Oh Devan...

***Offensive Alert: If you are easily offended when somebody calls your residential city no-fun, do not read past this point. All cities named in post are proud cities of the United States of America.***

"Provo Least Fun City in the Nation?"

It is official everyone... Provo has been voted the least fun city in the nation. (And when the say Provo, I include Orem since it should be called PrOrem.) For many Timpview-ites, Provo-ians, and Zoobies (BYU-ers), these are what we like to call our stomping grounds, home sweet home, the land that I love. So why blog about this? Well, it hits a little home to my dear, sweet, Devan (who was not born in the land of Provo, but is an official resident of the city, 6 years and counting) . Lets start with the basics, Devan is 26 years old, a college graduate, and is from the Modesto, CA. area.

I get a phone call from Devan this morning saying "Hop onto KSL.com and read the article about Provo City". Naturally, I do it right away, I just can't wait. I see the headline "Provo least fun city in the nation?" and immediatly think, oh boy, this should be good... As I chuckle to myself, I continue to read on. The article states that indeed, Provo has been voted the least fun city in the nation, by this 3rd party poll people. It then goes on to list reasons why Provo IS a fun city (i.e. Boating Utah Lake, Rock Canyon, ect.) and I must agree. As I continue further, the article goes on to list a couple other bottom-dwellers of fun-sucking cities, and frankly, to much of a suprise, next on the list is (drumroll please........) Modesto California! Devan and I bust out in laughs, chuckles and cheers.

What are the odds? Provo, Utah and Modesto, California? I fear that if he or I dug further, we may find other no-fun-Devan-dwelling zones on that list such as: Puyallup, Washington, Bismark, North Dakota, Pierre, South Dakota, and Casper, Wyoming. So, the moral of my post? Watch out friends and family and work associates... You may very well be associating with the person who is among the least fun people in the nation, I'm just sayin'...

PS. To read the article, go here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=10587782
PPS: To all those who know Devan, I don't have to tell you that he is indeed, a fun person. To those of you who don't personally know Devan, he is FAR FROM a no-fun person, this is purley a coincidence.

Dear Camera,

How are you? I am doing fine. I wanted to ask you something... In your mind, what constitutes a major life event? A wedding? A birth of a child? A baptisim? A colledge graduation? All of the above?

Well my dear camera, I agree with you. All of the above are certainly life changing events that you would like documented. So why oh why couldn't you be there for me this weekend? I really needed your support. I think that we both agreed that a colledge graduation fits right in that category. Well, colledge graduation came and went, and you failed to document. Why couldn't you make sure your battery was tucked away nicely, rather than on the charging dock at home? You should have known I would have been to busy to think about checking you as well as myself before I walked out the door. I am not superwoman.

Camera, I hope you don't think I am mad at you, just disapointed. I will always love you. I hope for the next milestone event, you get your pretty little self ready to snap away for me rather than leaving me hanging. I hope you are doing well. I hope your battery isn't getting to dusty from being forgotten. Until next time, keep it real.

Sincerly,

Lauren (Wife of a recently graduated colledge student)

PS, I would say you can be there for me next time, but since there won't be a next time, I don't know what to say. I just hope you made the right decision.

Playing Catsup

So, I'm a major slacker, blog world. Needless to say, this semester has been $#%&*(#!. Feel free to fill in the blank with your word of choice. I choose poop) So a quick update since September:

October: Celebrated Halloween (love it!) Annual Halloween party with the Severson's, Howard grew like a weed, Dev turned 26. A few pictures to commemorate :-)

November: Howard grew like a weed, Shotgun shooting with the McGuire's, and New Moon baby!

December: Howard grew like a weed, Dev finished semester, a nice long Christmas in Cali home.

PS (don't mind my little kid bangs. I tried to cut them myself... Bad idea)

January: Enter #$^@&$*! semester. Howard still continuing to grow like a weed, we think he may never stop, depression sets in because the real snow/cold has just started to come. No pictures to post because January was to depressing.

February: Continuation of #%&*@(!^%*$# semester, Howard starting to pest Devan, Lauren feeling crafty. Depression continues as cold weather and snow move forth. Sorry, no pictures, February was too depressing as well.

March: Yet more continuation of ^#*@$^%%#&*!#@$!*@#!%)$ semester, Lauren LOVING St. Patty's day, Devan being Mr. Studious, girl trip to St. George with Caity, road trip to St. George/Vegas/Primm with the Seversons, which meant Buffalo Bill's, Howard gets nutered and we think that he is done pestering Devan because of the nueter...Oh and you better believe it... still snowing

April: And here we are. Howard decided that the nutering did nothing for his attitude, still bothering Devan, Pappa Devan and son Howard go on a nice fun hike and Howard takes his backpack, fun weekend in St. George with the McGuire's, Father Steve in St. George at same time for golf trip, #*%#(!*@&^%#(@!*!@#%(&@#*^%#$(@!%*#)@$(&%$@!* semester almost to a close which means.... GRADUATION! Yay!!! Oh and PS, it did snow again like a week ago, but Utah redeemed itself by giving us the lovely weekend and week. :-)

(Thanks Em for the pictures, I stole them from your blog BTW)

So as graduation is only days away, I sit here and contemplate if there is supposed to be life beyond school. It seems as though Devan was brought to this earth to be a perm-a-student, so I feel like come Thursday, 2012 may arrive a little early. Way excited for Dev-Man, and very proud of him! Congrats Dev! Sorry for the marathon post, I must be better.

AJ 6

For those of you that know me well know that there are few things in life that I really enjoy; Lauren, Family, basketball, and shoes. Shoes you say. That seems odd, but I have always enjoyed shoes and especially ones that pertain to my other favorite thing, basketball. Yes I can't get enough of basketball shoes.

In the third grade I got my favorite pair of basketball shoes ever, the Air Jordan VI. I loved them and the problem with having nice shoes as a third grader is that your feet still grow rapidly and I wasn't able to have them for a long time.

A couple of weeks ago while browsing eastbay.com I saw the Jordan VI in a size 12 rereleased. Thanks to my wonderful wife, she got my dream shoes for me. Imagine my joy. She doesn't quite understand why I needed another pair of shoes, but even though she doesn't understand she got them for me any way. Thanks babe.

Big Dog = Big Crate

So we bought Howard a new crate about a week ago. I think me and Dev were more excited to be in it then he was.

Greatest Shows Ever

Need I saw more about this one? SOOOOOO good! I really think I should have been a Vampire...

Good largely in part of these two:

Total Gleek. I crave this show and from Tuesday at 9pm to next Tuesday at 8pm I sing whatever song was featured that week. LOVE IT!

The entire cast is just delicious. Full of quirk and laughs. Funny. Highly reccommend.

Jail-Bait anyone?

Yes Please.

Already watched it about 30 times. Feel free to take a peek, but know, you will not be able to wait until November, and you will completly wish you could be both a Vampire and a Werewolf.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3859022361/

L Triple C

Update:
Sorry for the MAJOR lack of posting. We got so busy with work, school, trips, and Howard that we disappeared for a few months. So, we have Howard, and have had his for a while. He is now about 50+ pounds at 12 1/2 weeks and gaining about a pound a day. Horse...? Soon to be. Pictures to come.
We have gone to Cheyenne, WY, and Couer De' Alene, ID/Washington in the past month. Hannah-Banana (Collin's girlfriend) came with us and is our wonderful photog. More pics or Couer De' Alene to come. Devan is back in school and busy with school and work. Lauren is busy with work and what seems like a billion bridal showers. Tis' the summer/fall to get married I guess. I missed the memo on that one! :-)

So, these pictures are old... We have since been to Couer de' Alene to see Collin play again, and boy oh boy did he look good!

14hrs...2 days... LCCC

Thanks Banana for taking such wonderful pictures and great memorabilia. Needless to say, when you are stuck in Cheyenne, WY. the game you came to watch has been temporarily rained/wind/and lightning out, you get a little creative. Here is just a smidgen of proof:

"The White Men Can Jump"

"The Goalie"

"The Eye See You"

"The Darth Maul" or
"The I will kill you Hannah"

"The Serious"

" The 'Es un Gaye'"

"The Cheeser"

"The Driver"

Thankfully, I had this post saved.... My dear laptop kicked the bucket yesterday and we lost ALL of our life with it. Pictures, memories... gone! Darn you technology. But thanks Dad and Mom Stiles for the happy graduation/birthday present for Devan in his new computer. A much excited for Mac, a large mac. Thank you! :-) :-) :-) So more posts to come, as soon as we can get some actual footage and candid of our lives.

All I can say is...

I wish I was an AutoBot... BOO Freakin' Yeah.

Pinewood Derby anyone?

Our ward (The Elder's Quorum put it on) had a little Pinewood Derby this morning. So imagine a bunch of young couples, lots of babies, and the occasional Derby dork are all included in this little excursion. If you have ever been to one of the functions, you know that people come ready to race. Their cars are legit, the gear is legit, and they have got their game faces on. Never have a I seen a group of adult men act like nothing is more precious than the moment you hear go. Wifes sit and cheer on their husbands car, although secretly they really don't care. Needless to say, Devan and I did not go in ready to win. We were missing the Mini a bit (can't you tell?), and decided to make our car a Mini. We went in knowing that we would be last place, and had no problem with that, as long as a little piece of our lives and our hearts could be entered into this race. After taping coins all over the car to give it a little extra weight, we were on our way. First couple of races go by and we haven't gone yet, there are a couple of cars that are going real fast... All we can think of is, "Remember how much fun the Mini was?" and not caring about what place we take, not even caring if our car made it to the end. When our turn gets up, we end up taking 2nd place, behind the car that won 1st place. I found myself after a couple of rounds making secret gestures and mouthing words to Devan of how we could place our coins and weight so that we would win... "Put it at the back. You need to put an ounce of weight at the back. Make sure you get some graphite on your wheels. I'm telling you, if you put more weight at the back we will win!.. ect." We ended up getting 3rd place overall. There were 14 other racers, so we give ourselves a high five. I can now consider myself a lover and official Pinewood Derby Dork. Here's to you Dev, thanks for making the best car there ever was!

The Elders Quorm in our ward put on a Pinewood Derby