Josh Rhodes

Hi everyone from Ashton! Josh is having me write this for him. (This is his wife, Tiffany.) The past ten years have flown by for Josh (he says). After high school he served a mission in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which he loved. Then he went to BYUI and after dating many (many, many, many.....) girls he finally met me and decided to give up his bachelor ways. Annie Marsden (wife of Jordan Marsden, Josh's college room mate) told me after our first couple group dates, "I'm surprised to see you again! Usually Josh's dates are only once then the next double date he has a new girl." So, I didn't know how I felt about that but he did convince me to marry him and after a six-month engagement, which everyone insisted we'd move up, (we didn't) we were married August 19, 2004 in Nauvoo, Illinois.

After getting married we did our junior years at BYUI. Then we went to live in Minneapolis for the summer where Josh worked for APX Alarm. That was a really fun summer and I recommend that place to anyone. Then it was back to Rexburg for our senior years. We thought we were pretty smart when we got pregnant with my due being scheduled for one month after graduation. Pretty good timing, huh? Wrong. Gabe decided to come 11 weeks early, about five weeks before our April graduation. Turns out I'm a bit defective when it comes to cooking a kid! Those were a hectic five weeks of running around between school, home, and the hospital, but we both still graduated with our Bachelor's degrees - Josh in Health Science and me in Communications. Our tough little guy quickly grew from 3 pounds, 10 ounces to over six pounds and was released from Madison Memorial after six weeks (still five weeks before my due date!)

That summer Josh managed for APX and we went to lots of places - Birmingham, Virginia Beach, and Kansas City. I do not recommend Birmingham to anyone. The only plus was that we lived practically in the backyard of The Cheesecake Factory. Virginia Beach was okay because of the beach, but otherwise really, really hot and humid. Kansas City was pretty nice. We got to see all the church history sites while we were there. So... this is requiring a lot of memory digging. Oh yeah, then we moved back to good ol' Ashton. Josh worked construction and we rented a house from Mary and Weldon Reynolds that was so cute! But after nine months we decided we had stayed in one place too long and decided to sell for APX again, this time in Sin City. We went with the brothers Fransen (all but the oldest) and had a pretty fun time there. For me and Gabe it was lots of pool time and trips to the Golden Spoon with the other wives! For Josh it was knocking doors in the blazing heat and swearing he'd never do it again. "Haha," I thought. "I've heard that before." But this summer he's been true to his word! After Vegas ended we moved to Wisconsin in the fall and we recently bought our first home. After being nomads for so long you'd think we'd be ecstatic but I think a part of us is a little sad. We like change. (Can you tell? I think we counted that we've had eleven addresses since we got married.)
We're expecting our second child (another boy) to be born anywhere from tomorrow to July 2 (I'm unpredictable) so we decided it was time to make some grown up decisions. Maybe the change of baby number 2 will be enough to satisfy us, but who knows. I'm sure someday we'll move back to Idaho but we'll probably move a few times before that too. Josh has been taking classes online through Lewis and Clark to get his secondary education certificate to teach science. He has about 2-3 semesters left. I'm sure he'd love to coach football too someday. So we'll see where that takes us. Right now our goal is just to have a healthy baby! That's about all I can think of and I'm sure it's more than Josh would've said! I've been on bed rest for eight weeks trying to keep this kid in me and I'm bored out of my mind! We also have a blog for Gabe at: http://gaberbaby.blogspot.com/ . Josh says hi and hopes everyone's doing well! Take care!

Sharmy (Reynolds) Steele

Hello Everyone,

My family and I are living in Jerome, Idaho. We just moved here in December of 2007 from Baker City, Oregon. Hopefully we will be here for a while. We lived in Baker for a year and really loved it there, but the job opportunity in Jerome was too good to pass up.

Before Baker we lived College Station, Texas for one year while my husband did his clinical year in veterinary medicine. Texas was hot with no beach. But, atleast we had a pool. The kid's enjoyed that and the abundant frogs jumping around the yard in the summer.

Previous to Texas we lived on an island called St. Kitts in the West Indies for almost three years. My husband attended Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, while I taught seventh and eighth grade social studies and language arts for three hours in the morning and was able to take my two kids with me. Amazing job! Huh!! St. Kitts was wonderful, but I missed my family and all the the luxuries of living in the U.S. The snorkeling was great and my kids and I were literally beach bums for the three years we lived there. We miss the lax way of life and the perfect weather.

Before St. Kitts we lived in Moscow where my husband and I both got our bachelors degrees and were trying to decide what to do with our lives.
A lot of moving, huh! Well, hopefully, we will stay put for awhile. We have moved so much because of my husbands schooling. Well, he has finished, whew! He is now a veterinarian and I am a stay-at-home mom of a six-year-old boy(Eli), a four-year-old girl(Kiya), and twin boys(Isaac and Isaiah)that will be two in a week.
Well that about sums it up!! If you want to email me my address is sharmynjed@yahoo.com. Well I hope to see you all at the reunion this summer!
Take Care,Sharmy Steele

Stevan Baxter

The Baxters are currently located in Salt Lake City. Wintertime is spent dreaming of skiing but in reality I just shovel snow in the Winter. Spring, Summer & Fall are spent road and mountain biking in the canyons with family hikes and a lot of yard and garden work mixed in. I did my first half marathon in Ashton's own Mesa Falls Marathon last Fall. Ashton does a great job putting that event together. In the meantime, I have been attending law school at the University of Utah and working for a law firm in SLC. I graduate in May and we will likely remain in SLC for the foreseeable future. Recent family highlights include visiting Tahoe and San Fransisco in October and visiting Washington D.C. in February. While in D.C. we ate at the famous "Five Guys" burger joint. They have a board that tells where that day's fries came from - the day we ate there the Famous Five Guys Fries came from Ashton Idaho. We thought that hometown love was pretty cool. My wife & I have been married for six years and have two kids: Hannah (5) and Rex (1). Hannah starts kindergarten in August and is full of energy and smiles. Rex is very serious and doesn't smile much but he's a good little fellow to have around. I just looked at this picture and it would seem that I'm developing a slight double chin and my hairline is receding. I'm hoping it is just the angle, though I have kept my hair very short for five years so as to avoid ever having to contemplate the comb-over. We've had the good fortune of keeping up with several of you and love to see you when you're passing through Salt Lake or when we're visiting Ashton. We look forward to catching up with many of you in July. Hopefully the snow will be gone by then.

Esther (Bishop) Machen

I met my husband Shane at BYU-Idaho. We are going on eight years of marriage. We have two mischievous children, Stetson (6) and Austin (2). Stetson loves doing gymnastics and is great on the rings. Austin loves riding his tricycle and watching Sponge Bob. We currently live in Kansas City, Missouri. We have been here for the last four years and will be here for a few more. We are both from Idaho and really miss being away from our families and friends. We hope to move back soon. I graduated with a BS in Dental Hygiene from ISU, but am now pursuing my DDS degree at UMKC School of Dentistry. I have national board exams that fall the time of the reunion, so I will probably not be able to make it to see you all. I would like to fill you all in on all of the exciting happenings of the Machen household, but our story is pretty boring. During the entire last ten years at least one of us, and most of the time both of us have been in school full time. I have two years left and I am done forever. Shane now works as a physician at Research Hospital.

Ben Strader

Okay, so Ben & I met at Davis High School in Kaysville, Ut. That's where he lived before he moved up to Ashton. We were friends but never dated. I was a choir nerd & he was a wanna-be hippie...we didn't necessarily run in the "same crowd." After high school Ben served a mission in the Washington D.C. South mission while I went to USU. I think I wrote him once (he says twice and that his memory is like a steel trap but whatever). I lived in Jackson Hole for a while & after his mission Ben started going to BYU-Idaho. Somehow he got my information (I personally believe he had been secretly stalking me for years but he'll never admit it) and emailed me that he wanted to come and visit. Bada-bing, we were married about a year and a half later. We've now been married for 5 years & still really really like each other. In fact, I think Ben might have a crush on me. We have a 2 yr. old little boy named Caleb who is hilarious & cute. We're pretty sure though that due to genetics, he's going to end up a strapping 4'5". But who knows?Right now we are living in lovely North Carolina, working together as managers of a group home for troubled teens. Let me tell you it is a roller coaster ride times ten. We've been here for almost a year & once our year contract is up, school is the next priority. We're not quite sure of our plans yet but all we're really hoping for is a little peace & quiet! We're also hoping we can make it to the reunion this summer! ben.strader@gmail.com -Ben, Lynsey & Caleb Strader