The Moment You've All Been Waiting For. . .

After months of evenings spent in my parent's basement, a few trips to pick up more wood, and a few more trips to Home Depot to get the paint just the right color, our baby's crib is finally finished! Dallin and my dad spent many hours getting this just right, and the hard work really paid off. I just can't wait for this little kid to get here to try it out!

Here's a "work in progress" picture. I wish I would have taken more of Dallin actually working on the crib, but I didn't think of it at the time. Thank goodness my dad did. And anyone who knows Dallin well, will realize how serious he is about his work because he's wearing jeans. That never happens.

Another "work in progress" piece. This just shows the crib a little better -- and helps to explain why Dallin had a sore back for the past three months.

We (I should say he) just finished setting it up in the baby's room. ("BFD" stands for "Bagley Fire Department." But that's another story.)

Another angle to show you the nice handy work that actually went into this. I'm so excited for my blue crib!

A special thanks to my dad for all his help!

Thanksgiving Update

After talking to friends and family, I find that there seems to be a trend of crazy Novembers this year. We were no exception. But we had a wonderful Thanksgiving to top off the month. And with my sisters in town, we stayed busy.

It's a tradition in my family to go bowling Thanksgiving morning with my mom's family. We fondly refer to it as the Thomas Turkey Bowl. There is an actual trophy for the person with the highest score. (Kudos to my sis-in-law for winning it this year. Yeah Brittany!) Dallin and I both did fairly poor, but . . . I did bowl three strikes in a row! In the 10th frame! A turkey on Turkey Day!

Me with a ball that is not mine. This one was way to heavy for me. But the color was better.

A new Thanksgiving tradition was started this year. Our hockey-crazed brother-in-law came up with the idea of street hockey. I didn't play, but it was fun to watch Dallin check my sisters.

This is Dallin's first Trax Train Ride! We road the train to Temple Square to see the lights. He had never been on the train before so I thought it warranted a picture.

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween we're staying home and going to bed as early as Trick-or-Treaters will let us. With Dallin taking the GRE November 1st, we weren't even going to bother with costumes. But Dallin came up with the perfect idea for himself. I wanted to show off my husband's creativeness.
"What is he?" you ask. As any nerd and chemist could tell you, he is a graduated cylinder. He just wore it to work (where it was a huge hit), but he thought of and created the costume all on his own. Who knew Dallin had that kind of creativity in him?

Baby Bump

I've been getting complaints from people wanting to see my growing stomach. And now that I only have about 10 1/2 weeks left, my stomach finally "popped." I'm no longer able to hide the fact that a baby's coming, not even in scrubs. So here are a couple pictures of my increasing "plumpiness," as Dallin refers to it.

And of course, here's the view from where I stand. She's been super active and seems to react everytime Dallin touches my stomach.

Soap Box

Okay, so those that know me, know that I'm not a very opionated person. But I too have my soap box issues. Here's one: people not washing their hands after peeing. The little kiddie in my stomach is increasingly pushing on bladder, causing frequent bathroom trips. Being in public bathrooms more often has brought to my attention how infrequently people wash their hands! Gross! Please, please, please. As a nurse and as a soon to be mother, I beg you all and tell everyone you know --

WASH YOUR HANDS!!!

The Narrows

Last weekend I went with my friends down to Zion National Park to do some hiking. We went to do the Zion Narrows, which is a 17 mile hike through the narrow canyons cut out by the the Virgin River and its tributaries. Almost the entire hike is spent wading through water filled with slippery rocks and lots and lots of sand. This is one of my favorite hikes as it is the third time I have done it. Walking down the middle of a canyon that is only 6-8 feet wide at some places with 1000 foot tall rock walls on both sides is truly awe-inspiring. I recommend this hike to anyone that has not done it before. Here are some pictures from the weekend with the guys.

The day before the narrows we went and hiked Angels Landing.
Here is myself and Jamin, I told him not to touch me, but he just
couldn't keep his hands of me.

This is Angels Landing. You have to walk along that narrow strip,
with 1000 foot drops on both sides, hanging on to chains to keep
you from falling to your death. Also an awesome hike.

Here we are just entering part of the narrows.
It's a long way up.

Here we are at the waterfall. We had Miles
convinced that he had to jump down, but we really just
had to go around.

This is the Grotto, a natural spring coming out of the rocks.

Here I am trying to climb over the rocks.
I only slipped and fell in once this time.

The six of us.

FINALLY!

So I finally did it. Several years ago, Drew and Brittany brought me back an unabridged version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I have to admit that I was so intimidated by the 1200 pages of teeny-tiny type that I made it a life goal of mine to read the novel -- and today I finished it! I started reading the novel in January, and can finally check this one off my list. And while I skipped a few pages on the Battle of Waterloo (there were 46 pages on the topic) and a few more the sewer systems of Paris (another 25 pages), I feel that I have accomplished my feat. At times I really enjoyed the book, but I don't think I'll ever even pretend to attempt to read it again.

Just for your information: the above picture is the same one that's on the cover of my edition, that's why I put it on here. I really am quite sick of it myself.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

We went in for our second ultrasound today. This time we had more luck in getting the baby to cooperate. We were able to get some great pictures of the head and face. Betsy thought it was fun to be able to see the kid kick and feel it at the same time. The little kiddie also uncrossed it's legs long enough to show us she's a girl! She already acts like a little lady and keeps her ankles crossed most of the time. Hooray! it's a girl!

I Like To Vacation

Betsy and I just arrived home from a quick Labor Day weekend trip with my parents to Colorado. We went to go visit a National Park that we had never been to before. I was able to put three new stamps into my National Parks Passport: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Curecanti National Recreation area, and Colorado National Monument. I am now up to 12 stamps in my passport! Nowhere near the two hundred some odd that my father has, but it's a good start, and I have many years to play catch up.

As is Bagley tradition, we stop to take pictures at every sign.


We did however, take some pictures of the scenery. This is an amazing view of the Black Canyon. It was really more than I was expecting.

At the bottom of the canyon, we found a 33 ton boulder that came crashing down last April in a land slide. You can see the cracks in the pavement. They still aren't letting people drive on that part of the road.

So by the end of this, you can tell who had the camera most of the time. But we had to give everyone one last good look of Dallin's beard. That's three weeks not shaving, and it's driving him nuts, so it is gone as of this morning.

What Is It?

Well, the good news is, we know it's human and has at least 4 appendages. Beyond that, we're not sure what exactly the little kiddie is besides stubborn. (Dallin thinks the baby gets that from me.) So sorry to disappoint all those anxiously waiting to find out the sex of our baby (mostly just grandparents), but it will probably be another 4 weeks! In the meantime, our "last minute poll" will not be so last minute.

Bear Lake

Dallin and I were able to make a quick jaunt up to Bear Lake last Thursday. He spent most of the day boating with the Young Women in his uncle's ward, while I sat on the beach reading a book, trying unsuccessfully not to get sunburned.

This is the view from my beach. I made sure my toes were in the picture to prove that I was there. No pictures in a bathing suit from now on.

But here's Dallin on the beach. Again with the t-shirt, trying not to get sunburned.

Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Plus One

Betsy and I just returned from a five day trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Once again our vacation time revolves around my need to get stamps in my National Parks Passport. It's a good thing Betsy enjoys going to these places also. We had a wonderful time and would like to show all two people who read our blog some pictures.

You can't go to Yellowstone without seeing and
smelling those wonderful bogs of eternal stench.
The smell was particularly bad for Betsy.


Betsy made me stand in the steam for this one.
I was already way too hot. Oh the
things I do for my wife.


A view of steam rising near the Grand Canyon
of the Yellowstone.


The lower terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs.
We were too tired to walk to the upper terrace.
(It was hot.)


We woke up at five thirty to go to Old Faithful and were
able to see Yellowstone Lake looking its best.


However, Betsy would not get out of the car that
early just to take pictures of the lake.
(Yes, she is actually sleeping through it.)


Here is Betsy and I with Lower Falls in the
background. Don't we look good together.


We did make a stop in Grand Teton National Park.
Here is the Grand Teton itself. Awesome.

And last but not least here is Betsy making one of
her many bathroom breaks on our vacation. It still amazes
me how many times a pregnant woman goes to the bathroom.

For those of you who actually made it the end of this, yes, Betsy and I are expecting our first child. The little infant, who while in Betsy's tummy we have named Abacus, is due on January 6, 2009. We are both very excited. Betsy is doing as well as can be expected, and as far as we know the baby is doing well also.

"It's a hell of a place to lose a cow"

These are the immortal words of Mr. Ebenezer Bryce himself. I laughed out loud when I read that. Betsy and I just arrived home from a great weekend in Bryce Canyon National Park. Betsy had never been to Bryce before, and I have not been since I started my National Parks Passport. We, of course, went to get it stamped as soon as we were in the park. The weather was perfect. The skies were blue, the snow was white, and the rocks were red. Here are some pictures of our little jaunt.

The Ronald in me couldn't resist the picture of the entrance sign.

Therefore, this picture is dedicated to my father.


Here is Betsy in the Queen's Garden.
I changed the name to Betsy's Garden.
Betsy didn't like that.


Mossy Cave. There was more ice then moss.


Me waiting for inspiration at Inspiration Point.
No inspiration ever came.


Me hiking in 2 feet of snow in shorts and a t-shirt.
And yes, I was still hot.

A view of the whole valley from Bryce Point.

We like clichés. This is sunrise from Sunrise Point.
Yes, we did wake up that early.

Beehives and Protein

Well, we figured that we should add a new post since it has been over a month. I was just about to write that not much has changed since the last post, but Betsy reminded me of two big things. First, Betsy received a new calling (and of course readily accepted) to serve as the Beehive Advisor in our ward. She is very excited to be in Young Women's again. I am really impressed with the way she has jumped in with both feet into her new responsibilities. She has been preparing her lesson for two weeks now and still doesn't teach for two more weeks. (I teach Sunday School every week and don't prepare until Sunday morning.) She now goes to Mutual every Wednesday night and is enjoying it. They are preparing for a Road Show right now and are having fun with the Grinch theme. All the kids gasped when they found out they had to say "WHO-Hell" during the performance. Don't worry though, the use of the word Hell was "approved" by a member of the bishopric.

The second big thing in our life is my new job. I am a Lab Technician in the Christopher Hill Lab up in the Biochemistry department at the University of Utah. My job is to purify protein and to put it in trays under all sorts of different conditions to try and get it crystallize. The picture above is what I spend a lot of my day looking at under a microscope. Once we get the protein to crystallize we take a little itty bitty loop and loop up the crystal, once the crystal is in the loop we shove it really quickly into liquid nitrogen to freeze it. We then take the frozen crystal to the X-ray diffraction machine. X-rays are shot through the crystal and a machine shows us its diffraction pattern. From the diffraction pattern of a protein, the structure of that protein can be deduced and when the structure is known we can find out how that protein works. I just realized how boring this must be to most of you, so enough about protein. Betsy tells me everyday that I am a nerd, and I continue to prove it.

Welcome All

We would like to welcome you to the wonderful world of Dallin & Betsy. We have been coaxed into the day and age of The Blog, and decided to jump in so that all you care can see what is going on in our life. We hope you enjoy yourselves while you are searching through all our goings on.

To start everyone off, Betsy and I had a fantastic 2007. The highlights of the year are Betsy getting a new job at the MS Clinic and no longer having to work crappy hours; and my graduating from the U with a B.S. in Chemistry( Yeah, finally).

Betsy and I have tried to squeeze in as many vacations as we can this year. We first made it to Moab in March, where I took a huge step to becoming my father by purchasing the National Parks passport. I was able to get the stamps for Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. And we later made it back down to Zion's (as pictured to the left) to add another stamp. We also made it to DisneyLand (truly the happiest place on earth) and to four professional sports games. MLB (Dodgers vs Rockies) the longest 13 innings of Betsy's life, NHL (Red Wings vs Coyotes) Shawn's dream come true, NFL (Cardnials vs Rams) Ali and Betsy went to a movie instead -- and the boys liked it that way, and NBA (Jazz vs Magic). And of course we made room for a boating trip to Lake Powell, and hope for many more in the future. I guess you could say we've been a little busy and hope to be just as busy this year.