Missouri Trip

It was a busy weekend for Ben and me, since we were able to visit my family in Missouri for the first time in over a year--the last time we were there was for our wedding reception. Much has changed....

My high school reunion was this weekend, so I was able to see a lot of people I haven't seen in years. Ben was a hit--surprise, surprise. I think he talked to more people than I did. My baby belly was also quite popular.

In fact, all weekend I had people from school, church and other random people touching my belly. No one loved it more than my family. They all wanted to feel the baby kick, and my brothers kept pointing at my stomach and saying, "baby." I think they're excited to be uncles (especially since they're having a nephew....) In further baby news, he is moving quite a bit now--I can even see my belly bounce sometimes. It's pretty exciting to feel.

It was nice to get to spend so much time with my family. We saw HP7 Part 2 (awsome), played tennis (of course) and went to the pool, which I've been wanting to do for months. We were also able to fulfill Ben's dream of having Kansas City barbeque. It was good, though technically it was in Independence. Maybe when we have more time we can take him into the city.

My mom also pointed out that I neglected to pay tribute to Josh's 18th birthday. That's probably because his birthday happened to fall on the same day that we got our ultrasound. I thought giving him a nephew would be a good enough gift, but I don't want him to feel left out, especially since Nate's made it on our blog twice. So I'll take a bit of time to celebrate Josh's birthday.



I know this is kind of blurry, but I love this picture of him and our cousin Haleigh



Joshua Robert Fernquist

Born July 6, 1993, making him legally an adult.

He played golf in high school and still likes to play in tournaments

Is obsessed with the Kansas City Chiefs. A little side note--Josh is the most laid-back of all of us by far, but apparently when the Chiefs aren't doing well, he can get pretty scary.

He's going to BYU-Idaho this fall.

Just received the Melchezideck Priesthood this Sunday--which we were there for and Ben participated in.

If playing Apples to Apples, he will always select the most random card. Festering wounds was one of his favorites and it reduced him to tears.

When he was little, his teeth squeaked when he chewed.

Visiting him in the hospital when he was born is one of my earliest memories-- Geoff and I were pretty excited.

Nate's Visit

My brother Nate came out to Provo a couple of weeks ago to go to EFY and then tennis camp. He stayed with us this weekend and last weekend. This meant that 3 of the 4 Fernquist kids were together, which hasn't happened in awhile.  You can see the excitement.

We kept pretty busy doing lots of fun activities, including playing tennis, going to the farmer's market (and Costco--always fun), watching Fast Five in the dollar theatre, playing lots of Wii, batting cages, and mini golfing (both regular and black light). Ben was surprisingly terrible at the batting cages. On his first try, he didn't hit a single one. But, true to his character, he figured it out the second time and did almost as well as me. A couple more tries might have made him better than me. Maybe.

In other updates, Ben only has less than 4 weeks until he graduates. Yay for no longer being students. He's been enjoying his last term though. His load is pretty light and he loves his ceramics class. He likes to show off his work and have me watch him throw.

Run, Run, Ragnar

So the infamous Ragnar Relay was a week and a half ago. I've been wanting to write about it for a little while now, but we seem to have misplaced our camera. Hopefully it turns up soon. So I will just have to use the few pictures that I took with my phone.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what the Ragnar is (aka "non-runners"), I will explain. The Ragnar is a relay race, and this particular one that we ran, the Wasatch Back, goes from Logan to Park City. There are 12 runners on a team (or if you're really crazy, 6), split up into two vans. You all take turns running and as you run, your van drives along and cheers you on and provides you with water and snacks as needed (just as Ben and Lisa are doing for Lora below).

Our team name was "Go Fish" and we all had matching shirts, not to mention matching capes. Ben still wears his around the house.

We also decorated our van and had blow up props.

Our van started early--we had to be at the starting line to check in at 5:30. But we were lucky because the times lined up that we were actually able to sleep that night. The poor runners in the other van did not have as much luck, since they had to run through the night.

Most of the time that we were running, we were in the middle of nowhere. But it was gorgeous and green--not at all like the Utah that most of us are used to on the other side of the mountains.

Even though we weren't the fastest runners (we finished in a little over 36 hours), I'd say we did pretty well--especially considering how much training some of us did . A little shoutout to Kim, who ran the entire Ragnar Hill--without stopping to walk once (of course she was one of the few who was diligent in her training, so obviously that paid off). We were all pretty sore afterwards though--there was a lot of limping that weekend. It was definitely fun, and I'm really glad we did it, but I'm also glad it's over. I did hear talk of doing it again in 3 years. I think by then I'll have been in the family long enough to be able to say no. Hopefully....

Happy New Baby

That's right, this is the much-anticipated announcement of the newest addition to our family. We're expecting baby to come at the beginning of December, and so far everything has gone very well. We got to hear the hearbeat a couple of weeks ago and it was strong, loud and amazing. I'm growing more and more each week, and I'm very excited about entering the second trimester with the prospect of enjoying food again.

Ben has been very supportive and is excited about being a Dad. I'm just a little nervous about raising a child with his energy level. Oh, and in case you were wondering what our baby will look like, we couldn't wait the six months to find out, so we did a little techno-magic and this is what we found.

Happy Birthday Nathan Jacob Fernquist!

Today is my youngest brother's birthday, and I thought I'd take a page out of Kelly's (blog) book and do a little spotlight on this 90 pounds of pure sunshine.

About Nate:

Today is his 15th birthday.
He was born in Bozeman, MT. I was there. My parents made me go to school when it was done, which was pretty lame. And I was really hoping for a sister.

Sometimes has to share his birthday with Mother's Day.

Is a freshman in high school and is about to get his driver's permit. I don't think he'll be any worse than Geoff was when he started to drive.

He now sounds exactly like Josh on the phone--they even mumble the same. He thinks it's funny if you can't tell who he is.

Loves tennis. Is not afraid to smack talk about his abilities to beat you.

On Facebook: He has 374 friends. That's almost as much as me.

For college: He wants to go to BYU (which is an excellent choice).

Special skills: He makes the best oreo shakes. He can also dance.

Social skills: He is probably the coolest of the Fernquist children. He's the most social (note the number of Facebook friends) and has the best style (the only time I compliment Geoff's wardrobe is when he's wearing one of Nate's shirts). However, no one thinks Nate is as cool as he does.

The San Francisco Treat

We had quite an extended Thanksgiving vacation this year. It included hours upon hours of driving, fish and chips, Walt Disney, and being a couch potato. Have I piqued your interest? These are just the highlights.

Our route, which according to Google Maps takes a total of 1 day, 7 hours:

View Larger Map

Ben ran across a busy street to reach this gem that we came across somewhere in the middle of Nevada.

We forgot our camera on the first day, so you will just have to rely on my words to spin a picture. We drove to California with our friends Ian and Lauren, and we stayed with Ian's grandparents, Grammy and Papa. They were extremely hospitable and Grammy did a good job of feeding us. Our first stop in San Francisco was the Walt Disney Museum. We learned about Disney's life and his early cartoons and movies. 

Our other main event that day was a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. The last time Ben was in San Francisco he found a fish and chips place and had been missing them ever since. We drove around in the rain and asked for directions, but eventually we were so hungry that we gave up and ate mexican food. I was happy (not being a seafood fan myself), but Ben was quite sad. After we ate, we drove about a block down the street and lo and behold, there was the fish and chips restaurant. So of course we stopped.

On Monday we hit a lot of the touristy sites. I made a special request for Lombard Street, which lived up to its reputation.

We ate lunch at the most amazing sandwich shop, Ike's. Ben and Ian split a sandwich which included Roast Beef, Corned Beef, Pastrami, Salami, Turkey, Bacon, Ham, Mozzarella Sticks, Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers, Beer Battered Onion Rings, Avocado and Pesto. Tasty.

Just a side story, when Ben was last in San Francisco, he and his four male friends stumbled into this 24-hour diner in the middle of the night only to discover that it was the self-appointed "gayest diner in the world." It happened to be down the street from Ike's, and upon seeing it, I wondered how they didn't realize that Little Orphan Andy's, adorned with rainbow flags, was what it claims to be.

The rest of our trip was just as touristy. We took a bunch of pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. I wasn't even posing for this one.

We visited Chinatown briefly and spent the rest of the evening walking around the pier. Ben particularly enjoyed Ghirardelli Square.

We ate dinner at Boudin's, which is famous for its sourdough bread. We had some amazing views of the city from the pier. 

The rest of our trip was spent in Los Angeles. Our friends have family there and we stayed with my grandparents who live outside of LA. It was the most wonderful visit, during which we spent a good deal of time just relaxing on the couch in front of the fireplace. Thanksgiving itself was just as laid back, with more of my family coming over. And now... our wonderful week of being taken care of by grandmothers is over.

Yet another link for wedding pictures

We have now received the final installment of our wedding pictures. These are the family photos. We've included a few of our favorites on our blog, but for all of them and at a better quality, click on the link. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25017151@N06/sets/72157624145128216/

Pretty Scarlett in her pretty dress with her pretty shoes and her pretty flower.

I personally think this perfectly captures the serenity that always surrounds MacPherson families.

We love how Cory and Canyon look just like old men. Does this look more like a funeral than a wedding? When looking through the pictures, watch Cory's face. It's priceless.

Ben's flower broke in half as soon as we got out of the temple. Luckily his mom was there to correct the error I made when pinning it on.

This one is probably our favorite. No other caption necessary.

Wedding pictures are here!

We got our wedding pictures today! Our wonderful photographer, Andrea Christensen (who we highly endorse to anyone in the Provo/Salt Lake area), just posted a bunch of pictures from our wedding day in Nauvoo. She hasn't finished with the family pictures yet, but these are the ones that she took of Ben and me. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25017151@N06/sets/72157624145128216/show/with/4643905748/

Warrensburg Reception

Part two of the Ben/Megan wedding saga. We had a reception on Tuesday in Warrensburg, MO, Megan's hometown.  A little suggestion for all of those who are planning or will someday plan a wedding: schedule your wedding and reception on separate days.  We had a luncheon on Monday after the wedding that was very low key and had the actual receptions on different days. By the time 3:00 rolled around, we were exhausted and so glad that we did not have anything scheduled for the rest of the day. So keep that in mind.  We actually did little to help with our reception, but luckily Megan's parents had a lot of help from some wonderful people in the ward. Megan's mom made some delicious food and the cake turned out really well. And we got some pretty good presents.

A little shoutout to Kayla Dawson, she did an excellent job on our cake

Wedding Day!

We've been quite busy the past couple of weeks, so we have a few posts to catch up on. Most important of all the many events that have transpired would have to be our wedding on Monday. It was a great day, the weather in Nauvoo was perfect and everything ran smoothly.  We had quite a few people tell us that they had never been to a less stressful wedding. Our sealing was a wonderful experience, but we won't get into the details of who cried more than whom. We have some pictures from Megan's family to tide everyone over until we get our pictures back from our photographer.

With the parents

Both our families

Direct quote from Josh-- "Where can I grab her?!"

Ben's sisters had a bit more trouble

A view of the Nauvoo temple

Ben's siblings were nice enough to decorate our car