The Wedding

September 3, 2010 was the perfect day. We were supposed to be at the temple at eight thirty in the morning, so I got up at six so I could be ready. I was surprised at how calm I was. I was the only one awake in my family's house until about seven thirty. Because I was just getting over a fun little bout with mono, I was exhausted and I think my shower took forty five minutes. Brandon was coming at eight, so I had just over an hour to do my hair and get ready. Note to self; you should have practiced your hair before! By the time Brandon came to pick me up, I was barely ready, and frustrated that my hair and makeup didn't look how I wanted them to. When I got in the truck with Brandon, all of my frustrations and worries disappeared. We were getting married!

We got to the temple a bit late, so we were rushed through the getting ready part. The ceremony was performed by my uncle Garrett, and it was wonderful. It was so great to be there with all of our friends and family. The whole thing went by so quickly...and before we knew it, we were married! We came out of the temple to friends and family and lots and lots of pictures in the hot sun. I think everyone's smiles became less and less real as the pictures went on.

After that, we all went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building to have lunch. The raspberry lemonade tasted so good! Both of our parents and Nelson (the unofficial best man) talked for a bit. Then it was our turn. I was so glad just to stand up so I could breathe in my dress better. Brandon's little talk was the best. He was so genuine and grateful.

After the luncheon, we only had about an hour and a half before we had to be back at the Lion House, so Brandon's family and my dad and brother John all went across the street to my dad's office to rest in the conference room. By this time I was exhausted. The mono was catching up to me. After a short rest and a can of diet coke to wake me up, we went back to the Lion House for pictures and the reception.

The reception was beautiful on the patio of the Lion House. There were little lights on the trees and pretty flowers in the gardens. The food looked tasty, but we didn't get to taste much of it because we were in line most of the time. However, the cake was wonderful, and I made sure to have a few tastes of that! Mmm...red velvet. The reception went by so quickly, and before we knew it, it was over. We were off to the Marriott at the airport. (We had a 5:30am flight the next morning)The whole day had been so smooth, something had to go wrong. We had misplaced the key to Brandon's truck! We looked everywhere, but to no avail. My parents kept offering to drop us off at the hotel. We.....didn't think that was the best idea. I had an extra key at home in South Jordan, so Laura volunteered to drive back and bring it to us! Thank you Laura. Everything worked out. Everyone was so wonderful and generous. We are especially so grateful to our parents who put all of this on for us and made it the best day of our lives.

Engaged

We got engaged on June 26, 2010 at Crescent Bay in California. Brandon and his friends Jonathan and Nelson went down to check out dental schools in California, and I flew out a day after so we could go to Disneyland. Apparently everybody (my family and cousins) knew that he was going to propose except me. But when I got to LAX, their car had broken down, which spoiled all of our plans. Instead of Disneyland, we spent most of the next day at car repair shops and rental places trying to figure out how we would get home. We did get to go to the beach for a little bit though. Brandon and I had planned on going on a date that night to the same place we had gone on a date the year before. The restaurant was a little burger place called Ruby's on the Pacific Coast Highway right on the beach. Brandon quelled any suspicions I had that he would propose by inviting everyone to come to dinner with us, but no one wanted to. We didn't have a car, so Jonathan and Nelson dropped us off at the restaurant and told us they would pick us up in a couple hours. All during dinner Brandon was acting a little strange and kept apologizing for how the trip had been a huge failure. I was having fun and couldn't figure out what his problem was. Stop apologizing! After dinner we wanted to catch the trolley to Crescent Beach a couple of miles up the road. But....I had a lot of Mountain Dew at dinner and had to find a bathroom quick! So we missed the trolley. Brandon said we would have to walk. I didn't really want to. Three miles? Let's just go to Laguna Beach? But he dragged me the three miles to Crescent. Once we got there, things still kept going wrong. A police man on a four wheeler was patrolling the area for some reason, so we snuck down past him. We didn't know if there was a curfew on the beach or something. Once we got to the beach, we realized it was high tide, and there was hardly any beach to walk on without getting swept off! As we walked out on the disappearing sand, the waves kept coming up closer and closer to the cliff behind us. We only had a few minutes before we would be pressed against the cliff wall. I was a little worried and wanted to go back, but Brandon wanted to stay out there. We found a little patch of dry sand that was about three feet by three feet. We stood there for a bit and Brandon asked me to tell him about the last time we were at that beach. I sighed and hurried through the story so we could get to a higher place. But after the story, Brandon still didn't seem in a hurry to go. He started to look awkward and my heart jumped. This couldn't be it! Was it? He apologized again for the trip not working out the way it was planned, but told me that he loved me and always knew he wanted to spend his life with me and asked if I would marry him. Of course I said yes! The trip didn't turn out the way we planned but I wouldn't have had it any different.

Our story: Part I

The first time I met Brandon was rock climbing in American Fork Canyon in June of 2007. We were with a group of friends, and I didn't get to talk to him much, but I do remember what I first thought of him; he was scary. Like hard core, long haired, bandana wearing adrenaline junkie scary. But he was really nice to help us out and let us use his gear. I ran into him a few times that summer, but was always too intimidated to talk to him; he was also dating someone at the time, so he was off limits. The next January, he and I ended up in the same ski instructor class at BYU. He and our friend Rob sat in the back of the classroom the first day, and didn't pay attention at all. They switched their names and confused the instructor just like the twelve year olds in Sunday school. I was not impressed...mostly. But I thought he was kind of cute. From then on the class took place at Sundance, and we drove up together every Friday. Those first few times that we hung out, I came to notice something in Brandon that is still one of my very favorite things about him today. He was so alive. There was energy and enthusiasm in everything he did, and everything he talked about; he teased me and joked with me and asked me questions. He also showed off pretty bad in that class, and it annoyed me. It especially annoyed me because I found it really attractive.

For the next two years, we were adventure buddies. Our group of friends biked, skied, climbed, and did all sorts of fun things together. I was always so excited when Brandon was going to be there, because he called me Big H and told me I was so hard core. He seemed to pay a lot of attention to me, but nothing ever happened, and I felt like it was just a big, hopeless crush.

Once upon a time.....

Brandon and I got engaged on June 26, 2010. And, as an engaged woman, Brandon told me that it was my responsibility to keep a blog; that and he wants me to write down our story so that we do not forget it. So here is my tentative attempt at blogging, and I guess we will see how it goes!