The Story of Us

I figured since the month of February is all about love and Valentine's Day, it'd be fun to tell my love story to all of you guys. My husband Shawn and I have a little bit of a crazy story and I'm excited to share it with all of you!

Shawn was born and raised in St. George, Utah, a small town about two hours north of Las Vegas. I was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. 

If anyone knows my family, they probably thought my parents would never leave Spokane; they grew up there. All of my grandparents and the majority of my extended family still live there. This is the first miracle or twist of fate that lead up to me meeting Shawn.

Lucky for us, my parents were looking for a fresh start and a new adventure! They decided to move to St. George in 2009 while my older sister and I were away at college and before my little sisters started high school. My big sister and I were able to come home for the long Thanksgiving weekend and help them make the drive down to Utah. 

Another coincidence or meant-to-be moment. Shawn served a church service mission in Brazil from 2007-2009 and he actually got home the exact same day that my family and I drove into St George! His plane flew over our little caravan of Uhauls and cars.

After helping my family unload and get settled in it was time to go back to school...well for a few months anyways.

I ended up leaving school in February of 2010 because I wasn't enjoying my major and needed some time to figure out what I actually wanted to do. (Looking back I think it was Heavenly Father knowing that I needed to be down in St. George and meet Shawn). So I moved down to live with my parents and work for a bit. 

Over the next couple months I went on dates, but nothing serious. I was really busy working full time and playing a lot of soccer. I met a girl who became one of my really good friends and she introduced me to a few guys that played on the Dixie State men's team. We were always playing pick up games and we pretty much lived and breathed soccer. 

One night in August of 2010, this same girlfriend of mine invited me to come play soccer with her and a different group of friends. Another coincidence, these friends of hers were friends with Shawn and he was there that night. Funny enough though...we were on opposite teams and ended up marking each other and going head to head most of the night. Neither one of us had anything on our minds besides beating the other so we weren't really think about a future together!

Something about him must have made an impression on me though. After finding out that we had a handful of mutual friends (yep another coincidence), I spent the next FOUR MONTHS inviting him to do things with us, but he always found some excuse not to come. I thought maybe he just didn't want to date anyone and was too busy, but he claims today that he was dating people just never getting serious with one person. So maybe he thought I was such a catch and knew he'd be in deep if we actually went out??

After being rejected and blown off for four months, another coincidence. My older sister came to St. George for Christmas break and wanted to go on a group date. She and one of my girlfriends were set up with two of Shawn's good friends. Fate really was pushing us together. I didn’t have a date yet so I thought “What the heck? I'll just ask Shawn." 

We had a really great time with our friends and with each other that night. We were saying goodbye at the end of the date and I was shocked when he kissed me!! I knew we had fun and thought we'd probably go out again, but I guess I underestimated how strong his feelings were right off the bat! 

After dating for a few months, we had a week long break up (I got cold feet) in which both of us were miserable, we realized that we didn't want to live without one another and as they say, the rest is history. 

When people ask how we met we get to tell them this fun story about how he avoided me forever, I asked him on our first date, we finally got together, we broke up for the most miserable week ever but that the story had the happiest of endings. There was nothing that could stop fate and Heavenly Father's plan for us to find one another...and I'm sure glad we did!

We dated from December 2010 – July 2011 and got engaged on the 4th of July. We were married on September 10th, 2011 in the St. George LDS Temple. 

Funny story...when we were picking a wedding date we just tried to find a weekend in September that worked for everyone in our families. Shawn has a sister that had to work retail over Labor Day Weekend so we said ok how about the next weekend and that's when it was. It ended up being 9.10.11 and people always ask if we planned it that way. We didn't, but it makes it easy to remember!

I'm so glad that Shawn finally caved in and gave me a chance! It's been a crazy seven years together, we've grown and experienced so much. I can't wait to see what the next seven years bring!!