open their fortune cookies and read off their trivia and Brady would have to tell the story or give the explanation to go along with it (I couldn't get the real fortunes that were in the cookies out, so everybody actually got a fortune and trivia). I have included a lot of the trivia pieces below. I also put together a little movie slide show of Brady pictures, with some help from Brady's family who gathered some early pictures for me. It is about 5 minutes, and then there are some very special guest stars at the end. Here is a link for that as well (it will show most of it streaming, but for some reason the site won't show the whole thing and cuts off some great stuff at the end, so I recommend you hit pause when it starts streaming and download it instead).

Brady Trivia

• Brady eats mustard on his potato chips


• Brady starred in a film directed by Jared Hess


• Brady climbed Mt. Borah in 2000 (elevation 12,000+ feet)


• Brady had scarlet fever Christmas day when he was in second grade


• Brady had a big thing for Mariah Carey In junior high


• Brady's first car was named "Turbo"


• Brady wore a mustache while serving a mission in Chicago


• Brady had open heart surgery the day before his seventh birthday


• Brady requested popcorn shrimp and artichokes for his last meal before the surgery


• Brady wants to have a band called "Dr. Huckstable"


• Brady's television career began on Highway to Heaven


• Brady was the Grand Inquisitor in a play of The Brothers Karamozov at BYU


• Brady is a self-taught hypnotist


• Brady won a ribbon at the Arlington County Fair in Virginia


• Brady shared a bedroom with three younger siblings when he was 6


• Brady's teachers were always frustrated that he could be the class clown and still get the highest grades in class


• Brady was awarded first place for an Arbor Day speech he wrote and gave in the first grade


• Brady was the narrator for his 1st grade play called The Elephant's Child, and he had the whole play memorized


• Brady's culinary skills manifested at an early age. He made his own birthday cake out of Bristol blocks when he was little. He left it in the oven and it melted when his mom turned the oven on, not knowing it was there.


• Brady slipped on the ice and broke his new permanent front teeth on New Year's day when he was little


• Brady had a run-in with a brick wall while on his brakeless bike


• Brady's first word was "bird"


• Brady took his first steps at 10 months


• Brady can hardly wait for Halloween to end before he starts playing Christmas music


• Brady grinds his own chili powder


• Brady earned money as a kid by reading every Newberry award book


• Brady taught himself to speak backwards (some words, anyway)


• Brady wrote a song about Chuck Norris before Chuck Norris jokes were cool

That's quite a lot for the first 30 years. We'll see what the next 30 and beyond have in store. Thanks to all the family and friends who helped put this together. And thanks to Brady for being such a great guy worthy of celebration. He loves good things in life. Everything he is about-from his love of cooking to his love of learning-is really all about people, coming to enjoy and understand people better. He really works hard to take care of the people in his life, whether they're students, clients, friends, family, or me. So it's nice to have a day once in a while to bring so many people he cares about together and celebrate him. Here's wishing a very happy birthday and year to come to one Brady "Stinklebert" Wiggins. I love you!