This one's for you Al.

Going Green.

Hunger Gaming.

Typically, if I see Alex sneaking away to the living room it means one thing- gaming. On most days I want to throw the x-box out the window, but due to its Netflix capabilities, its one and only redeeming quality, I never do. However, this week I found Alex doing a different kind of gaming: some Hunger Gaming. Last weekend on our trip he started the book on tape, and when we got home- he had Katniss fever. 

So tonight we're migrating south with Chris and Kaitlyn and our pre-bought tickets for all of the action and adventure packed into a movie, the Hunger Games movie, and we are possibly more excited than a freshly costumed child on Halloween.   

WaterDog.

Well, this is awesome.

Wedding Day

September 30th was the most perfect fall day. You wouldn't even believe it. But I have proof that it was real, that it really happened, and that it really was the most incredible day.

Photos by Alixanne Loosle

 

 

And the best part? A few others thought it was a beautiful day too. See more here:

Utah Valley Bride 

100 Layer Cake 

The Story.

The How We Met story {by Alex}:

It all started here:

Yes. Beto's Mexican "Restaurant" in Logan, Utah.

It was September 2008.

Before I get to that part, lets travel back in time to the year 2005. 

I was 17, had bleach blonde long hair, popped the collars on my Abercrombie polo's, and was huge into emo. 

"I got in a ski accident, blood was everywhere, and I didn't think I was going to make it. Then, out of nowhere this gorgeous guy flew down the mountain to my rescue. As he scooped me up into his big arms he softly whispered in my ear, telling me I was going to be okay and that he wouldn't let anything happen to me… Well, that’s how I met Marc, my knight in shining armor. A month later we were married as soon as I was released from the hospital.”

Did anyone else just puke a little?

I was a senior in high school working at Old Navy when I heard this story. Two women who hadn’t seen each other since college crossed paths in the fitting room, and I was the lucky employee who got to count their merchandise, carry it to a fitting room, and hopelessly act like I cared about their shopping experience.

As the two friends mindlessly bantered back and forth catching up on life, the topic slowly turned to marriage, husbands, homes, etc.

I shamelessly eaves dropped on their entire (hour long) conversation. When the women finally departed, I stood in the “greeting” area of the fitting room deeply pondering love. I was a teenager; so thinking of love wasn’t a new practice. This time however, I was thinking of love from a new angle: when, where and how would I meet the “girl of my dreams”?

-Would it happen in a dramatic way?

- Would I one day be strong enough to pick up a girl?

- How will I know when I meet her?

- Had it already happened?

The lame, B-movie-chick-flick-plot of a “love” story I had just heard from the two strangers in the fitting room playing catch up somehow deeply affected me.

(Fast-forward four years to 2008)

When I got home from my two-year LDS mission to Hermosillo Mexico, the question still haunted me.

One Friday in September (from my estimation it would have been Friday the 19) the questioning stopped.

It was around 10:30 p.m, my twin brother, 3 of his favorite companions (from his mission to Monterrey Mexico) and I went to Beto’s to eat. We had just left a party and Matt (one of Chris’s companions) said that he wanted to call a friend from home (Provo) that was going to USU.

We sit down at two tables. Matt and I sat facing the door, Chris and the other two sat across from us. Little did I know, the moment I had pondered for so many years was about to happen. I was wearing a striped button up, a grey cardigan, Levi’s 510’s and some Vans Era’s. Had my heart actually stopped like I would soon feel it had, this is what I would have been buried in.

It played out like a dream sequence:

QUE: “head over heels” by Tears for Fears.

Everything was in slow motion. I could hear my heart beat. I was sweating in places I didn’t know I could. I fought off the desire to blink, fearing I couldn’t stand to miss what was happening in front of me. Around the corner came what would replace my previous definition of the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Her waist length blonde hair bounced in ways I had only seen in shampoo commercials, perfectly teased by a brisk fall wind. She had curves more dangerous than any canyon road I had ever seen, and lips that would make Angelina Jolie jealous. Her bluish/green eyes pierced, my weak threshold for pain would only permit me a glance every few seconds. She was walking towards my table. I was speechless.

For the remainder of the night at Beto’s, I don’t remember what was said or talked about, except for a quick fleeting compliment she paid me about my gray cardigan. In fact, that may have been the only thing she said to me the entire night. Having been out of the dating game for two years, shy and timid don’t even begin to describe how I was around members of the opposite sex at the time.  Two hours later, as she sat and cuddled with Matt on the quad at USU, I foolishly but boldly stood over them and asked for her phone number, in spite of the fact that she was wrapped in the arms of another man. She awkwardly obliged. The next morning, she accepted my friend request on Facebook, and the rest is history. 

The Engagement story {by Lindsey}:

It was 3 am on July 19, 2011. Alex's birthday to be more specific. I had been planning a big suprise for months and the time had finally come. I woke Alex with a birthday serenade and a brightly wrapped present. He ripped it open and found a framed picture of disneyland, unenthusiastically thanked me, and then asked why it couldn't wait until morning. I realized he wasn't catching on, so I handed him his boarding pass, and told him we had to leave in 20 minutes, and that we were flying to disneyland for the day!

1 1/2 hours later we boarded our flight to LAX, but not before Alex went to the restroom 4 times. I didn't understand it at the time, but found out later exactly why. We arrived in California at aproximately 7 am. It was at this point he realized we were about an hour from Disneyland, Alex's favorite place in the whole world, with no way to get there besides overpriced taxi's and overcrowded buses. Which is exactly when one of his closest friends, his cousin Jess, pulled up. She was living in L.A. at the time and had been in on the surprise from the begining. He was shocked. 

We marched through Disneyland like kids on Christmas- giddy, excited, and anxious for everything. We organized our day by importance of ride, and rode them all. It was a truly magical day. As the sun started to set, we decided to take a picture by Alex's favorite Walt and Mickey statue in the center of the park. Jess was the photographer, and as we were posing I decided I wanted to replicate mickey, who was smaller than Walt, so I got down on my knees. I'm an idot, and it's all on film. Alex quickly pulled me up and and told me no. And then- it happened.

Out of nowhere. He got down on one knee, pulled a ring out of his pocket and proposed. Shocked is an understatement when describing how I felt in the moment. All along we had both been planning to surprise one another on the same day, niether of us knowing. It was a complete double surprise, possibly the best in the history of surprises. And then, just like that, we went on Star Tours.

Our flight back to Utah was leaving at 9 pm, and with both of our phones dead, we celebrated just the three of us. We said our goodbye's to Jess, and I borded the plane with a diamond on my finger. I found out later this diamond was the reason Alex had gone to the bathroom 4 times before boarding our flight to California, he thought it would set off the metal dector at the security checkpoint, so he was trying to figure out how to hide it (He ended up hiding it in his wallet)!

We got back to Logan, Utah around 2 am, with almost a full 24 hours of surprises and excitement under our belts. It all happened better than either of us could have imagined, and it is a story I will never get tired of telling.