4 years and counting...lol

May 28, 2005, Manti Temple

Amongst all our moving craziness, Darin and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary on May 28th. Well I wouldn't say celebrated, Darin and his parents arrived in the big Penske truck, and Nash, myself and my parents arrived by flight on the 28th. By the time we all were reunited we were exhausted!

Here in Pennsylvania you often see billboards that read "What have you done for your marriage today?" So I would like to do a little tribute today to our marriage and remind myself of how lucky I am to be married to such an awesome man! (this is going to be a long one!)

I met Darin on January 1, 2005 around 1:30am in Orem, Utah. I had moved to Orem to teach the Emotional Disorder Unit at Canyon View Junior High (which is around the corner from Darin's home). I originally accepted a job in Logan, but felt strongly not to sign my contract, and low and behold this other job in Orem came about and I felt positive about the move. (8 kids sounds better than 25 on a caseload...right!)

I spent that Christmas in Blanding with my family, and originally planned to stay for New Years. However, I have a wise father that urged me to go back to Orem before a HUGE storm hit...so I did. Darin spent Christmas with his family in Grand Junction, they too decided to come home early because of the storm.

On December 31, 2004 my good friend Marjean came down from SLC to spend New Years with me and my friends in Orem. We had no clue what we were planning on doing. We knew there were some parties in the ward so we decided to party hop. The final party was the best with the most people, including my crush ENRIQUE!! So we began a good game of IDIOT, this is game where if you lose you are labeled the IDIOT and have to do something stupid. I never lose, however this night I did and I had to to do somersaults in front of everyone. In the middle of one of my beautiful somersaults Darin walked in. He had been on a date in SLC with girl name Betsy that went pretty much sour and he decided to come home early. He remembered a party that an old friend was having and decided to stop by. It was LOVE at first sight for Darin...haha, he liked my somersault skills...lol. He joined the game and then joined my friends afterwards for some major sledding in the snow. My friend Jennifer had a huge crush on him so we continued to invite him to hang out with us. After awhile I started to feel a strong force (seriously) towards Darin and I developed feeling for him. (it was okay with Jennifer of course) Darin felt the same and I invited him over one Sunday to watch "The Other Side of Heaven" and basically we were together ever since.

Darin at this point was beginning his interview process for medical school. This put a niche in our relationship because I had a strong belief you should date a person for a year before you marry them. We had some long talks about long distance dating and came to the conclusion that it wasn't for us. So we decided to squash my ideas, and either get married or break up completely.

In March we took a trip together to Kirksville, Missouri for one of Darin's interviews. It was close to Nauvoo so we decided to do some sight seeing too. I was really hoping Darin was going to ask me to marry me on this trip. In fact I wanted him to give me the ring right here in this picture. Instead he gave me a nail ring from the Blacksmith shop.
Soon after we made a trip to Blanding for some four wheeling fun into comb ridge. A top my favorite rock looking over the valley, Darin began asking me how I would like him to propose and where. Thinking he didn't have the ring with him or wasn't really going to propose I told him right here and I continued to tell him everything he should say to me...haha. Darin got on one knee and I laughed said "heck no" and walked away from him. Then when I turned around he really did have a ring in his hand and he was proposing! Boy did I feel foolish. However, he would not let me wear the ring at that point because he had not spoken to my father yet. Later that day we decided to go the Monticello temple. Before leaving for the temple, Darin asked my dad to talk to him. My mom was up-stairs drilling me on what Darin was talking to my dad about. Once she found out the whole town of Blanding knew! lol. Darin gave me the ring to wear in the celestial room of the temple. (he asked for a kiss but I was embarrassed by all the people I knew in the room...to this day I have phobia of kissing in the temple...lol)

And so we decided to get married, after knowing each other only 5 months. The original wedding date was June 11th. But Darin decided to do the ISAC program at Western University which started the first week of June. So we moved the wedding. I finished teaching on May 27th, we were married on May 28th in the Manti Temple, we spent 2 night in Park City and then packed up our things and moved to California.

Our engagement pictures were taken by Brooke Pehrson Photography (btw Brooke look how far you have come! These pictures were when you first started.) Our announcements were made by my Aunt JoAnna who I give complete credit to helping me learn Photoshop. And our wedding pictures/bridals were all taken by Jamie Broadbent Photography.

I chose to put most of the black and white pictures of our bridals because Darin looks high in the colored ones.  They were taken in a field that he was highly allergic to.  DANG ALLERGIES!

Our wedding day was beautiful. My family stayed in Manti that night because of past experiences of cars breaking down, landslides, back-ho's being buried, etc. on special days in Manti. Darin and his family traveled from Orem the morning of. I was so excited that when I put my wedding dress on, I forgot to take off my skirt (which was white), all day long I couldn't figure out why I was so hot....well I had 2 extra layers of fabric on! During the sealing my mom was holding Darin's ring and was playing with it too much. It ended up flipping out of her hand and hitting the mirror behind her. I had to control my laughter because the sealer was in a deep discussion with us! She spent most of the time looking around her for the ring. When it came time for the ring to be given it was found and Darin and I exchanged them. However, Darin couldn't get my ring on my hand. So I had to tell him very sternly to PUSH! I don't think our day could have been any better. We spent time with family and celebrated our happiness. I am very grateful for the guidance that was given to me in finding Darin. We had a lot of opposition and many disagreements/arguments, but in the end we know we made the right choice. I love you Darin and am grateful for you in my life. HERE'S TO 4 HAPPY YEARS and an ETERNITY TO COME!