A Little History

It seems that when I choose to blog, I really go for it.  It's been a month and a half since I last blogged and suddenly I have 3 posts in 2 days.  I need to learn to make these entries a little more regular...

Meanwhile, Junior, I wanted to share some more history of your parents with you.  I'm just going to copy and paste here some stuff we wrote for our wedding website (that no longer exists).  Specifically our short histories and how your dad proposed.  Enjoy!

Oh yeah, we got married on July 4, 2008 in front of the Bridger Mountains just outside of Bozeman, Montana.

Our Histories (from both perspectives)
These were written in early 2008, so some of the information is not current...

Shannon's Story Shannon Lea Savage was born in Aurora, Colorado in 1970. She is the youngest child of Gordon and Carol Savage. She has two siblings, Keith and Kathy (both of whom will be standing up for Shannon in the wedding). Her dad was in the airforce and serving in Vietnam when she was born. He didn't get to meet her until she was 6 months old. Shannon spent the first four years of her life in Germany, but unfortunately doesn't remember much of her time there. From there the Savage family moved to Dayton, Ohio for a couple of years, then to Killeen, Texas where her dad finished his 20-year stint with the armed forces. In 1979 the Savages moved back to Denver, Colorado. Shannon being the painfully shy child she was had a hard time going through so many different schools as she grew up. In Denver she was finally able to settle down and make some really good friends. Talk to Ruth Knepell and Dave Purcell to find out more about her shenanigans from elementary school on up through college. Back in 1976, Shannon became enamored of the idea of being an olympic gymnast (think Nadia Comeniche - first perfect 10). In 1979 she started gymnastics competition. She was also taking lots of dance classes and over the years performed in many dance recitals. Once she got to high school she left the gymnastics club to compete for her highschool team (Go Spartans!). Aside from doing fairly decent in academics (she was in the top 25 of her class of over 300 - but not nearly as geeky and active as Jeff was at that age), she continued focusing on gymnastics until she was 18. At that point she felt 12 years of torturing herself on the uneven bars, vault, balance beam, and tumbling floor were enough, so she hung up her leotards for good (so she thought). In 1987 Shannon read an article in National Geographic by David Meech and Jim Brandenburg about the Wolves of Ellesmere Island. Today she says that was a defining moment in her life. It was when she decided she wanted to be a wildlife photographer and figured getting a degree in Wildlife Biology would be her ticket to that career. So in the fall of 1989 her parents helped her move way up to Fort Collins, Colorado (an hour and a half drive away) so she could start her studies at Colorado State University (Go Rams!). Tracey Natvig (Keaton) can tell you lots of fun stories from these four years. At CSU she met lots of wonderful people and went to some amazing places for her studies. She learned to enjoy the outdoors by taking up hiking, camping, mountain biking, and rock climbing. She continued to take photographs but soon came to realize that a career in wildlife photography would be harder to attain than she had thought. It was in her final semester of undergraduate work that Shannon discoverd the wonderful world of GIS (geographic information systems). Although she had hoped to avoid computers and math for her career, she managed to find something she really liked that was nothing but computers and math. During the summer and winter breaks throughout college Shannon took on several different jobs. Her first "real" job was at Michael's Arts and Crafts as a salesperson. This job morphed into a framer in the frame shop where she got lots of deals on frames and mats, so she started giving her own photographs as gifts. But after her second summer in college when she spent a month in Pingree Park learning everything about natural resources (a required course for anyone in the Natural Resources department), she decided to try to get a job in her actual field. So for the summers of 1991 and 1992 she worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Del Norte, Colorado. She learned map and compass skills, plant identification, how to fight fires, and how to use a chainsaw to cut down all sorts of trees. After graduating in May of 1993 she had a summer job in Craig, Colorado for the Bureau of Land Management. She got to count prairie dog poop all summer long. But this was a job that was closer to wildlife management than the previous two summers. She came back in 1994 to do the same thing, but soon learned that her real passion was GIS work - she loved making maps! In the spring of 1994 she attempted one semester of graduate school at the University of New Hampshire. Here she was hoping to get more experience with using GIS tools for wildlife management. Unfortunately she was unable to secure a project and funding for the next semester so she did not return. Luckily, she had made some good contacts at UNH and after spending nearly a year working at Mervyn's and the Finest CDs and Tapes in Fort Collins, she found a bottom of the totem pole GIS job in Portland, Oregon and started in May 0f 1995. She worked for Pacific Meridian Resources in Portland for 3 years as a GIS specialist. The experience she gained there was invaluable. She also got to go to some interesting places while on the job, specifically Yosemite National Park and many different places in Oregon and California. Meanwhile, she took up gymnastics again and started competing in Masters meets. What a fun way to keep in shape - although broken toes are not that much fun. In 1998 she finished up her job at PMR and moved to... Yellowstone National Park for what was supposed to be a four-month job. Those four-months grew into 7 1/2 years. She was a GIS specialist for the park and had found her dream job. What she hadn't found was her dream man and Gardiner, Montana (north entrance to the park) didn't have a lot of potential partners to choose from (as the saying goes, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd.") She made a ton of really good friends there, though. There's bound to be lots of good stories from: Kendra Mitchell, Carrie Guiles, Pat Bigelow, Becky Seifert (Smith), Emily Moss, Heidi Anderson, Eric Miller, Troy Davis, Brian Ertel, Hali Kirby, Tyler Coleman, Christie Hendrix, Jessi Gerdes, and Trudy Patton. At some point Shannon thought it would be a good idea to go back to school. So from 2001 to 2005 while working full time, Shannon became a Master of Science in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University in Bozeman. On Memorial Day weekend of 2005, Shannon had an experience that literally changed her life. She was mountain biking with several friends and flipped her bike. Her helmet saved her life - she landed on her head - but she suffered some fractures in her neck. She spent several months in a neck brace and went through some physical therapy, but thank God, she wasn't paralyzed and has no residual issues with her neck now. This experience was a serious knock on her door and made her reconsider what she was doing with her life. And for some reason she once again thought it would be a good idea to go back to school. She had always wanted to be "Doctor Savage." So in January of 2006 she packed up, quit her dream job in Yellowstone, and moved to Bozeman to be a full time PhD student in Ecology and Environmental Sciences at MSU (Go Bobcats!) She has passed her qualifying exams and is now a "doctor in escrow" as her advisor put it. If all goes as planned, she will be finished in a year! So, there she was in Bozeman, minding her own business, when this incredible guy walked into her life. From L.A. of all places. He sort of knocked her off her feet. She's not sure it was love at first sight, but it didn't take long for her to fall in love with Jeff. And conveniently, he fell in love with her too.

Jeff's Story Jeffrey Thomas Jewett was born in Lansing, Michgan in 1978, youngest child to parents Tom and Jean Jewett, with sister Jennifer and brother Jim. Growing up he had teachers refer to him as "the social Jewett," because, well, you'll see. He attended Holt High School where he did all kinds of silly activities, including National Honor Society, marching band, quiz bowl, the school play, science olympiad (geez, what a geek!), track, cross country, and soccer. Jeff's first job: making slime at a science museum (I mean "Chemistry Demonstrator"). Also hawked hot dogs and beer for the Lansing Lugnuts Single-A baseball team. For Jeff's high school shenanigans, talk to Paul DeRose, Brendan Hill, or Aaron Jost. Jeff went to Northwestern University (Go 'Cats!) in Evanston, IL, where he majored in cell/molecular biology with a minor in history. He was also in N.U.M.B. (The Northwestern University Marching Band, of course!), playing baritone (sort of) and cymbals. If you want funny stories about college, talk to Scott Curcio, Neil Simon or Andris Bjornson...just don't tell his parents. While in college Jeff had the best job he'll likely ever have: teaching sailing on beautiful Walloon Lake for Camp Michigania. Sigh... After his junior year, he took a 7000+ mile road trip "out west," and was permenantly hooked (on both road trips and the West). Favorite places on that trip: Glacier National Park (Montana) and Zion National Park (Utah). Since then, Jeff's had odd jobs ranging from renting shoes and waiting tables to teaching environmental education and fighting forest fires, in Utah, New Hampshire, Maine, Washington, California, and Montana. He also met wonderful people along the way, like Hanna Soltow and Heather Rutherford, who would happily tell you how he learned not to shovel the snow off your car. Odd jobs and road trips are fun, but they don't pay rent (or car insurance) very well. Jeff got his first "real" job teaching high school biology at an elite all-girls school in Pasadena, California ("Go Tigers!"). That was "interesting" in so many ways. In the five years he taught there, he sent many kids to Ivy League schools, led field trips to the sewage station/landfill but also led class trips to Arctic Canada, Costa Rica, and the Galapagos Islands (among others), coached the track team to a league championship (couldn't quite pull it off with Cross Country), and tried to stir up general mayhem whenver possible. The senior class even voted to dedicate the yearbook to him one year ("Awwww..."). For silly Westridge stories, talk to Jamie Laurens, Tracey Tromp, Jen Leong, or Barbara Shannon. Pasadena was fun, but really, Jeff couldn't wait to move to Montana to meet the love of his life. :) In July of 2006, Jeff moved out of his apartment in Pasadena with only 3 keys left on his keychain (cue Slaid Cleaves song here): bike lock, Subaru, and U-haul trailer. Heading to Bozeman and grad school, he had never met his advisor and had only visited Bozeman once, for about an hour and a half. What was waiting for him there? Who knew? Mountains. :) Grad School. And unbeknownst to him, his future wife, Shannon Savage. Jeff's is working on getting a M.S. in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, specializing in satellite remote sensing and geographic information system (G.I.S.). His graduate research is trying to map the change in distribution of whitebark pine over time across the Northern Rockies using Landsat imagery. Whitebark pine is a critical subalpine tree species, especially to grizzly bears, but it is rapidly dying off due to a host of reasons such as bark beetles, blister rust, fire suppression, and, yes of course, climate change. Besides doing the grad school thang, Jeff is now the "State Coordinator for the MontanaView project" (ask him about it sometime) and a new member of Bozeman's best improv comedy troup, Equinox Theater's Comedy Death Match! Whoo hoo! For unreliable tales of hijinx in Bozeman, ask Jenny Watts or Tyler Coleman. Things that Jeff likes to do: run (yay, marathon!), play ultimate frisbee, hug, rock climb, sail, hike, climb mountains, learn everything, teach, kiss Shannon, slide, look at maps, and generally cause trouble. Jeff and Shannon's friend Kali Abel said that she was trying to impersonate Jeff once, and it was pretty easy: she just "acted tall and smiled alot." One of Jeff's favorite Jack London quotes: " I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze that it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." The Proposal (from both perspectives) From Shannon: Jeff proposed on December 13, 2007 and I took about a millisecond to say, "YES!" We were in San Francisco for the American Geophysical Union conference and had taken Thursday off to explore the city. We rented bikes and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. After a late lunch there we headed to Tiburon as the sun was setting. We stopped at a lovely spot on the bay to enjoy the stunning sunset. Jeff gave me my Christmas present then, a book of poems by Walt Whitman. Then he proceeded to read me a poem from Song of the Open Road: Allons! the road is before us! It is safe - I have tried it - my own feet have tried it well - be not detain'd! Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd! Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd. Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher! Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law. Camerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? I was crying by the time he finished reading. Then he set the book down and the next thing I knew there was a little white box in his hand and he asked me to marry him! From Jeff: I started working on her engagement ring about 5 or 6 weeks before I asked her to marry me, as I wanted some very particular things (recycled gold, conflict-free diamonds, Yogo sapphires from Montana). I had to special order her ring because of all of these requests. I tried various schemes to discover her ring size (including enlisting female friends to ask about her current rings and sneaking dental floss around her finger when she was sleeping in a failed attemp to measure her finger). Luckily rings can be resized, because I just had to guess. I decided that I wanted to propose in San Francisco, partly because we wouldn't be seeing each other for several weeks after that and partly because there are so many beautiful places there. I worked out a plan to ask her when we biked across the Golden Gate bridge.  Unfortunately, we got a late start that day and it was getting dark before we were going to be in Tiburon, where I had planned to ask her.  I pulled over my bike at the first nice view of the bay I could find (it was getting very dark). I made a big show of taking off my bike helmet to take some pictures. I just couldn't bring myself to propose while she was wearing her helmet, and luckily, she took the hint. Earlier in the day we'd stopped for lunch in Sausalito, where I snuck away to call her parents to ask for their blessing. That was really scary, because I knew that I would be fully committed at that point, once her parents were involved. After I proposed, we continued biking (in the dark) to Tiburon where we would catch the ferry back to San Fran. We walked around town while we waited for the ferry, and one of the only places open was (ironically) a jeweler. Inside that jeweler was really the first time Shannon got to see her ring under the light!