Hey everyone! I have loved reading all of your updates –
they remind me how fortunate I was to go to high school with such great people!
I bet you can’t guess where I attended college after
graduation - yep! BYU-Idaho - and I loved it! I spent those first few years studying and getting involved
with various activities on campus. A couple of highlights were helping with a
camp for inner city girls in Chicago and participating in the Hill Cumorah
Pageant in upstate New York (FYI- this is NOT a beauty pageant…or a scholarship
pageant J
…or anything like that). During the summers I worked as a counselor for different
youth programs. While working at EFY I met my fellow counselor and future husband
– Dustin Richins. He was from Idaho, had a great singing voice, and always made
me laugh (among many other great qualities) – so I knew he was a keeper! After
a lengthy courtship of nine months and an even longer two month engagement, we
were married in April of 2010.
After graduating with my bachelors in Communications, I
decided to continue my education and earned my associates in Nursing while Dustin
finished his bachelors in Political Science. After we graduated, Dustin
convinced me to leave the Burg and move to Oklahoma for the summer. While
Dustin worked, I studied for the RN licensing exam (NCLEX). The day after I
found out I passed my test, we got even better news. We found out we were
expecting our first child!
At the end of the summer we moved to Provo so Dustin could study
Public Administration at BYU. While in Utah we welcomed Kenzly Kay into our
family. Kenz is my “mini-me” and partner in crime! She is two and loves to sing,
dance, swim and everything Frozen. Kenzly has brought more joy, laughter, and
craziness into our home than we could have ever dreamed or hoped for!
Dustin graduated with his masters in the spring of 2014, and
with that came more adventures as we accepted a job in Albuquerque. I will
admit that when we first began discussing a move to New Mexico I was less than
thrilled, but we’ve been here almost a year now, and we’ve loved just about
every minute of it. We have made some great friends and enjoy the warmer
weather – though I have to laugh every time they delay school and work because of 1/8” of snow! I
guess they’ve never seen Idaho winters before. Currently my days are spent at
play dates, running errands, and cooking with Kenzly – and I wouldn’t trade it
for the world!
***
I did want to mention a huge hole that has been left in our
class and my life personally with the passing of David Ritchie. He was a great example
to me and didn’t let time or distance get in the way of our friendship. Even
years after graduating high school, I could still expect regular phone calls
from him - just to see how my family and I were doing (and I know I’m not the
only person he kept in contact with…he seemed to know what was going on with
everyone). I was impressed by his work ethic and dedication to the things he
loved most - his family and Special Olympics. If we could read his 10 year
update it would be full of incredible adventures – all the medals he won, his
travels around the country and world, and the hundreds of people he touched and
inspired. I miss him greatly but am grateful for his friendship and the
positive impact he had on my life!
A huge thanks for Aubrey for putting all these updates
together. I hope the next 10 years are great for each of you!
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