Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Our Story

I had no idea that on March 14, 2008, I would meet my future husband. Had I known, I might have gotten my hair done or worn something different, but whatever, it worked out. Luke and I met at a pie party on 3/14 (get it, pie on pi day...haha?) hosted by a mutual friend. I only knew the hostess of the party, so I was drowning in a sea of small talk with "average LDS young single adults" that did not intrigue me whatsoever. Finally, two huge guys walk into the party and they immediately capture my attention. Up to that point, everyone else had been politely serving themselves individual slices of pie onto separate plates. These two guys walked in like they owned the place and began to shovel pie straight from the tins into their mouths. Now, that's what I'm talkin' about!

One of these guys was Luke, of course. Eventually he came and sat next to me on a couch and we started talking (only much later do I find out that he only sat next to me to play "wingman" for his friend to try and separate me from my friend.) And well, I wish I could say that we hit it off right away, but we really didn't see eachother for a few months after that.

Later that summer, I got kicked out of my home ward and started going to the single's ward again. I had started going on tennis dates with another guy in the ward when Luke invited himself to play with us. I was pretty irritated that he would just invite himself on our date...the nerve! (he actually had no clue it was a date, so he says.) So we ended up playing tennis once a week even after I stopped seeing the other guy.

Then in December, I was preparing for my company's holiday party. My best friend and I always get super dressed up and go with dates, but her date cancelled on her at the last minute and she needed a replacement....so I called Luke. Luke went with her and I went with my date. A week later, Luke asks me out on a date, which floored me! I had no idea he was interested.

We ended up driving out to Beverly Hills to see a movie called Happy Go Lucky for our first date. We watched the movie, got milkshakes and ended up talking in his car until about 3 am (just talking, I promise!) I guess he had a good time because we kept going on dates and well, we've been hanging out ever since!

First Blog

Ok, so long story short, I've met the man of my dreams. He proposed and we're getting married Jan. 2, 2010 (precisely 59 days from now.) And well, I figured all the cool married couples start "cutsie little family blogs" that I just think are irresistable and I can't help but hop on the band wagon. Granted, I'm severely lacking in the cleverness/creativity department, but I figure maybe one day I'll want to reminisce on what kind of shenanigans Luke and I were up to prior to getting married.

I'm hoping that I'll figure out how to use this thing called Blogspot and go back and fill in some key areas of the past year or so in Luke and my courtship...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mt. Whitney 2009

First of all, I need to explain how I got roped into this adventure. Back when Luke and I had just barely started dating, I got invited to a family tradition of going to Carl's Jr. This is where I met Luke's brother and sister and their families for the first time. Luke's sister Tina proposed a summer trip to climb Mt. Whitney. Now, keep in mind that Tina was pregnant at the time! I agreed to be a part of the trip because I honestly didn't think Luke and I would be dating 7 months down the line (Sorry Luke.)

Summer came and I was still with Luke and still signed up for the excursion. Mt. Whitney is a serious mountain, so I started training hikes. I got to do a lot of these hikes with my Dad and my sister, which was really fun. One of the most memorable was climbing Mt. Baldy. I honestly think climbing Mt. Baldy was much more difficult than Mt. Whitney. On this hike, you gain about 1,000 ft of elevation per mile. Ouch...I was in serious pain for the next 3 days. And I made the mistake of wearing basketball shorts; now at sea level during a hot summer in Southern California, this seems like a completely rational decision. But as you get closer to 10,000 ft, it gets icy and windy. Both my Dad and I were freezing! We only spent a few minutes in our glory at the top before hurrying down!




















Finally in July, was the real trip to Mt. Whitney. We decided to hit the trail at 11pm and we were such a sight! Carrying all our gear with our headlamps! It was fun to hike all together (Me, my Dad, Luke, Tina, Mike and Kaleb) single file line in the dark. As time went on, the mountain bested each of us. She left Kaleb with blistered feet and sent Luke back down with her cold winds. Mike and Tina turned back with altitude sickness. My Dad also was a victim of altitude sickness (couldn't we have decided to turn back before we started those switchbacks? Come on!) All in all, the trip was a success and very fun. I can't wait for our next attempt!



I'll photo blog my favorite highlights:



Oh the joy of WAG bags! (no human waste can be left on the mountain, so we were kindly supplied with these lovely bags to *ahem* poop in.)

My pack weighed 22 lbs!