How a Utah Girl Ended Up With a Montana Geek

For this blog entry I am going to take a break from the usual birthday party, vacation, and cute kid themed posts. Instead, come with me on a journey through time and space and I shall recount how a Utah girl (moi) ended up with a Montana geek (Kent, naturally). The answer to that question is: somewhere in the middle. Idaho, actually. Kent was in my ward at Ricks College and was assigned to be a home teacher to my apartment, Birch plaza #115. I don't remember much about him being my home teacher except that he always asked how our love lives were going. In fact I remember one occasion where he spent about an hour listening to a problem I was having with some shmoe I was dating at the time. The point is we didn't know each other very well at that time and certainly never dated. In the picture below you can see Kent in the background but not for long...

After Ricks we both transferred to BYU, Kent in September 2001 and I in January 2002. On my very first day at BYU I was walking through the Wilkinson center and ran into none other than Kent McLean. I was so excited to see someone (anyone!) familiar in that big unfamiliar place, we exchanged phone numbers and I called him that night. Our first date we doubled with Kent's brother Scott. On the way to some girl's house to play games Kent asked me if I was hungry, I said I was so we went to the Taco bell drive through (classy choice!). Kent asked me what I wanted and ordered it, but nobody else in the car wanted anything. I felt like an idiot sitting there crunching my taco all by myself! The rest of the date was pretty fun, but he didn't call me for a couple of months(!!) after that to ask me out again. When we started dating for real we dated for about 3-4 months before we got engaged. This is a picture taken on one of our dates when we roasted marshmallows on the stove to make s'mores. (That other dude is Kent's roommate, Rob)

This picture was taken on my first trip to Montana to meet Kent's parents. When we announced that we were engaged, Kent's Dad shaved off his moustache! I loved meeting his family, they were all so welcoming and have always made me feel like I belong.

Kent and I were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on October 25th 2002. It was a beautiful fall day, and I'll never forget how happy I felt to have finally found such a handsome, kind and smart man to spend eternity with.

We went to Disneyland on our honeymoon-of course!

We added one more to our family in 2004 when our Anna girl came along.

Matthew boy rounded out our family to four in 2006.

And that brings us to 2009. Kent and I have been married for almost seven years and I think we have both helped each other to be better people. We make a great team, kinda like the A-team.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Happy 5th Birthday Anna!

There's been a whole lotta partying going on at our house the past few weeks. We had Anna's birthday party for her friends last week so that her cousin Kaylee and aunt Sarah could come.

Anna wanted a princess party theme, so I got a little crazy with the crepe paper streamers and balloons!

We asked all the girls to wear their finest princess attire to the party, and they all looked beautiful!

One of the games we played was "kiss the frog prince", although no one was able to turn the frog into Prince Charming (or Prince unCharming for that matter).


Taking a whack at the pinata!

Cupcakes!! Yum!


The day after the party I got to go up to Rexburg to visit some of my best friends from Ricks College. We had a really great time hanging out, going to movies, checking out all the new stuff on campus and of course, visiting our favorite restaurants. Meanwhile Kent and the kids had a great time at home eating corn dogs for every meal and playing xbox.

Anna's actual birthday way this last Thursday, I can't believe my first baby girl is already 5! She is such a sweet, helpful and smart girl, plus she gives the tightest hugs! I didn't make the Cinderella cake (I'm good, but not that good!), which we had for lunch that day-it was a pretty awesome day!

Happy Birthday Anna girl!

Happy Canada Day?!

Hey Everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I updated this blog, but I've been waaay too busy eating otter pops and crashing the neighbors pool parties. Aaaaahhhh summer...
Did you know our neighbors to the north, AKA America's Hat, AKA The Great White North, AKA Canada celebrates it's Independence day on July 1st? We do since for the past couple of years we have had our very own Canada day parade in our neighborhood.
It's pretty awesome since it comes right past our house and they throw LOTS of candy!

It's a fairly short parade, but they did have horses, a fire truck (which is why Matt is covering his ears), floats and convertibles containing minor celebrities.

The official mascot of Canada Day: Mister Maple Leaf.

Who knows who's behind those tinted windows!

Random, non-Canada Day related photo taken by Anna.

Anna and Matt watching a video on my ipod.

We had a good 4th of July too, mostly just stayed home and did projects around the house, but Kent managed to make Beth crazy with his firework shenanigans. My brother and his family came to hang out for the evening which was pretty cool, although we couldn't get the sparklers to light-it must have been the "extra safe" model of sparklers. Happy Independence Day!

Mr. Funny Face Goes on Vacation

This past week our family and Kent's parents went on a trip to California, and we had a great time! As I was looking through the photos of the trip I noticed how many featured Kent making a face. So here's a pictorial log of our trip, count how many faces Kent made and post in the comments.

Cruising in the van with Grandma and Grandpa McLean

Playing "Old Maid".


At the fabulous Jelly Belly factory



Ye olde Golden Gate bridge.

This one's for you, Kaylynn.

Yeah, Disneyland!

M&M world in Las Vegas.

Bellagio Fountain.

It was a really great week, I'm glad we got to go. So how many crazy Kent faces did you count?

Set Phasers To Stun: Beth Finished the Marathon & Matt Turned 3

Yep, Kent and I finally got to see the new Star Trek movie this past week. It was awesome! Really a fun movie, it had action, comedy, and nerdiness galore!
Saturday was the day I have been training for since the end of December, the big one-the marathon. It was a really fun and beautiful race down Ogden canyon. I did really awesome until about mile 15 when I realized I was very, very tired! I did manage to run/walk the last 11 miles and finish in 5 hrs and 15 min-not too bad for my first time.

Me at mile 23, only 3.2 more to go!

While waiting for me to get to the finish line Matt stuck his head through the barrier to get a better view! It meant everything to me to know that Kent, the kids, and my parents would be waiting for me at the end-you guys are awesome!


Finally crossing the finish line!

Smiling.


Not smiling anymore. About 15 min after I finished I started feeling very nausous,and dizzy. Kent took me to the medical tent where some very nice nurses and doctors gave me an IV of electolytes. I felt much better after that-elecrtolytes are the best!

Today was Matthew's 3rd birthday! I can't belive it-the time has gone by so fast! He is such a cute, helpful, and all around awesome kid.


Matt requested a Darth Vader birthday cake, I think it turned out delicious!

"Everybody remember where we parked."-Capitan Kirk