Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!



David Welling
After Davis High and one year at BYU, I served an LDS mission in Yeketerinburg, Russia. Following two exciting and challenging years in Russia, I returned to BYU where I graduated with a degree in Business Management. Following graduation, I took a job in the Capital Markets group at Zions Bank.

In 2005, I married the beautiful Courtney Wilkins from Houston, TX . Immediately following our honeymoon, we moved to Philadelphia where I attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Courtney and I love being married and have enjoyed being able to travel a bit together. In 2007, I graduated from Wharton with an MBA.

We now live on Manhattan (on Wall St. of all places) and have been trying to experience all that New York City has to offer. I work on the Corporate Derivatives desk on HSBC's trading floor. On March 8th we were very excited to welcome our daughter, Addison Layne, into the world. We have been very busy learning how to be parents and loving life.

It has been fun to read through everyone's updates and contemplate all of the living that has occured beyond the lists of places and experiences that result from trying to condense 10 years into a few short words. Go Darts!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!



Natalie (Nilson) Sill

Lots has happened in 10 years, but I still feel like I should be wandering the halls of Davis High. How did I get so close to 30?
After graduation I attended Weber State University where I met my husband, Ben Sill who is from New Mexico. After his adventure working on a fishing boat in Alaska and a semester abroad in Jerusalem for me, we were married in July 2000. I graduated from the University of Utah with a Health Education degree in 2003. Our first daughter, Maija, was born in April 2004, and our second daughter, Brielle, was born in April 2006. Ben graduated from the University of Utah Medical School in May 2006. We are now in Albuquerque, NM while Ben finishes up an Emergency Medicine residency at the University of New Mexico Hospital. I stay at home with my two girls and enjoy typical 'mommy stuff'- scrapbooking, cooking, and trips to the zoo. :) My husband is the king of forcing me to try new things, and as a result I have seen many parts of the world, successfully built a playhouse, taken up road biking (complete with padded spandex) and also succeeded in growing a monstrous vegetable garden (all with his help of course). Still trying to make the summer schedule work for July- but I hope to be able to attend the reunion and reconnect with you all.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!


Mindy (Lochhead) Hardy
Thanks for all the updates! After high school I moved to Provo and attended BYU, where I met my husband Scott. In 2000 we moved to Boston, where Scott worked for a management consulting firm and I finished school, studying interior design at the Boston Architectural College. Two years later I ate all my words about Texas and we moved to Dallas, where our daughter Claire was born three months later. We lived there for one year, and I actually ended up liking it quite a bit. But always up for an adventure, we picked up and moved to Birmingham, England for a year where Scott worked on a turnaround project for a drill bit company (random, I know). We absolutely loved living in England, making great friends and traveling around the UK and Europe. Obviously not being able to stay in one place too long, we moved back to Boston for Scott to attend graduate school. This was seriously the best two years of my life. We made amazing friends, and loved living the student life again. After Scott graduated with his MBA, we moved back to Dallas and welcomed our son Isaac three months later (yes, there is a pattern here). We are going on two years now, and are happily settled into suburban life. Scott works for the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.—Claire (5) attends preschool, is saving to buy an acre of rainforest, and pretty much runs the household—Isaac (18 mos.) is oblivious but happy—and I…, well I just try to keep everything and everyone together, with a home-improvement project here and there, lots of walks to the park, occasional "mommy time" (running, sewing, yoga, violin), and dinner (if we're lucky). The photo is a year old now, but it gives you the general idea. Scott's family reunion is in Utah the same weekend as the DHS reunion, so hopefully we can sneak away for a bit and say hello.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!


Melissa (Thompson) Hyde
After graduating from DHS I attended Utah State University for a year and then transferred down to Weber State. I married my cute husband Brian Hyde (he is also an alumni class of ‘96) we have been married for 7 years. We both received our degrees from Weber State University. I got my degree in Health Promotion and Brian received his degree in IS&T. We have two beautiful children, who we just love and adore. Porter will be 5 this month and Isabella is 22 months. They are the best of buddies and keep us laughing all the time. We currently are living in West Layton and love our neighborhood, Brian works in Salt Lake for Del Sol writing reports and maintaining the company’s Database. I am super lucky and stay at home with my two best buddies. They bring so much joy and laughter into my life. Life couldn’t be any better!!! I hope everyone is doing wonderful; I look forward to seeing everyone this summer

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!


Julie (Volmar) Kellis
After DHS I went to BYU and studied Linguistics. I went on a mission to Leipzig Germany, and am still suffering from an addiction to great chocolate! After BYU I went to grad school and got an MBA at the Provo campus of University of Phoenix. During that time I met David and we were married in August of 2005. We now live in Cambridge, Massachusetts and David is just finishing up his 2nd year at Harvard Law School, with one more year to go. I get to stay home and play with our two unbelievably fun kids. Adam is just over a year and a half, and Annie is about 2 months. It's been a very happy 10 years since high school!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!














Ben & Lynsey (Steadman) Strader
Some people may look at us as an unlikely pair to end up together. Ten years ago, sitting by each other in choir class in Davis, we would have agreed with them. I like to tell people that I met Ben in high school while volunteering for 'Best Buddies' and was 'assigned' to him. He may not like that version of how we got together but that doesn't stop me from telling it anyway.
The truth is, after high school, Ben served a mission in Washington D.C. South while I went to USU & spent my summers in Jackson Hole. After Ben's mission he went to & graduated from BYU-Idaho. One day I got a random email from him asking me if he could come & hang out with me in Jackson Hole for a day. A year and a half later, we were married. It's now been 5 years since that fateful day (just kidding) and we are still in love & have the best time together. We have a cute little 2 1/2 year old boy, Caleb. We love him to death & apologize to him everyday for the genetics we have passed down to him.
We are now living in beautiful North Carolina, working together as live-in managers for a group home with troubled teens. We currently have 4 teenagers here with us who keep us on our toes. It is an absolute roller coaster ride but we are learning a lot & clinging to our sense of humor like it's going out of style. Ben is starting his doctorate program in Psychology this fall. We write about our experiences out here on our blog so here's the link in case you're interested.
www.benseyleb.blogspot.com
We're hoping we can come to the reunion so we can see everybody!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!




Angela (Peterson) Dayton
Wow! It's amazing how fast time flies. To sum up the past 10 years in one paragraph is difficult. First, I want to say how fun it was to read through all of your posts and see your pictures. I'm impressed and touched by how family oriented everyone is. I'm also amazed at how children resemble their parents. It is fun to see what you must have looked like when you were little.

After high school, I attended Weber State University graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1999 and then went to Utah State University and graduated with a master's degree in 2000. After two long years of schooling and waiting for my missionary (John Dayton), we were married in December 2000. Luckily, I had my degrees so I was able to be his "sugar mamma" (his words, not mine) working for Morgan Stanley as the Communications and Training Coordinator while he pursued his Neroscience degree from BYU. We moved to Washington, DC in 2001 and lived in the Nation's Capital for four years while John attended George Washington University's School of Medicine. During that time, I managed President Bush's High-Growth Job Training Initiative and wrote a book and curriculum that teach the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century workplace.

In May 2005, we had our adorable daughter, Allison. She is an amazing girl and so fun to be around. She makes every day exciting! In November 2007, our son, Christian, was born weighing 9lbs 11oz and has been in the 90th percentile for size ever since. He is always pleasant and came home from the hospital sleeping through the night.

Staying home with my children is extremely rewarding, but I still do a little consulting and speaking while John finishes his residency in Emergency Medicine. We hope to move back to Utah in 2009. More than likely we'll be in Utah Valley or South Salt Lake so any insight anyone has on where to live in those areas would be great.

As we read your posts, my husband couldn't help but comment on how impressed he was by all of you. We feel bad that we'll be missing the reunion this year, but I feel privileged to have gone to school with you and can't wait to connect with you in the future.

One last note --- so John and I just had a sad realization that we don't have one "good" family picture. Apparently, that needs to be on our "to do" list, so you'll have just endure the subpar pictures we do have on our blog. :)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!



Amy (Nilsson) Cragun
It sure is fun to read about what everyone is doing
now days. So I will give you our little family
update.
After graduation, I continued my education at Weber
State, and a semester abroad in Israel. I met my
husband (Trent) and we dated for a year and were
married in March 2000. We both graduated with our
Bachelors degrees; he in Accounting, and I in Health
Administration. Trent got a job with Boeing
corporation, and I was the health educator at
McKay-Dee Hospital. We had 4 horses and lived in a
little farm house on 10 acres. We thought we were
little house on the prairie. But one thing was
missing, kids. So in 2003 we added little Porter to
our family. Then... 2004 Kael, 2006 Reese and 2008
Cache. We sold the horses and joined the business of
raising children. I quit work after Porter, and am
grateful to be able to stay home with the kids (most
days anyway :). Trent left boeing in 2004 and decided
that crunching numbers in front of a computer all day
was not the life for him, and is now building homes,
and doing Real Estate, which has been a great change,
and compliments many of his talents and strengths.
We have moved 8 times in 8 years, and are currently in
Logan. We really enjoy it here and plan to stay put
for a while. We keep busy mostly just maintaining
life with 4 kids under 5. We enjoy the outdoors and
are looking forward to spring hikes, bikes, parks and
picnics.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!


Annie (Elison) Winn
After high school I headed out to the BYU where I majored in French teaching. I never got the chance to teach after student teaching but I did end up marrying a fellow French speaker and we teach our kids enough of the language to keep Grandma thoroughly confused. My husband, Jason, is originally from Delaware. We met while at school and were married in 2002. We lived in Utah for a few years before moving to Pennsylvania for a job opportunity. No, we don't live anywhere near Scranton but we are close to Jason's parents and I like them better than Jim and Pam anyway. Jason is working for a financial investment company called Vanguard while I stay at home with the kids and do some random data entry work on the side. Jason loves books of every kind, he's a great swimmer and has a real soft spot for his girls. We have two daughters, Adrienne (two and a half) and Juliet (8 months). Adrienne loves anything to do with princesses or Barbies and insists on wearing her dress-up clothes wherever we go. Juliet loves anything to do with Mommy and has just started crawling so she can chase her sister around the house. I love experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen (my favorite is salsa), photography and I enjoy doing yoga when I have the time. Our yearly summer trip to Utah doesn't coincide with the reunion so we won't get to see you all, but we hope it turns out great!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!


Jonny & Taunya (Swallow) Allen
Taunya and I love reading your updates! A big thanks to Natalie for making this happen. I arrived home from a mission in Bolivia in February 2001, and Taunya and I were married in August of that same year. We spent five months in Logan while Taunya finished up degrees in Elementary Ed and Special Ed. We then moved down to Provo where I studied International Relations at BYU. Taunya taught at Lone Peak High School until our first daughter, Madelyn, was born. We spent three years in Provo and another three in Syracuse, New York for graduate school. During our second year in Syracuse, Allison was born. Last May, I graduated with degrees in Law and Public Administration from Syracuse University. In August of last year, we moved to Virginia (DC area) and got settled in time for the birth of child #3, this time a boy we named Caleb. Maddie is now 5, Allie is 2, and Caleb is 4 months. I work for a consulting firm (Deloitte) in DC. Taunya is home with the kids and very involved in church and friend activities. She has managed to keep up her running hobby and is preparing for her 4th marathon this fall in Baltimore. Life has been good to us and we feel blessed. We look forward to seeing you all in the Summer!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Davis High Class of '98 Now!



Kasey Child
After high school, I went up to Utah State for a couple of years. I took some time off to serve a Spanish speaking mission to Carlsbad, California. I came back in August of 2002 and was back up at USU 10 days later. I graduated in Marketing with a minor in Finance. I started working for a local defense contractor a couple of months later and I've been with the company ever since. I currently work as a Government Liaison in their Finance Department. I went back to school a couple years later and I graduated with my MBA from the University of Utah in May of 2007.

Back in May of 2003, I got my first stamp in my passport and I've been collecting them ever since! I've been to Chile, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Honduras, Belize, and most recently China. I'm in the process of planning another trip to Mexico this summer to help build a school and deliver hygiene kits.

I also wrote a "bucket list" a couple of years ago (101 Things To Do Before I Die) and I've been crossing them off ever since. Since then, I've driven a Zamboni, walked on the Great Wall, bought a house, run in a triathlon, been snorkeling, and acted in a community play (Singin' in the Rain) along with many other random adventures. I just crossed off #25 and I've got #26 and #27 scheduled for April.

I'm currently living in Murray and loving it. I can't believe it's been 10 years already. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Silent Auction

There will be an auction held on Saturday the 19th of July, as a part of our 10 year reunion. If you would be able to donate services or items, or know of someone that would be willing to donate, could you please email at davishighclassof98@gmail.com. Proceeds from the silent auction will go toward remembrance scholarsips for class members that have passed away and a small portion will go toward the 20 year reunion.