Friday, January 21, 2011

Save The Date!

We Are Getting Married Here:



On April 23, 2011!
A reception will be held that evening at the
Hidden Valley country Club! It will be a party and we want all to come!

More fun pictures and activities form the cruise:



One last adventure: deep sea fishing!



Brody was the first (and only one) to hook a fish





Trying to make the cameraman's life a little more exciting. At the last minute we turned to kiss and Ross leaned in awkwardly. the photographer was cracking up!



Rock climbing on a moving ship is harder than it looks!



Brody trying to sneak a pic of me.

The Engagement




On the third day of our cruise we were on Haiti on a private beach. We had a lot of excursions planned. We went on an AMAZING zip line that went across the water. We also went on a roller coaster with a killer view of the island and the ship. But my favorite was our snorkeling excursion (and not because of the fish).












Snorkeling is where it all began 5 months ago (on our first cruise). That was where we both felt like there might have been a slight connection between the two of us (a connection that we avoided for a few months) but a connection none the less. It was Brody’s idea from the start to propose to me while snorkeling.











So while we were out there Brody found a found a clam shell in the water and put the ring in it. Then he attempted to get down on his knee with a life jacket...wasn’t successful...had to take off his jacket while i looked at him like he was a crazy person. then, between losing the ring in his pants, finding it, then trying to make me realize what he was doing he mumbled underwater "will you marry me"... i was a little confused and didnt know what was going on since i was convinced he didn’t have a ring yet but he was pretty adorable when he did it. Once we got back on the boat I quickly learned that I was the ONLY one that didn’t know that this was coming. Brody was pretty sneaky.
My ring is beautiful; I couldn’t have picked a better one out myself. I’m grateful for someone who loves me enough to do special things like this for me, someone who adores me, treats me well and who has patience and puts up with me.







Keepin it Rollin





After about 4 months we both knew that we wanted to get married. Here we are again, doing exactly what we made fun of others for doing…but yet it felt strangely ok. It was right around Thanksgiving time that we told our parents. We had two choices: get married before Brody leaves to go sell all summer OR wait and be apart all summer and get married in August when he got back. We both were not fans of the second one so we knew what we had to do.
Days turned into weeks then weeks into months. December rolled around and still no official news. But we both were going forward with wedding plans. I was waiting patiently, told Brody that I didn’t want to pick out a ring, in fact didn’t really want anything to do with it. It was up to him.
January came around and we had a cruise planned for the second week. It was with his company and I tagged along. Eveyrone kept asking me when I thought I was going to get a ring but I DIDN’T think it would be on this cruise. In fact, Brody was very sneaky and had me convinced that he didn’t have a ring yet. Long story short: I am easy to deceive.
The cruise was amazing! It went to Haiti and Jamaica. It was an amazing week that I got to spend iwht my favorite person in the whole world. Not to mention we got to miss a week of school!

The "L" Word

I remember the first time I thought to myself that I might be in love with Brody. I quickly dismissed the thought and told myself that it was way too soon to think something like that. The thought kept popping up in my head but each time I dismissed it quickly. Only a day or two later Brody and I were talking about how weird it was to “like” someone when Brody paused and then asked “what if I love you?” …. I was caught off guard because I didn’t think he felt the way I did so I asked him if he did.









The reason I included these spaces is because it took about 20 seconds for Brody to respond to my question….it felt like I was in a movie scene where all you could hear was silence (except for a few crickets). Now 20 seconds isn’t that long but when a question like this was asked it felt like an ETERNITY! Finally after what felt like forever, Brody told me that he did love me. I had three reactions: one of relief, another of butterflies in my stomach, and the third: an urge to slap him for making me wait nervously before he answered my question. But to his defense he did have to say it first and when you ask him about that moment he will be the first to tell you that while I was hearing uncomfortable silence, he was hearing something like this:
“do you love her? No you cant. Its too soon. Oh crap you cant be in love again. You are going to get hurt again. Don’t trust her. Ok maybe shes different. Maybe I do love her. Ok ya I think I do love her. Maybe this time it will work out different and I wont get hurt.” (all in his head of course). But I'm sure glad he admitted it and it was interesting that we were both on the exact same page with this. If we weren’t already in a foreign situation we definitely were in one now. We had said the “L” word.

Isn't It Ironic...

After about a month of this dancing around the DTR moment we finally grew up and decided to make things official. We even went as far as changing our relationship status on facebook (that’s when everyone knew something was serious). Everyone knows that nothing is real until its facebook official. It surprised everyone…I was the first girl that lasted more than 2 weeks in Brody’s world, and I hadn’t felt this comfortable with anyone in a long long time. Things continued to move fast for the both of us. Sometimes it felt like a cruel joke because we had turned into EXACTLY the type of people we had always made fun of! We both laughed at those couples (that are seen all too often at BYU) that date for a few weeks and then get engaged. One time in church, one of my friends got up at the pulpit to announce his engagement and I (unintentionally) blurted out the words “oh barf” right after he announced it. It was definlety one of those times where what I thought I said in my head ended up coming out of my mouth.




Regardless, we were becoming exactly what we had joked about for so long. And if the whole relationship step wasn’t weird enough for everyone around us and ourselves…imagine the irony when we both started to think about the “L” word….


The Last First Kiss

One night Brody and I did our usual activity (drive up the canyon at 1 am). Brody took me to one of his favorite spots, one that we hadn’t been to together yet. We hiked up to the top of the mountain and laid under the stars for a while. While we were laying there I knew that he wanted to kiss me…but according to him he “never makes the first move”….but neither do I, and I was too stubborn (and shy) to break my steak. Its funny because I have always been notorious for being a “slow mover.” I don’t kiss people. I hold out, make it difficult for them. Usually it takes me about 7 or 8 dates before I feel comfortable enough to put myself in a position to where I will let them kiss me. But with Brody it was funny because I felt a little antsy…I wanted him to and this was a new feeling for me. It didn’t take him that long but once he finally did the first words out of my mouth were “took you long enough.” We still laugh about it to this day. But don’t worry, the “boyfriend/girlfriend” words were still off limits.

Where it all began...

5 months ago, the two of us were about as FAR AWAY as physically possible from being in a relationship…let alone engaged to be married. Most of you know my story so I wont go into detail but to sum it all up: marriage terrified me. I dated around but steered clear of commitment and if things took the slightest turn for the serious I high-tailed it outta there as soon as possible. I was frustrated with being alone but thought it a better alternative to getting hurt. Needless to say, I wasn’t looking for love, but love found me.

Body was in a similar boat. Dating around but “firing” girls after a week or so (as he would put it). He was told several times that he was “too picky” and needed to give girls more of a chance…but boy am I glad he didn’t. The two of us (sadly) had very cynical attitudes towards dating and marriage. I was very open with my sarcasm and he was always told by all of his friends that he would be the last one to get married. Then something happened to the both of us…and don’t ask us what it was because I'm pretty sure neither of us can come up with an explanation…Brody likes to tell me that I “cast a spell on him” but I will admit to no such thing.

It all started August 23, 2010. With summer coming to an end we were both going on one last vacation before dreadful school started back up. One of my best friends Jessica invited me on a cruise (that Brody had invited her on). I knew of Brody, (we went to high school together) but didn’t know him well but thought that it would be fun. When the time came to catch our flight I was feeling especially discouraged with the dating scene in Provo and wanted NOTHING to do with guys, so basically I saw this little vacation as a break from Provo. There were five of us in our group and the week that was spend on that cruise was one of the best vacations I have ever taken. It was full of “that’s what she said” jokes, embarrassing moments due to not being able to understand our waiters, dance parties, back tickles, food, swimming with crazy swarming/attacking fish, and sooo much more. Once we got home we parted ways…and deep down I was a little disappointed because I didn’t think we would all hang out again…but the adventures were to continue.










Brody and Scott moved into the same apartment complex that I lived in so it wasn’t too difficult of a feat to continue to hang out. Jessica drove out nearly every night and dragged me over to Brody and Scott’s to hang out (even though it was way past my bed time). After about a month of hanging out both Brody and I knew that there could be more than just a friendship between us. It was a hard transition for both of us, and we both were probably stuck in a state of denial for a while, but eventually we came to grips with reality.










If it wasn’t weird enough that we were both interested in each other, words such as “dating” “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” were definitely not part of our vocabulary. They were the unspeakables, and both of us dodged times when we had to speak these words. It was almost comical. Rumors that we were dating circulated and after a few weeks we finally had a defining moment.