The Proposal

How could I forget?!

I move on to the wedding details and forgot to even mention the proposal. How very silly of me.

I knew that the proposal was inevitable. I just didn't know how or when T was going to pop the question. I just told him it had to be before we had our bridals taken.

Then on March 8th, 2009 as my Mom and I were stuffing the invites, T had to work that night so we had planned on hanging out a bit before he had to take off. He told me he had to go on base real quick to get some things and then we'd grab a bite to eat and he'd drop me off at the hotel. We get on base and head to the dorms where T was living, as he turns at a stop sign we see cop lights light up our car. I was so confused.

I say to T: Um, babe. I think a cop is pulling us over.
T: Really? You think that's for us? Hmm...

Me: Uh....yeaaaaah. What did we do wrong?!

Cop comes up to T's door. Tell's T to roll down all the windows in the vehicle and for us both to step out. Oh my gosh, I was so nervous. I've never been asked to step out of the vehicle. The cop goes to his patrol car and back to us to inform us the following.

Cop: Do you know why I'm pulling you over?

T: No.

Cop: You ran that stop sign back there.

Me: No, he didn't. I remember him completely stopping. (Oh man, me and my big mouth!)

Cop: Sir, are you registered to this vehicle?

T: No, I'm not.

Me: It's my car. I'm registered to the vehicle.

Cop: You see, there's a law on base that no one is allowed driving on base in a vehicle they are not registered for.

What the heck?! I'm dying over here. I try explaining I had no idea....T even says he didn't know.

So we wait. The cop had to call his boss. I'm not kidding, 5 cop cars showed up. I was so embarrassed. We were parked right in front of the COP DORMS. So everyone saw us.

Cop's boss shows up and repeats the same. And then says, "The only way you could be okay driving on base in this vehicle is if you two were married." I start interrupting wanting to say, "Wait! We are getting married" And then T interrupted and said, "So you're saying, if we're married, I will be ok to drive?"

Then the cop says, "Well, hey! Get married!" And hands T the ring box. I am in total shock. haha

You can imagine the rest. Luckily, one of the cops that showed up was recording it. Actually, he explained to me during this whole scene that he was recording it for training purposes. haha I fell for it. Yes, I did.

Here is the video. This is actually our wedding video and has pictures of us as kids, then it has the proposal then pictures of our bridals. So, if you want to skip all the pictures, just fast forward to 4:18.

Well, blogger wont let me post it, so you can check it out here.

After the whole flight congratulated us, I come to find out that all the guys are the guys that actually work with T. He had tricked me for days thinking that the flights switched hours and that his flight wouldn't be working for a few more hours. T's flight chief (the boss) told T he could have the rest of the night off. So we called my Mom and brother up, they met us up for dinner as we celebrated and gawked over my ring! The orignal cop that pulled us over is one of T's friends that mysteriously could never "get together" before hand.

T and the flight pulled it off perfectly. I had no idea and was taken away.

Fun little side note:
T's orignal plan to propose was actually have ME get pulled over while T was "at work" for a random car search with K-9's. They would "find" drugs in my possession and put me in jail. Then that is where T would come and "rescue" me and propose while I'm behind bars. haha!

I'll never live in Vegas.

Upon returning home from my mission, I was unsure of the plan I needed to make for my life. I didn't know whether to stay in Austin, move back to Utah, or move somewhere else and start an adventure.

I remember talking with T about this one day on the phone.I was so confused and just wanted to be in the right place. T had mentioned I could move to Vegas. I laughed. I told him, "Look, I think it would be fabulous to be close to you and we could hang out etc. But, I have been to Vegas, and well, I'm not really fond of it. Perhaps I'll move to Utah and we could just visit each other?"

Like I'd EVER move to Vegas, I thought. T and I were just friends who talked on the phone daily. We weren't dating. Nor did I think we WOULD (at that time). I did however, think it was cute that he'd mention it a few times. I knew he liked me. So, I began making plans to move to Utah. I started looking at apartments, jobs etc. I found great places! But, nothing seemed to feel "right". I would find perfect roommates, but it didn't settle. I talked with T about this and he was understanding and just assisted me in the process. I knew though, that I would be moved by the 1st of March. It just felt "right".

Oh how I love those feelings. I did move that last weekend in February. Not to my own place in Austin, not in Utah, but it was, however, a location I had never lived before and I would be starting my very own new adventure.

I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Known as "Sin City", "hot and windy summers" and a very touristy city. That's all I knew of it.

My Dad and I packed my Scion Xb up with anything I'd possibly need. On the road we went. 1,300 miles. 24 hours on the road. I was determined to make the drive so I could see my baby.

My Mom and younger brother J, had flown into Vegas and made it before we did. THEY got to see T before I did! I was totally jealous! haha T had been working nights and had to work that night we got in. So we pulled up to the hotel and I ran in, finding him asleep on the bed taking a nap. I was finally in HIS city. We had 6 weeks to go before the wedding. Things started settling in now. I was getting married to one of the most incredible men. I felt so blessed.

That weekend we told T's parents about us driving in and they hopped in their car from LA, California and headed on their merry way to see us. We not only discussed wedding plans, but had many laughs as we were able to reunite from so many years.

The boys didn't seem to be having too much fun as we discussed plans. Well, they tried.
Our parents were so excited to reunite, especially for the happy occasion!


T and I, were happier than anything to be in the same city!

After many hours of planning the wedding, we decided to all go out to dinner and celebrate. Down on the strip at an Italian Restaurant named Maggianos.

Apparently being on your phone was the popular thing to do!

As the Dad's caught up on life together, R laughed at some jokes and Mom pondered. Probably wondering how we were going to afford everything at the wedding!

It was a lovely time together. It was joyful and exciting! No one would have ever guessed that the two families would ever be brought back together for such a wonderful adventure!

Engagement photos

Friday February 20th 2009

Because our wedding was only a mere 7 weeks away, we decided it was time to get things rolling! It was a perfect time to get our engagement photos out of the way. My amazing sister in-law, L, said that she would be happy to take them, edit them then have a friend print them. Thank goodness for L because if it weren't for her, we would have had a hard time finding anyone!

My younger brother wanted to take some pictures too, just for fun! Here are some fun, unedited, in the moment shots!

L told T to bite down so his jaw muscles would show. I was doing it instead in this picture! Lol!

Here, you can see T is actually doing it. Yes, good job, T! We praised him.


He obviously did not like the praising, so we all laughed as he made this face:


Oh he loves me so! One of my favorite pictures here!

We took some more photos on some rocks, they were a bit funny and this is one of my favorites.

Here are a few pictures that L took, edited and I love them!

Here is the photo that won our vote and was sent in the announcements/invites!

It was such a relief to know we had our photo picked and ready to go!

I.Love.You., "Marriage" & Meet me at the airport garage

After our fun little time alone at the theater, we decided to head back to our neighborhood. We wanted to still be alone since our time was so little and oh so very very precious.
We went to our neighborhood park, it was dark, beautiful, spring weather and we just sat on the picnic tables and reminisced our fabulous time together. It was seriously the perfect moment. I felt like we were in a movie. You know, as a little girl, you always dream having those little romantic moments like they do in the movies. Well, I had mine. As I leaned against the edge of the table, T stood in front of me holding my hands, looking into my eyes. We shared with each other how much we did not want him to leave. We shared our feelings, and came to a conclusion that we didn't care that we would be 2,000 miles apart. We would make this relationship work! (I swear, I kept looking around us to see if there was anyone filming us we were so gosh dang cute! It should have been a scene in a movie!) We decided that we would take turns flying out to see one another. That seemed like a great plan...

Until morning!

Saturday, February 14th, 2009.
We woke up, had breakfast, spent the time together cuddling and being in love. Then the dreaded moment arrived where I had to take him to the airport. We left a bit early so he wouldn't have to rush off inside. We parked the car in the garage and just sat and chatted. Not too much later and he leaned over, kissed me softly, looked me in my eyes and said those most 3 precious words every girl drools over. "I Love you, C." There was a pause. I responded. "I have been waiting a few days to hear that. I love you too!" Which was of course, followed by another sweet kiss.
It was so wonderful, to know, that we both had the same exact feelings for one another. It sure makes things a lot easier while dating! haha
It was a bit painful to see him go. But, we knew we'd see one another soon enough.

We of course continued to talk, when he got home that evening, and, then... Sunday arrived. I talked to him later that evening and told him that I made my mind up. "I'm going to move to Vegas", I told him. He was shocked, felt reluctant to let me say so. I told him, that we obviously wanted to be in a relationship, and it would be silly to spend all that money flying back and forth just to see each other for a few short days. I had nothing holding me back in Austin and all I knew and wanted was, to be with him. Simply put. He agreed and we began that hunt for finding me a place to live. We were joyous in figuring all of this out. You know, time was short. He was deploying later that year in July for 6 months. We wanted to make the best of what we had.

Then...Monday arrived. We spoke that evening on how much we cared for one another and that we couldn't wait to be together again. Somehow along our 4 hour length phone conversation we came to a point where, we were both hesitant. We always played this game where we'd ask "What are you thinking", where the person then has to respond exactly what they are thinking no matter what. Well, I asked T that question and he answered the following. "I'm just not sure. I don't want to scare you off. But, I believe that you might be thinking the same exact thing." I commented, "Yes...I think you might be right. Go on..." T says, "It starts with an 'M'"...*my heart starts being really fast, I feel butterflies soaring through ALL of my body* I respond, "Yes...??", he says, "Well C, I guess we just need to figure out if we get married when I return home from deployment or get married before".

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! He totally read my mind. My gosh, when I heard that, I just wanted to giggle/scream/laugh/jump for joy! Of course I wanted to marry him! I wanted to marry him the very next day!
Even though we had already spoken for SEVERAL hours on the phone, I just knew that it wasn't ending any time soon!
We started discussing details. Who do we tell right away? When do we plan it for? Where shall it be? Etc etc.
It was already around midnight, so I knew that if there was any one person that could help us figure it all out, it would be my Mother. I ran in her room to grab her, she hadn't been sleeping because she knew I was in love and she was just too happy for me! She came in, sat on my bed, and we put T on speaker. We told her we thought that April 11th would be a good date, but we wanted to make sure we would be able to plan a wedding by then. My Mother, I'll have you know, has put together beautiful weddings, partys, events, you name it, within a days notice! I knew she'd be the one to tackle this project. When we asked her, she said, "Are you kidding? Let's do it next week!" haha We already knew we wanted it in the SLC, Utah Temple.
We asked her to keep it "hush-hush" so we could tell everyone. T wanted to make sure to get my Dad's approval before though.

Thursday came around and my Mom and I went to get our hair done. That day, I had called and booked our slot at the Temple to get married. 11am April 11th, 2009. Finally, T was able to call my Dad and ask him. After my Dad said yes and gave him his blessing, my Dad asked when and where were we thinking. T hesitated and said, "Well, C actually booked the temple already and we're getting married April 11th" lol My Dad said, "Well, thanks for letting me know!"
Afterwards my Dad called me and said, "Hey, what are y'all doing in April? Because I want to take our family on a cruise. Say...April 11th? Nobody has plans right?" hahaha He's such a stinker! I told him he could still take us out on a cruise another day!

My Mom felt so bad that we were celebrating our love and engagement so far away. So we went home, she booked T a flight and he came out that very night to see me! You can imagine our joy as we met once again, at the airport garage.

Returning to *our* story. Day 2

So back to our love story. I'm sure y'all are just on the edge of your seats waiting for the rest of this! You can only imagine our excitement and anticipation to see each other the following morning. T had slept in my brother's room who is on a mission and I slept in my room. I woke up the next morning and quickly made myself look presentable. Yet to my horror, yes, to MY horror, I looked in the mirror I have in my room and about fell to the ground unconscious.

My lips were BLUE. I thought "what the heck is on my lips?!" I tried wiping it off and nope, it didn't come off. I then realized that it was from some soft kisses T left me with the night before. I guess my skin was just that sensitive having been a while since I had kissed somebody! haha

Horrified, I text T to ask him what in the world I needed to do. I could NOT have my family see this. You can imagine, my hands were so shaky and sweaty. I was so nervous. He text me back laughing saying I should put on black lipstick. Yeah, like THAT was going to hide it! haha (I didn't own any black lipstick anyway.) Panicking, I went through all my make up and tried to cover it up. Let's just say, it was a pretty funny looking set of lips.

So we meet downstairs for breakfast. My Mom is standing in the kitchen and my younger brother J is at the table. Not even 3 min downstairs my Mom comments from across the room "C, what happened to your lips? It looks like you have something on them. Did you eat something?" I tried so hard to avoid it and said I was trying on new lipstick. She thought I was weird.

Throughout the day she kept asking me over and over again, "..seriously C, what's with your lips?" I just wanted her to stop asking! haha I'll get to the rest of this blue lips story later on.

After breakfast, T and I went on a hike in our Preserve in our neighborhood. We had so much fun as we followed the trail to a small waterfall and sat on the rocks in the little river-bend. We talked so much and just had a blast. This is when T mentioned that he could talk to butterflies. haha Oh my gosh, he has to be one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life. (Don't worry kids, we don't have a Dr. Dolittle on our hands!)

That evening we had plans to meet up with my Dad at Dave & Busters in Austin. As we were finishing getting ready for the night, I was in my Mom's bathroom with her helping her do her hair and getting all dolled up, she said, "Now C. I think it's so funny your lips are blue. But I really am stumped as to why they are that way! Did you fall and get hurt?"

I swear my Mom was playing dumb! I thought for sure she read right past that and was just trying to get it out of me. I start laughing and say "Mom. Think about it. My*LIPS* are blue. They aren't hurt..." ****LIGHTBULB**** "Ohhhhhhh....." my Mom says. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to draw so much attention to them! I seriously had no idea!" I laughed and told her it wasn't a big deal but that it was sort of embarrassing. We laughed so hard. I told her not to tell my Dad.

Mom, T, J and I get to D&B's first, then my Dad shows up from work. We are sitting at the booth and he sits across from me and seriously one of the first things he says to me with this confused look on his face, "C, you have something on your lips". I start laughing. Silently. Then I just try to ignore it. Now that the attention had already been brought to it, I couldn't stop giggling! My Dad looks back at me and with this continued confused face says "No, seriously C. You have like blue ink on your lips." "C, I mean it. You have pen on your lips." Finally, my mom interrupts and says "S, stop." Then he stopped. haha I never confessed to him till the night before our wedding.

Dinner was wonderful and so much fun. Then after we ate we went and played on all the games they had, boxing, shooting, wave runners..you name it and they had it. I love playing arcade games there!

Afterwards, my family went back home and left us to go see a movie. We went and saw Coraline in 3D.

Here is the only picture we took that whole weekend. This is in the theater. Seriously! How silly of us not to take more. This was taken on his cell phone so it's not the greatest quality. But, this is the weekend that true love took over.

Our first day together

February 12th 2009. T flies into the Austin Bergstorm Intl. Airport.

Oh man I can't tell you how nervous I was. I arrived at the airport probably an hour before his schedule landing because I didn't want to be late. I prayed and prayed that we could have the same relationship in person as we did via telephone.
I then saw him coming down the escalator. It was like light was shining down from the heaven's on to only him. ha ha I'm totally kidding. He did look amazing though! He had a gorgeous red rose in his hand and a backpack. We hugged, and went to the carousel to get his bag. He mentioned to me how he hates flying. So the fact that he flew over 3 hours to see me made it even that much more special.

I made him drive, I figured he'd like that. Being the man an all. So as we drove back to my parents house we talked and talked. Mostly about how amazing it was that he was actually there in person and it felt like we had always been around each other. Also, you could tell there was a bit of hesitation, like we were both a little nervous around each other. ;-)

6th Street.

We got to my house where my parents, oldest brother, his wife and 4 kids, then my younger brother were waiting. T was pretty nervous to meet everyone! Although he had known them when he was little. We ordered pizza, hung out and chatted with everyone. It was pretty casual. So after we spent time with the family catching up, T and I headed downtown to the famous 6th Street. We needed some alone time away from family!

(For those of you that aren't familiar with this famous street, it's in a way comparable to the Strip in Las Vegas. It has lots of live music, clubs, bars, restaurants etc. Oh and a great place to people watch! ha ha )

As we walked up and down 6th street, I, for some reason kept walking a few paces ahead of T. He would laugh and say how I was walking too fast. I just said "This is how I walk, so keep up!" with a giggle of course. (I was used to that quickly paced missionary walking) So after many attempts of T trying to get me to slow down, he finally (FINALLY) put his arm around me to hold me close to him. (I know, way cute, right? ha ha ) From that moment on we walked totally in-sync (as in we'd both step with our right foot, then left all simultaneously) and even the stop lights were in-sync with us (ha ha) the light would be green or turn green as we approached it. It was pretty cool. We ended up walking to the Capitol and I took him on a little tour inside to check out the beautiful architecture and how if we stood in a certain spot in the center of the building on a star, the acoustics were tweaked so we could whisper yet still hear each other as if they were standing right next to your ear. Pretty sweet!

Austin Capitol.

After the tour, we walked outside and found a bench to sit on. We sat and talked. Then we cuddled. And we had a really fun time just having our wonderful conversations yet in person. I accidently dropped my keys and T bent down to get them, yet so did I. So I ended up hitting him in the head. Whoops! After a couple hours of chatting on the bench we finally had our first kiss. Awwww. I know. I'm leaving it at that though. No more details! ha ha I don't kiss and tell. ;)

Afterwards, we headed back home and chatted some more and watched a movie. Then we called it a night to a perfect first day together.

The preface (Because let's face it, we all need one)

For this story to really be tear jerking and sweet, I must start back before 2010, or even 2007 - before it all began.

Yes my dear readers, we must go back to the year 1990 when my dear family was moved to Birmingham, Alabama for my Dad's work. Interestingly enough, so was T's family. :) We happened to attend the same church. Both our Dad's became best of friends, they served together in the church. T's Dad was my brother's (and his own brother's) scout leader and spent a lot of time with them. Camp outs, meetings, activities etc. My older brothers were very close to T's older brother's, they would hang out a lot. (I have 4 older brothers, and two younger brothers, T has 4 older sisters and 2 older brothers)

Both our families lived and were friends in Birmingham until we moved away in 1993. My family moved on to Mesa, AZ for 3 years then off to Kaysville, UT for 7 years and are now settled in Austin, TX since 2001. T's family moved back to Southern California after we left.

Though T and I did not keep in touch during those many years that passed. Our father's did. They would contact each other every so often to get a family update. I remember the day my Dad came in and said that their youngest son T, was called to serve in the Birmingham, Alabama mission. (To serve in the same area where we met) I thought that was pretty cool!

Come January 5th 2009, I am curiously looking on Facebook for emails, friend requests etc. Then I see on my news feed that my Dad had just become friends with T and several of his siblings. I thought that was pretty cool since I had remembered their family since I was little. So, I added him. No harm done. ;)

To my surprise, he accepted my friend request instantly and we wrote on each others walls. "Hey! Long time no talk! What, it's been 15 years?! What's new?!" You know, the silly dumb stuff we write on EVERYONE'S walls when we first find them.

I see he's on Facebook chat, so I said hello. (Or did he first say something? I forget.) So we start chatting for a few min. (This is when I wish we could save our Facebook chat's!) Then T mentions that his internet connection is acting up and he better go. So he sent me his cell phone number and told me to hit him up sometime.

Well, let's be honest, it's rude not to let them know your number too, right? So I instantly text him and say "Hey! It's C, here's my number so you have it too! :)"
----I'm sooooo smooth. ;) I'm so smooth I'm pretty sure he thought it was nonchalant and thought I was being completely innocent and sweet. Little did he know, I was plotting our eternity with that simple text.

No I'm totally kidding. Yeah he was way cute in his pictures an all. But coming home from my mission I decided I needed to be a "grown-up" with this whole dating thing. I didn't want to get all excited over him and nothing come of it. ----

So we start texting. :) Hee hee! Then I had some things to do, and he said I should call him later. So I called him on my way home from FHE. That's where it all started. I heard his voice, I was hooked! He was chill, not pushy, very sweet, wanted to know about me etc. We hit it off and we talked till the wee hours of the morning. Not to mention we started texting again at like 6am the next day. There has never been one day that's gone by since January 5th, 2009 that we have not spoken. :)

This went on for a little over 4 weeks when I finally felt this strong desire to meet him in person. (Now remember readers, I was in Austin, TX and he in Las Vegas, NV so it's sort of far. ) So on Feb 5th, during our "Texting" I say to him "So when are you coming to see me in Austin?". It took me a min to hit the "send" button because I knew he would like to come out and I wanted to make sure I really did want him there. So I sent it. 2 min later he calls me with the cutest most excited voice ever!

"C! Are you serious? You really want me to come out to Austin?"

My reply "Um, yeah? Was that too forward??" *holds breath*

T says: "No way! I'd love to come out! I have wanted to come out for a while now but didn't want to be too pushy! *stops to think* Ok, tomorrow morning I am going to get online and book a flight to come see you NEXT WEEK during my days off"

My reply: *Thinks* "Oh my gosh oh my gosh is he for real? Ahhh! *big butterflies in stomach* This is so exciting and I have to remember to breathe!"
*Says aloud* Really?! Can you come that soon? Wont the tickets be expensive? We'd love to have you here! Let me know if it works out!"

Talon says: "Oh I don't care about how much it will be. I really want to see you soon! I'll make it work."

Ok, that did it for me. I let the excitement take over and from that day on I felt LOVE for him. I could feel a difference in the way we talked to each other. Our emotions were different and little did we know what was all about to go down.

Since this post is already a novel in itself, I am going to end this and we'll talk about the first weekend trip on the next post! Stay tuned!

(Sorry no photos- when I can I'll post some of us as little kiddos!)