J.D.

I grew up in Southern Utah.  I don't call it a city but Melissa insists that it is compared to her life on a farm in Idaho.  Don't tell her, but she is probably right!  I am the oldest of three: my brother, sister and parents still live in Southern Utah. I loved playing soccer, basketball, and baseball when I was a kid.  There were many trips into the mountains, where we went camping, fishing, getting firewood, and hunting with family.   

I love being in the mountains.  The smell of the pine trees, and the sound of the aspen trees blowing in the wind brings back many fond memories, and the anticipation of the next time we will be there again.  Yankee Meadows Reservoir in Parawan Canyon is probably my favorite fishing hole.  It is completely secluded, and surrounded by trees.  It is beautiful and quiet place.  If you ever get a chance, it is well worth the drive, just make sure you have something that can handle a bumpy road.

In high school, I always thought that I wanted to either be a computer programmer, or an aerospace engineer.  Well, computer programming won out.  I love learning about all the awesome things that I can do with computers.  I even got my first taste of programming in 7^th grade when we built a craps game on an old Apple IIe computer.  This love for computers has stayed with me ever since.  After high school, I spent a year going to college, but it just wasn't the right time for me to go yet.  Mostly because I spent way too much time in the computer labs, and not enough time in class.  I did go back to school, and in the time in between I spent it gaining some life experiences that taught me many things about myself.  Number one was how much I need my Heavenly Father in my life, and number two, the importance of a college education.  I also spent time building computers, and learning more about the things that I can do with them.  Thanks to two really good friends, who showed me all that they were doing in school and work, I went back to school in 2003 and I earned my Bachelor ‘s Degree in Computer Science at Dixie State College in 2007.   

A couple years after I graduated, I moved up to the “real” city in Utah County for work.  I didn’t just find a great job with the move - it turned out to be the best move of my life because a month after moving to Utah County I met Melissa, and we were married seven months later.