Baby Moon

Devon and I aren't avid travelers, but we do enjoy - and have been able to take quite a few -weekend road trips. With West on the way, those trips will soon be few and far between. So, while Devon had a week long break, we figured it would be a good time to take a little baby moon. Since I still had to work and we had a lot going on that weekend, we ended up with just a Thursday and a Friday to get it done.

Thursday

We left Thursday morning and headed to Moab. I'd never been to Arches and really wanted to hike to Delicate Arch. Devon insisted it was an easy hike, so we took it on. It wasn't as easy as it would have been had I not been pregnant, but it wasn't bad and was very well worth it!

After taking in a few more of the sights...

We headed to our hotel in Cortez, Colorado.

Friday
Friday morning we went to Mesa Verde National Park. From the moment we drove in, I was blown away.


From there, things only got better. We were able to hike down to and take a tour of the Cliff Palace Dwelling. It was amazing, it almost looked like it wasn't real.

We left Mesa Verde and headed to Four Corners. This was a place that I've always wanted to go. Where else can you be in 4 places at once?!?!?

Four Corners is literally in the middle of nowwhere. When we were about 5 miles away Devon said, " I hope they take a card," as we had no cash on us. We pulled up and sure enough they only took cash or traveler's checks. We asked the attendendent where the closest ATM was, she stated that there was one at a store just 5 miles up the road. We headed out and found it with no problem, however the ATM wasn't working. We asked the clerk where the next closest ATM was. She stated that there was a gas station just up the hill. So, we headed up the hill. Ten miles later we were at the gas station. We walked in, found the ATM and, guess what....it wasn't working. We asked the clerk where the next closest place was and he stated Shiprock, New Mexico, which happened to be about 20 miles away. After a small break down in the gas station (I think I'll blame it on the pregnancy), we headed to Shiprock. Per our Tom-Tom, it appeared that Shiprock only had two gas stations, so I wasn't too optimistic. But when we pulled in there was a little shopping center. It had a grocery store and a quick loan store. We figured we'd try the grocery store first and if all else failed maybe we could take out a loan for $6. We found an ATM in the grocery store...yep, you guessed it, it didn't work!! Luckily, the store offered cash back. We left armed with a pack of gum and a twenty dollar bill.

An hour and a half later, we were admitted into Four Corners. I do have to say I was a little disappointed. The idea of it is cool, but the monument was under construction, so there were cones and caution tape all over the place. Nonetheless, we got all the important pictures.

I love these little trips! They may not be fancy, but they're memories we're going to have forever.

West Richard Black

After months and months of waiting, it's now official, we have a very handsome little boy on the way! I could hardly sleep last night, I was so anxious to find out who the little one in me was. I was also a little scared; would we be able to tell or even worse, what if they found something wrong. Luckily the worrying was all for naught. He looked totally healthy and we got a VERY obvious view of the goods.

So, the name...As you can tell we've already got a name picked out for the little guy. Truth be told, we've had all our baby names picked out since we were dating. I've wavered a couple times, not wanting to change the names, but wanting to change the order, what we name our first girl, first boy, etc. But Devon put the breaks on that quickly, reasoning that we've already agreed on these names and there's no reason to go starting trouble now.

West Richard, formally Weston Richard, was the name we decided on for our first boy. West is a name that was introduced into my life a few years back and I fell in love! I suggested it to Devon and he said he liked it, but did not feel it was a 'real' name. We agreed that his official name would be Weston, but he would go by West.

Richard is my dad's name. My dad, more than anything else, wanted to be a papa. Unfortunately, because all of us children have lagged behind in the baby making area, he passed away before he had the chance. I guess he figured going to heaven was the only way he'd get to be a grandpa at all. In fact, after two months of trying and not getting pregnant, we sat down and had a little chat with my dad. We told him that we understood that he loved being up there with all his grandbabies, but it was time he let one come down. Surprisingly, a few days later we were pregnant. It was only fitting that we name our first boy after him.

Now, the real countdown in on! Only five more months until I get to hold this little guy. At least there is enough to keep be busy until then! I've got to get working on West's BYU nursery...

First Day of School

Everyone is allowed to post a good brag blog every now and again, right?? I hope so, because this is mine. This picture is of my incredibly handsome husband on his first day of MBA school at BYU. I can't begin to tell you how proud of am of this man, but I'm going to try. It's not an easy feat to get into BYU and especially not to get into the MBA program at BYU. I'd like to think it was all the support from his loving wife that made the difference, but I know better. There was so much he had to do before he even knew me.

So, I'll start at the beginning....Devon worked hard his undergraduate years, getting good enough grade as to have options after he graduated. He decided a long time ago that he wanted to be a reporter, so as a senior in high school he staring working on that path. While, because of a myriad of reasons, this didn't end up being the path he chose, all the work he put in shows his dedication to a field and gave him some variety on his resume. He's worked at a few different companies over the years, each of which have taught him things & introduced him to people that have lead to other, better jobs.

Now, flash forward to just about a month ago. After talking to people who had just finished the program, we both knew that networking was going to be key to finding a job. This is something that takes Devon out of his comfort zone. But before school even started he was contacting second year students, getting their feedback on the companies they interned for and was getting contact information for people within the company. He contacted past alumni who were working in the companies currently recruiting at BYU to start building relationships and figure out which companies would be the best fit for us. He was reaching out to the recruiters, introducing himself, getting to know them. He was on the computer researching the companies, finding out their business strategies, general info, etc. I didn't realize how far ahead he was until I had a back to school night for the spouses. The second years were talking about ways we could help our students in their search for an internship. They suggested that we do research and make fact sheets for our students, so if they got an interview they could study the fact sheet on the way to the interview. I almost laughed, what on earth could I put on that fact sheet that my husband didn't already know? He had been researching these companies long before class even started.

This had all taken place long before he even stepped foot in a classroom, but now that class is in session I have even more reason to be proud of him. Anyone that knows Devon knows he's not a morning person, especially when he doesn't have to be some where. So, I was a little worried when they put him on the late class schedule. But without fail he's gotten up at 6am every morning so he can get to school a couple of hours before class starts and get some study time in.

I'm so grateful that I have such a wonderful husband who is already working so hard to provide for our family. I know this isn't easy for him, but he knows and I know that it's all going to be worth it. My life isn't going to be easy for the next year and a half, I'll have a good load to carry. But I know that whatever I have to go through isn't nearly what he's going to have to take on. Our future is in his hands and I'm so proud that he is more than willing to take this on and continue to work so hard for our family!

We're pregnant.

Yes, it's true. The baby is due on March 6th.

Our First Anniversary

For our first anniversary Devon and I wanted to take a little trip. Our anniversary happened to fall over Memorial Day weekend, so it was perfect. Originally we had planned to go to Moab, but since a Super 8 Motel room was going for over $100 bucks, we went to plan B....Kanab, UT! Okay, it's better than it sounds. It was actually a perfect location. We were 30 minutes from Zion and one hour from the Grand Canyon.

Day One was spent at Zion. In the morning we took a little hike called the Watchman. It was a decent hike with pretty good views.

That afternoon we hiked up to Emerald Pools. Devon used to going swimming there as a kid. When he was just a little, little guy he almost drown. So, a big shout out to the big hairy man that saved my husband's life. (I owe him one!)

Day 2 took us to the Grand Canyon, North Rim. WOW! This was my first time and I was blown away by how beautiful it was!! Pictures do not do it justice.

Then the fun began! We did something that I've wanted to do since I saw it on an episode of The Brady Bunch. We rode Mules down the Grand Canyon! It was amazing!!!!! I even had a little near death experience of myself. Before I tell you about that, you'll need to get to know our mules.

This is Dagwood. To sum it up, Dagwood was lazy. He liked to go at his own pace, which was considerably slower than the rest of the mules...

About 10 minutes into the ride, Ron our guide, had to give Devon a switch to give Dagwood a little motivation.
Then there was my mule...

Tom. Tom was the exact opposite of Dagwood. Tom did not like being stuck behind the rest of the mules, he had his own agenda. The only thing that these two mules had in common was that they like to eat. Hence where the near death experience came in.

On the way back up we needed to to stop about every ten minutes to let they mules rest. These little rest stops looked something like this...

Tom didn't like these rest stops, he wanted to be moving. But, if he was going to have to wait, he was going to eat. I was trying my hardest to stop him from eating the grass, but like I said, he had his own agenda. Now, there was this luscious looking patch of grass down the edge of the cliff and Tom decided he had to have it. So, he kept inching forward. I began to freak out. Devon assured me that I wasn't even close to the edge. But then Tom made a final lunge toward the grass. I screamed and Devon called up to Ron, our guide. At least, I thought it was Devon. Come to find out, it wasn't Devon at all, it was Gabe the rider in front of me. Ron was able to talk me through getting Tom off the edge of the cliff. After that experience I was holding the reins so tight that Tom started trotting backward, almost causing Devon and Dagwood to trott of the cliff (served Devon right for not protecting his wife ;) After than experience Tom did not calm down.

If you look at this next picture you'll see that Tom and I are right in front of Devon (he has the camera.)

In this next picture, you will now see that Gabe and Big Mac are now in front of Devon and Tom and I are in front of Gabe and Big Mac.

Apparently Tom did not want to ride behind Big Mac, so first chance he got he took matters into his own hands.

All and all we had a great ride! We saw some gorgeous views.

And made some new friends.

That night we, of course, had to go to...

To properly celebrate our first anniversary (it's Outback, but Devon's head is covering half the sign).

An anniversary trip wouldn't be complete without a truck full of polygamists...

On day 3 we drove home, but kind of took the long way. We were able to hit one more National Park on our way out...



I'm very grateful that we had such a wonderful trip. But so much more than that I'm grateful that one year I ago I married such a wonderful man!!!

DISNEYLAND TRIP 2010

Devon and I decided it'd be fun to take a trip to Disneyland at least once before we have kids (we can imagine the Magic Kingdom takes on a whole new persona once kids are involved). Devon hadn't been to D-Land since high school and I hadn't been in a good 5 years, so in February we packed up the bags and headed to So. Cal.

Day 1
Devon and I have a completely different idea of vacation. I like to get as much done as I can and if that means getting up before the sun, I'm totally down with that. Devon, on the other hand, views vacation as a time to relax and sleep in. I would have been ready to head to Disneyland at 7am, but since we'd driven in just the night before, I let Devon sleep in and we got to the park around 10am. Here we are all bright eyes and bushy tailed...

We quickly learned the true beauty of fast passes. Between the smaller crowds and fast passes we managed to never wait longer than 10 minutes for any ride. Day one was mostly spent going on rides we hadn't been on in years....

And some we'd never been on before....

This is on California Screamin', our new favorite ride. And this is my new favorite picture of Devon, he looks so worried!

We were able to have a new experience on Splash Mountain. WE GOT SOAKED!

I'm pretty sure the guy in white may have had something to do with our rather wet predicament....

At about 10pm it started to rain, since we'd done just about everything we wanted to accomplish that day we packed it up and headed home, but not before spending a few moments with Mr. Lincoln and....

Day 2

This was the day I was least looking forward to! It was the only weekend day we would be in the park, so I new the crowds would be a bit thicker and it was supposed to rain. I thought if we can ride a few rides and hit a couple parade I'd be happy. But as it turned out Day two was the best day we spent in the park!

Since we'd bought 3-day park hoppers we were able to take advantage of 'Magic Morning,' which lets you into the park an hour early one day. Surprise, surprise, I was actually able to get Devon up at 5:30, so we could be to the park by 7am. When we pulled into the parking lot we were the third car! Here is a pic of the huge crowds we had to battle that morning...

We were able to run onto every ride x2 in Tomorrowland, it was amazing! Once the park officially opened we were running out of Tomorrowland as all the masses were running in. We went to Frontier Land and basically had that place to ourselves.

After a few more hours of running directly onto rides, we'd gotten done by 10am, as much as I'd hoped to accomplish in the entire day! Even Devon had to admit the before-the-sunrise wake up call was well worth it!

And then at noon we did something we'd always wanted to do, but never had...We ate at the Blue Bayou!! It was fabulous! A little pricey, but the food was amazing and the atmosphere was spectacular. We decided to wait what they said would be about and hour, to get a water-side table and it was well worth it (especially worth it, since it only ended up being about 10 minutes)! I wish I'd taken a picture or two, but sadly I didn't!

After a mid-day nap in the car we spent the rest of the afternoon in California Adventure, where this fabulous shot of me was taken...

Oh, and it didn't rain a lick that day!

Day 3

Our final day at Disneyland, sad!

The night before, Devon and I had gotten into a little argument about this ride...

He utterly refused to go on it, but I didn't want to go alone. I wonder who won that argument...

But I couldn't win this one...

I had to ride the Maliboomer all by myself :(

As a mid-morning snack, Devon bought his very first...

I couldn't believe he'd never had one before...He was not disappointed!

For lunch we had Disneyland's famous turkey legs...

For some reason mine was super salty, but I'd been so long since I had one that I thought that was just how they were. When Devon was done with his he had some of mine and sure enough mine was way saltier than his. If I would have known before we ate the whole thing, I would have taken it back, oh well...

For an afternoon snack we had my favorite Disneyland treat...

Ice Cream from the Gibson girl!

To sum it all up....we had a blast! We definitely made some memories.

Now we just can't wait to go back with a kid or two in tow.

P.S. There was one more highlight of this trip I forgot to mention, spending time with this lady...

I love you mother! This picture was just too cute, it was begging to be posted!

The big news...

That's right. Back to school again. Annette and I were very happy to get back into BYU where the program rankings are high and the tuition is low. The stressing over GMAT scores, work experience, interviews, and essays are done. Now the stressing over internships, class projects and tuition begins. We can't wait!

My Curse

I've come to the conclusion that I'm cursed. I'll need to give you a little background before you can really understand the magnitude of this cursing. A few years back I had a friend that LOVED Red Robin and would beg us to go any chance he got. The only problem was; there was NOTHING that I liked there, I'd tried about everything on the menu. Then one day I found it! The Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, it was love at first bite!!!! After that day I was the one begging to go to Red Robin any chance I got. I spent about 4 years enjoying my Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, loving every last tasty second of it, that was until they did the unthinkable! RED ROBIN PULLED IT OFF THE MENU AND STOPPED MAKING IT! I was devastated and I think I've only been back 1 or 2 times since (1 0r 2 very untasty times.) So, here starts the curse, yep just starts. A few month ago Devon and I went to Chili's and I was looking forward to my Caribbean Chicken Salad. It's a perfect salad, not to heavy, but filling none the less. But guess what, yep Chili's discontinued it and took it off their menu. Then, just last month we went to Outback. While Devon looks forward to the steak, I look forward to their Blue Cheese Crumble Salad. It is one of the tastiest salads I've ever had. But, they got rid of it! Luckily they still serve the Aussie Cheese Fried or Devon and I would have to find a new favorite restaurant. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I went to Wendy's Thursday night. They discontinued the only fast food salad that I love, The Southwest Salad. You couldn't beat the taste and size for only $4.99.

Some have concluded that I just have bad taste in food and like the food items that no one else likes. But I can't fathom that being the reason, each of these items I've just described are a little taste of heaven and I can't imagine anyone not falling in love with just one bite. I've lost a lot of loves over the past year, but as long as Dominicos is still serving pizza, The Lotus Garden still has cheese won-tons and Mimi's Cafe is still bringing me their french onion soup, life will go on!

2009 Year In Review

When I look back at 2009 there is no way I'm going to be able to say it was an uneventful year! Devon and I decided this was a year of change, some for the wonderful and some for the not my type of change kinda thing. So, here we go, hold on, I'm gonna take you for a ride through our crazy year.

January

The year started out with a bang!

On January 29th Devon proposed to me! It wasn't supposed to be a surprise, since we'd been talking about if for a few months prior and even had the ring picked out. However, Devon was pretty sneaky. The night after we'd picked out the ring he told me it would take 5-10 business day to get it. So, I thought I'd be waiting a week or so. The next evening he called and said he was coming over. I hurried, got showered and in my jammies before he came (had I known what was coming I would have dressed a little more appropriately and not had wet hair). He told he'd received something funny at work and wanted to show me. He pulled over his computer and started the most romantic slide show. It was pictures of our past year together with captions on each one. The last caption read, "Now there's just one more thing..." He knelt down and asked me to marry him, shaky hands and all! Of course I said yes!

February

I was going to take advantage of the long President's day weekend to go down to Long Beach and visit my family. I'd just gotten engaged and had to show off the ring and my dad was in a long term care facility, not doing so good. I had a great weekend. I got to spend a lot of time with my family, especially my dad. On Monday I was getting ready to go see my dad one last time before I left when we got the call. He'd passed away during the night. This was the not my type of change kinda thing, but in spite of losing my dad I have a lot to be grateful for.

First of all, I got to be there. When my dad's health started declining one of my biggest worries was that I wasn't going to know when things were bad enough for me to go home. But I guess I didn't need to know, Heavenly Father would get me there, one way or the other. Secondly, Dr. Laura says that when someone dies we shouldn't say, "sorry to hear about your loss." Instead we should say, "I'm glad that you'll miss them," because that when death is really sad, when we're not going to miss the person. Luckily I had an amazing dad that I miss horribly every day! Thirdly, something else Dr. Laura says (she's my new obsession this year, but that's another blog post.) The one way that people live on forever is that they have qualities that we adopt that get passed down through the generations. My dad had so many qualities that I want to emulate. Our kids aren't going to know their Papa here on this earth, but they are going to know who he was because of the qualities of his that I posses and hopefully will pass on to them. And last, but not least, I have the knowledge that families are forever, what more could I be grateful for?

March

The week after we got home from the funeral I got a call from Devon that he'd lost his job, two days later I lost mine. What a way to start off life together, unemployed! The saddest thing about losing my job was that I LOVED it!! I loved what I did, I loved the company and I loved the people that I worked with.

They weren't just co-worked they were my friends, my substitute family. When I moved here I had no one, but these guys became like brothers and dads to me. They checked my tires, helped me move, would come over and fix things at my home, tease me to keep me humble, they let me into their homes, their families. Even though I don't work there any more, I will always be grateful for my years with Fieldstone.

May

Okay, May is where things started to look up! On May 30th I married the love of my forever, Devon, in the Newport Beach, Ca Temple.

Though the road to the temple was rough, knowing that no matter what Devon is mine forever, made it all worth it!!

June

For a few days Devon and I got to rest from job hunting, wedding planning and just about everything else, to spend a great honeymoon in Lake Tahoe.

Just after we returned home from Tahoe, Devon was offered a job that has turned out to be quite the blessing in our lives.

July

July ended four months of job hunting for me, as I was finally offered a job with the Social Security Administration.

While it's a hard job, I'm finding out that it is well worth it, causing me to learn things I never thought I could and grow in ways I wouldn't have imagined.

After July things slowed down, thank goodness! We've been able to really enjoy our first year of marriage. We've taken a few trips to Cali, gone to and watched a few hundred sporting events (including my first ever BYU vs UTAH football game), taken a few trips to southern Utah and had a two new nieces born into the family. This truly has been the year of change!