why wild wild west?

my last name is west. i used to find it rather boring. west. just one syllable. just a direction. and i thought it would look horrible when i got married. sarah janice west so and so. it just seemed out of place. people thought they were so creative when they would call me sarah east or sarah north or even sarah south. good one. or how about changing "never eat soggy waffles" to "never eat sarah west" to remember the order of directions. hilarious.

it wasn't until just about 2 months ago that i truly loved my last name. any family that might happen to read this someday, don't be offended. i never hated it. i just didn't appreciate it before. but now i am proud to be called sarah janice west. i think it is the coolest last name on the planet.

why the change of heart towards west? well how many last names can you put wild wild in front of and have it make sense? wild wild west. how awesome is that? family reunion shirts are set for life. i now proudly sport my dad's old wild wild west t-shirts as often as they are clean. and more importantly, my wild wild west sweatshirt from disneyland 2010.

you have to know an important fact. my family is obsessed with disneyland and disney in general. no seriously...obsessed. we live in salt lake city and get season passes(except our most recent one expired. sad day). so about 2 years ago my dad came up with this plan to get our whole west family in disneyland for a family reunion. everyone told him it would be impossible. we have cousins from hawaii to washington d.c. there are 56 people in total. how would we get every one of them in one place at one time? well it took a lot of hard work from my dad. we spent two years preparing for this, convincing every last person to come. sure enough it was on. wild wild west reunion in disneyland january of 2010.

this was the perfect time. and it wasn't by coincidence. my dad knew what he was doing. first of all, it would be my grandpa's birthday over the trip. what better present than all of your posterity together in one place? second of all, it would be just before the 8th birhtday of my brother Mark. Mark is my brother that died after one month of life in primary children's hospital from a diaphramatic hernia in his left lung. this is the year he would have been baptized. my family started going to disneyland the most after his death. it is a place we can escape to find time together. it my seem silly, but disneyland has brought us so close. it holds such a special place in my heart. so my dad knew disneyland would be the perfect place for us to celebrate mark's 8th birthday. especially with everyone.

we made "wild wild wests" matching sweatshirts for the reunion. the backs had everyone's names on them. cheesy? yes. but i've never minded cheesy. we even made a sweatshirt for mark's teddy bear to represent him. we carried it with us everywhere and took it on all the rides. the thing about mark's bear is that you know mark is there with us. you can literally feel it when you look at the teddy bear sitting in the stroller with jared. mark has changed my family's lives. i can't even begin to describe how much i look up to my parents for dealing with that trial. losing a child is probably one of the hardest things that could happen to you. and yet my parents have stayed so strong and faithful in the gospel. they are the best parents ever. cliche i know, but for me they really are perfect. our experience with Mark is proof that trials make you stronger. i know without a doubt families can live together forever. how grateful i am for that truth. and how grateful i am to have a wonderful family to live with for eternity. i want nothing more than to return to God with them.

being in disneyland with my whole extended family was incredible. i will never forget the moments we spent together. it was the first time we had all been in one place, and will perhaps be the last on time on this earth. i will never forget cramming 56 people on ONE boat of the jungle cruise. my WHOLE family on one ride. we took over disneyland. everywhere we went we chanted "WILD WILD WEST! WILD WILD WEST!" while holding up our fingers in the shape of Ws. i miss those moments with those people i love most.

so i suppose that was an awfully long explanation for why i choose wild wild west. but it is because i am now a wild wild west loud and proud. not only because it sounds cool and you can chant it with all your cousins, but because it means so much to be a west. to be apart of such a great family. i have never been more proud.

so there. i want to be known as the wild wild sarah west. because that is who i am.