Amber and Travis

Are we related or WHAT?

2010-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

2010-11-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Koen Cooper Stephens 5.23.10

2010-08-12T13:39:00.001-07:00

73 Days go by fast

2010-05-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last wrote. I have written about 3 of these the past few months but Amber always wants to add something but then she doesn’t. Good thing she is on the couch and can’t get up because of the baby. I think that I should be able to get some info in. Here is something that I wrote on 2-26-10.
Just thought that I would update you on what is going on in the Stephens family. According to the blog baby counter we have 86 Days to go until the baby boy is here. We have been going to Babys RUS on a weekly basis getting cribs, changing table, stroller, clothes and a car seat. I think that we have most of the big stuff out of the way so that is good. Amber has been getting after me a little bit to move the computer room and get the babies room in order maybe in 2 months I will make the change. It seems like every time I update our blog I’m telling everyone that I got a job. I really wanted to update the blog so I got a new job. I currently work as a Customer Metrics Analyst for SUN Products. We make all kinds of soaps and clothes softener.
OK now we have magically skipped to 13 days to go. A lot has been going on at the Stephens home. The nursery is all the way finished and we just need a baby to occupy it. We are very thankful for all the wonderful things that we have received from baby showers and family.
On the church front I was called to be the Elders Quorum President a few weeks ago and it is going better than I thought it would. Amber has been a great help with allowing me to attend all of my church meetings and service opportunities. Well make sure that you keep up with the blog because I will be posting pictures of the new baby as soon as he arrives. We are still trying to figure out names but I told Amber that we should wait for the baby blessing and see how inspired I am.

2010-01-06T19:53:00.001-08:00

It has only been a few weeks since the last entry but I thought that this was blogging material. We got married Aug 2007, Bought a house Aug 2008 and now September 2009 we found out we are pregnant and May 21st 2010 we will be having a baby. I would tell you what we are having but I’m afraid that my father might read this and he doesn’t want to know until we have it. According to the Dr. he said that the baby is healthy and everything looks normal.

4 Months later

2009-12-11T20:16:00.000-08:00

Well not too much has been going on since I last wrote. This is probably why I never wrote. I have been waiting for Amber to update something but I guess what I say she says also. Last time I wrote I was working at BD Medical in Sandy UT and I’m still there. I think that I have been there for about 8 months and enjoying my time there. I have become the specialist at GPC analysis and if you ever want to know about Molecular weights and Molecular numbers I am always happy to explain the theory of it.

Before we left for Hawaii I spent some time with my best friend Brien in St. Louis. I hadn't spent anytime hanging out with him so I decided that since I went out there with him I should visit before he came home. Brien was graduating from St. Louis University with a PhD in Psychology. I had a great time catchup on a lot of stuff and just hanging out. We were able to see a lot of the sights and also a Cardinals baseball game.

Amber and I spent some time in Hawaii with Steve, Clarice, Jen, Chad and the kids. It was a lot of fun to be there with her family. One morning we all decided to go to the beach and I asked Ava if she was excited to go to Makapuu and she said “That sounds pooie” and she didn’t want to go. We had a great time with the kids and the family. Hopefully we can do it again another time with more kids. The only negative of the trip was no TV. We didn’t have TV so we went to bed early and got up early.

This is our Friend Paul Santos. We ran into him at Boots and Kimo. We found out that he worked in movies and TV shows on the Island and he invited us to the set of LOST. Well he told us to come around Midnight to Wainie. Well we showed up and I'm sure that he really didn't think that we would show. We got pictures with him before we left and we also got T-Shirts saying that we were part of the film crew.

Steve's friend Frank took us out on a yacht around part of the Island. The ride was great but we didn't see any dolphins.

When we got home I started school at the University of Utah in Material Science and Engineering. I thought that since I work with Polymers and enjoy it I should pursue more education towards that subject. Today was my last day of classes and I’m getting ready for finals. This semester has been really hard with working full time and going to school part time. I have classes that start at 11:00 and I go until 3:30. I drive about 75 miles a day in the car driving to work, school, work and back home. Luckily Steve was nice enough to let me borrow his Saturn with the tow bar just in case I need a tow.

I think that is all the excitement for now. Amber is at the church setting up for the Christmas Party. Hope you enjoy the blog and sorry for the long delay. Hopefully next semester I will be able to find some time to write more for our avid readers.

3 Months already

2009-08-12T19:32:00.001-07:00

It has been a long while since I wrote something. Just a little update since May 13th. Well I don’t remember what we did in May so sorry. June Amber and I went to Disney World and it didn’t seem as magical as I remember it. Amber and I spent the first 2 days getting discount tickets to Disney World, Sea World and Bush Gardens. We went to three time share sessions and to be honest it really wasn’t worth it but now we know. I recommend doing two, three was just too much. The first day at the park we went with Jenny and the kids and it was a lot of fun.

Amber and I was able to take the kids on the tea cups and I was advised by Jenny not to spin the cups too fast because the kids might get scared and I agreed. When I got to the cups the kids wanted to go fast so I went really fast and everyone was happy.
We didn’t make it for the fireworks but we had a great time.

The next day we went to Sea World and had a great time but it was super hot. We rode Atlantis for the second ride at the park and we got soaked and everything was wet for the rest of the day. They had a lot of shows and Avery and Hudson had a great time. The rest of the vacation we spend at the pool kicking it and enjoying the sun. We rode in swan paddle boats, fished, miniature golf and tennis. I think that we spent more time playing instead of relaxing. When I got home I crashed for 13 hrs.

For the 4th of July I got to meet Ambers brother Pauls family for the first time. It was good to hangout with the kids and talk with Paul and Jennifer. Jenny, Hudson and Avery came to the pool and played too. We had a good time and hope that I can see Pauls family again. Later that night Amber and I walked to the Sugar House park to watch some fireworks because it is supposedly the last year for them.

For the 24th of July Jenny invited us down for a block party at her house. The party consisted of blow up slides, cotton candy, snow cones, zip line, a huge slip and slide, face painting and the best fireworks I have ever seen. We also celebrated Jennys birthday with lemon cake.

For our 28th Birthdays Amber surprised me with all of my friends coming over for a BBQ at our house. I had a great time with all my old roommates, Julian, Shawn, Brien, Darcy and Rachel. We just hung out and later played some card games. We were going to play Halo but it was getting late.

Our anniversary we spent our time at the ward campout in Emigration Canyon. Amber’s calling in the ward is Activities so she was incharge of a lot of the campout. We were thinking about sleeping in our house but we decided to just sleep in a tent overnight. It was very nice weather and not too cold. I think that Amber and I slept a total of 4 hrs. We had the best camp site and had foam pads but we still had rocks and a hard ground keeping us awake. Over all it was a great campout and very enjoyable to be with everyone from the ward.

I’m still at BD Medical in the QC Lab. I have been here for 4 months now and its going great. I have been learing a lot and I have been put incharge of a major project at work so that is all the excitement that I have for work. We will be leaving for Hawaii in a few more days and I’m very excited for the vacation and to see Ambers family. I’m a little stressed because I will be missing a week of school but I have talked to all the professors so I should be up to date when I get home. Well that’s the major stuff in our life hope you enjoy. I will try and write less next time.

Update

2009-05-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

A lot of things have been going on since I last wrote. It seems to me that every time that I write a blog entry it’s about me getting a new job. Well since I’m writing an entry I must have another job. I gave my two weeks notice to Watson Pharma and told them that I accepted a job as a Chemist working for BD Medical. I started about 3 weeks ago and its going great. I work in the Quality department and its going well. I have been working with the HPLC and getting ready to work with the Gel permeation Chromatograph (GPC). The GPC is used in determining molar mass and size information of polymers or biopolymers by light scattering. I will provide anyone with more information if that are interested.
We have been doing a lot of yard work lately. We decided to take out the tree in front of the house and plant a Japans Maples to represent Amber’s heritage. I guess we now need to find a Korean Maple or something for my half. We spent the whole weekend outside and the following week we put together a new dinner table. We had to put everything together and when we were almost finished I was screwing in the last screw and snap went the chair. I screwed it in too tight and split the chair now Amber is worried that if someone sits on it its going to crack even more. I apologized and everything is fine.

For mothers day we went over to my brothers house for Mothers day. Lindsay my sister in law prepared a wonderful dinner and Amber prepared the steaks. After we left Shawns mom wanted to come over and see the new arranged front yard. I will try to add a picture. As you can tell not too much has been going on.

Another Week

2009-03-06T22:09:00.001-08:00

Well it has been a few weeks since our last update. I think that Amber has given up on the whole blog thing so I’ve taken over. I will try and convince her to write again soon. For right now you will have to deal with my side of the story. Everything has been going well at Watson Pharma we are pumping out data like crazy for my project. I have had the opportunity to work on the HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) instrument just in case you didn’t know what that meant. The HPLC is a very important instrument in the Chemistry field. Amber has been keeping busy with her job and she enjoys it. I would say more about her job but that is all I get.
Last week we had the great opportunity to spend time with the kids down south. I always enjoy spending time with the kids because I feel like I get to be a kid again. I was able to break in the sandbox for the first of the year with the kids. Last year they kids were trying to trick me into eating the sand and I pretended to eat it and spit it out. This year the kids tried it but I got them this year. I told them to try the sand first and then I would eat it. Avery took a big bite of the sand/water and I couldn’t stop laughing so it was my turn to eat it. I put it in my hand and then threw it out. All of a sudden I hear someone eating sand right behind me and it was Hudson. I made everyone spit it out and we went back to playing in the sand. I always have a great time with the kids.
We came in for dinner and I decided to talk to Avery about Chemistry and just random Science. She is 5 years old and she just kind of looked at me funny when I was explaining the chemical structure of H2O and how the Hydrogen atoms interacted with the Oxygen.
That night I got the opportunity to put Hudson to sleep. Before Hudson goes to bed he is allowed to have one story read to him and Avery gets to listen in. I had the two kids with me while I read them a story. Hudson was flipping thru the pages so fast that I couldn’t keep up with the story so I kind of made it up. Avery caught me making up the story and told me that Hudson also knew that I made it up so I had to read another story.
Well I hope that you enjoyed the entry and thanks to everyone that reads.

Happenings 2009

2009-02-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a while since we posted. A lot has been going on in our lives but we have great news to report. Don’t get too excited I’m not Prego and Amber isn’t either. In November ZARS Pharma layed off 80% of the work force and I was part of the 80%. I have been trying to be a stay at home dad while Amber worked but that didn’t work out so well. A few weeks ago my old Supervisor from ZARS called me up and asked me if I had a job yet.

My supervisor had gone back to his old job at Watson Pharma and wanted me to apply for a position in his Research group. Before I went to the University of Utah Parade I stopped in at Watson and talked to Pete my supervisor and the Director about the position. The next week I got an offer to work as a Temporary employee for 6 months and I accepted the offer. I have been there at week and really enjoy it a lot. This week to my surprise I noticed that I was working in the Organic Synthesis Research Lab. Anyone from school knows that the Advanced Organic lab wasn’t my best subject but I have been keeping up at work and learning a lot.

Steve and Clarice came to Utah for a few days to take care of the kids down in Pleasant Grove and they spent a little time with us here in Salt Lake. Steve asked me what I did at work and I tried to explain but he just kind of stared at me and said “I don’t think explaining to me what you do will help me understand what you do.” I just tell him that I do Chemistry because it’s just easier.

Last week we went to Jenny and Jeremy’s house to spend some time with her family and I got to play with the kids. Every time that I see the kids I take them a treat and that just makes them love Uncle Trav even more. This week I didn’t go to the Maverick gas station and went to the Cheveron and they didn’t have the candy necklaces that the kids love but I thought that ring pops would be better. I get to the house and everyone is ready for dinner so I take out the ring pops and put them where no one can see them but Hudson wanted someone to “hold you” and they lifted him up and he saw the candy. Well in short Hudson and Avery were unable to finish all their diner and had to have the candy. Amber said that I will have to hide the candy in the car until after dinner. I know a lot has been going on since December but I think that you know the University of Utah beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and we have enjoyed a few gymnastics meets this year. I had posted a picture of Matt Asiata, Shawn and I. He always looked so big on the field but Shawn and I are even bigger.

Home for the Holidays

2008-12-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

Its been over a month since my last post and so much has happened. Travis and I were able to go home to Oregon for Thanksgiving. It was a blessing to get together with most of the family. Nanny has been on the mainland for the past few month and had been in the hospital right before Thanksgiving. She got out the day we arrived. My niece Avery wasn't sure what to think about Nanny when she first arrived. She referred to Nanny as the "old" lady. After a few hours she was at her side assisting her as much as possible.

Chad and Jen had just recently welcomed the newest member of their family Baby Sydney. While we were home Sydney was blessed and Travis was able to participate.

Chad was headed to the coast for a day trip and invited Travis and I to join him. I have forgotten how beautiful Oregon is. The drive and the coast were a spectacular view.

We also took family picture over the holiday. It was a cold day and with small children it didn't make it any easier. Overall the picture were a success.

Utah Utes 12-0

2008-11-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

There was much anticipation for the BYU/UTAH game today. Travis has been stressed and unsettled about the game all week because a lot relied on the outcome. The game was a tight one until BYU started turning the ball over to us. BYU's offense struggled a little bit, but Max Hall's completion percentage wasn't actually THAT bad, if you count the ones he threw to Utah.

Undefeated: Utah Utes
Mountain West Conference Champions: Utah Utes
BCS Buster: Utah Utes
MVP: Max Hall

Hudson & Avery

2008-11-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

We had the pleasure of babysitting my brother's kids this weekend. Travis and I learned that we might not be ready for kids just yet!

NKOTB

2008-11-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

Last weekend a childhood dream was fulfilled. I went to the New Kids on the Block concert here in Salt Lake City. Tickets were only $20 so I figured if they weren't good I wasn't out too much money. The concert ended up being better than I imagined. I must say the boys look better now than they did back in the day.

BYU vs UTAH

2008-11-19T17:18:00.000-08:00

These past few months I have become very passionate about college football. I have followed the BCS Standings each week and can have an intelligent conversation with the men. Travis and I are excited for the Utes to go to a BCS bowl if they beat BYU. There have been some exciting games this year against Oregon State and TCU as the Utes had last minute combacks to get us the WIN.

This Saturday we play BYU...I can only imagine how intense this game will be. I have anticipated this game since the beggining of the season. Hopefully the team has been living right on and off the field so good things will happen.

Body Worlds

2008-11-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago Amber and I decided to go to the art exhibit here in Salt Lake. During the week a consultant from India came into town for Ambers work so we decided to bring Viral along and entertain her. I was a little nervous that because I didn’t know if she would think it’s interesting or disgusting. Amber asked her and she decided that it would be exciting so we went. If you would like to see the exhibit it’s going to be here in Salt Lake until January 11th, 2009. Here is a link to the website if you are interested. http://theleonardo.org/bodyworlds/index.php. Also if you are interested you can even donate your body if you feel inclined. We had bought our tickets online because the tickets sell out fast. We arrived and all the tickets for the day had already been sold out so we were lucky.

The line to enter Body Worlds (BW) was very long and it took about 1 hr to get in. The exhibits were exciting for us and very enjoyable. While we were walking thru the exhibit I only saw one kid passed out because he couldn’t handle the sight of the bodies. We were all fine but it was super hot. I would recommend looking at the website that I posted because it will give you better details of the exhibit. After the exhibit we decided to go to the Red Iguana for some great Mexican food. I have attached pictures of us in front of the restaurant.

Oops....Lost Blog Links

2008-10-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

So I haven't had any news to share so instead of writing I thought I would change the look and feel of the blog. While doing so I lost all of my Family and Friend. If you do not see the link to your blog on the right please leave a message so I can add you back on my list.

2008-09-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

The kids LOVE Uncle Trav

2008-09-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Pleasant Grove to visit my sister-in-law and our niece and nephew. Travis LOVES the kids and they LOVE him too. This is what we saw when we looked out the window. All the kids were surrounding him. All Travis talked about for days after was how much the kids love him.

One Room at a Time

2008-09-07T21:09:00.001-07:00

Once we moved in it was exciting to have our own place to decorate. The only thing that we have lacked the past month is motivation to do it. Each room has something in it and is functional, but just not organized and decorated the way I had planned. My living room has been the storage room for all of the random things. Tonight Travis and I got some motivation and we hung our HUGE mirror that I bought at Ikea on Labor day. Kind of scary hanging a 55 lb mirror on the wall.

The other project was hanging decorative shelves. It just so happens that the wall we are putting the shelves on is made out of brick. We got one up tonight before the battery of the drill ran out. We will see how long it takes to get the other 2 up.

NEW YORK

2008-08-31T12:07:00.001-07:00

Many of you know that Amber and I were going to go to New York for our Birthday and our Anniversary. We had a wonderful Birthday and the Anniversary will be great to especially since we will be moving into our house on our Anniversary.
We left for our NY trip on Sunday morning and my wonderful sister in law Lindsay took us to the airport. We arrived on time and was getting ready to board when the Delta guy at the desk ask if 6 volunteers would like to offer their seats so that they could put other people on. Well they were giving out free money so we decided to take the later flight that was only 2 hrs later then our original flight. We wait and board another flight which has a stop in Cincinnati and then off to NY. We arrived in Cincinnati/Kentucky and our flight got canceled. We tried everything that we could be we had to stay in Kentucky for one night. The next morning we flew out of Cincinnati and arrived at JFK airport just in time. I took my first Cab ride to Grand Central Station to check into our hotel.
We went directly to The Late Show with David Letterman. It was a great show with really loud music and it was kind of a small studio but we both had fun.

After the show we hurried to Yankee Stadium to see Ambers brother pitch. We arrived with ample time to get our tickets and get our seats. We arrive at the Will call and the attendant cant find the tickets under Ambers name or my name so we start to freak out but before we can ask another question the attendant starts to say “Next” over and over again until we leave. We go to customer service and tell the guy that Ambers brother is pitching and that he left us tickets. The guy goes back and in 10 seconds he is able to find them. We finally get inside and we have Row 1 tickets. We were up close and personal to the game. I’m sure that you saw us on MLB.tv or Sports Center because we were on the TV the whole game. Please refer to Pics.

After the game we went and did a little touring wither Jeremy. We went to time square and other sights around there. After the little tour we got back to our hotel and its almost 2 in the morning and we are tired.

We woke up the next morning to go see the Today show. We were able to make it on TV but no one was able to see us but I promise I was there. Refer to Pics. After that we just toured around all day looking at stuff and following Jeremy around he was an excellent tour guide.

We arrived at central park and enjoyed the huge park. We walked around for a while and then Jeremy decided to take on the locals at the Chess and Checkers house so we went and rented some bikes and rode them around the park. I never knew that the park was that big. We were riding around it and noticed that we only have 15 min to get the bikes back so we had to hustle to get them back in time. We did miss a lot of the park but we saw it all eventually except for that bridge. We were also part of a daytime soap that was filming too.

While we were walking they had all these fountains and Amber decided to fill up her water bottle. Right after she filled up her water bottle this homeless man came over and decided to wash his clothes in the drinking fountain.

Tuesday was filled with more walking and standing around. We went to the Metropolitan museum and looked at all the stuff. I couldn’t believe that they had that much stuff in there. We had to power walk around the museum to see it all. We then went to the Canal street to look for bags for Amber. We had a wonderful lunch at Little Italy and the food reminded me of my mission.

We returned home and enjoyed a night at a Broadway play. We went and saw Phantom of the Opera. The play was not very exciting because I had no idea what the play was about and I couldn’t understand the actors because all they did was sing the words. Amber felt bad for me because I asked her what it was about at the start of the play but she thought that I was quizzing her so she gave me a short answer. She finally figured out at intermission that I had no clue of what was going on. We then went to Johns pizza across the street from the play house.

Wednesday we went to the baseball field in the morning and took some pictures and had the tour. We were able to go on the field and also where the players sit during the game. Jeremy got some dirt from the infield for Shawn. We then spent the rest of the day shopping and wondering around the town.
I know that this is very long and I should put this in my journal but I think that more people will enjoy it now then later. Plus you can see my amazing pictures.
Thursday we went to the Empire state building which was alright. The skys were not too clear and you couldn’t see that far but, I think that it was worth it going up. We arrived later that night in Salt Lake and my buddy came and picked us up. We are all back and the vacation was great. Amber was able to get her shopping and stuff while I was able to get some autograph jerseys from Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

Closing Time...July 25th

2008-07-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

This Friday is our closing date for our new house. For the last month we have been in the process of purchasing our first home. We will be moving to the Sugar House area in Salt Lake City. It is a great location near the freeway and shopping. Our official move in date is August 4th and it seems too far away.

Work Hard...Play Hard

2008-07-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

Stephen's family tradition is to go to the mountains outside of Bear Lake and cut wood for the next winter. Usually the trip is right around the 4th of July. This was my first year to participate in this tradition. Travis had the impression that I would not do well with manual labor and boy did I prove him wrong. Not only do I PLAY HARD....I WORK HARD. I was able to keep up with his 79 year grandfather. I did not see any scary bugs and walked away with only 2 mosquito bites. I will definitely be participating in the Stephen's traditions for many years to come.

College Grad has a Job

2008-06-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce that Travis is no longer unemployed. He was offered a job at ZARS Pharma 2 weeks ago and was at work 3 days later. His official title is "Research Associate" in the engineering department. Travis interned with the company last summer as a technical writer. We have our sister-n-law Lindsay to thank for getting Travis hooked up with the company. Now that Travis has a job we need to head out of our student housing apartment before the end of August. We have been house hunting diligently and hope to move out in a month.

Family Vacation

2008-06-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Travis and I went on our first family vacation in May. We left the day after graduation and were able to spend 2 weeks in paradise. We soaked up as much sun as possible at all the different beaches. We were able to spend time with Nanny and my parents.

**Slide show of out trip at the bottom of the page.

Graduation

2008-06-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

It is official...Travis is a college graduate!!! Travis graduated from University of Utah on May 3, 2008 with a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry. There was a big relief in our household once the semester had ended. We will hopefully be trading in our cinder block walls and our spacious 500 sq. foot apt soon.

1st Business Trip

2008-06-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

HealthEquity decided to send me on a last minute business trip to Minnesota to present at open enrollment meetings. I ended up having a lot of free time and so it seemed like a vacation. I found out that Mall of America isn't as great as I had expected and baseball games in a dome just aren't right. Orioles only play the Twins 2 times a year and it just so happened they were there that week. I was able to attend my first Orioles game and caught my first foul ball.

Locks of Love

2008-06-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

For the past few years I have been talking about donating my hair to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. You have to cut at least 10" off to donate. My hair was to the point that it was too long and it was a great opportunity to make my donation and still have some left.

Blog Headache

2008-06-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

I always thought blogs looked like they would be a fun activity, but my first few days trying to add a background was a headache. After fighting with Travis about how to add a background and a lot of hard work and dedication I was able to figure out how to create a blog. I would not have been able to figure any of this out without Rachel Adams assistance. Thank you!!!