Happy anniversary to us!! + our story

I can't believe it's been TEN YEARS!!!!

Actually, we met and fell in love over twelve years ago....I was in my senior year of high school when Mark started coming to my ward in Hurricane, UT. His family was in the process of moving from Las Vegas and his dad would come down to Hurricane every week and go to church, so they gave him a calling to teach Sunday School (Old Testament) to my age group. Eventually Mark started coming, too, and we were like, "Who is that really hot person?!" Hahaha. None of our old pictures are on this computer anymore, but I scanned some in and found this one of Mark's family, which was from the summer before I met him:

(At his brother David's Hawaiian themed wedding reception 8/18/98). Mark was a tan, buff surfing god at the time, so of course I had no choice but to take notice. He'd been living at the beach in North Carolina, where he grew up.

Mark (with longboard) and his roommate George Starboard in 1995 in NC

When he finally came to Apple Valley/Hurricane to live permanently around June 1999, Mark's dad assigned us to teach Sunday School together for him while he was out of town. So that was our first date. We read over the lesson at The Pasta Factory in St. George and then strolled around the temple grounds. Then we hung out constantly for the next 3-4 weeks. 

July 14, 1999

THEN

Mark left on his mission for two years to Florianópolis, Brazil. He'd just gotten his mission call when we started dating. Smart move, huh. He was nearly 21 by the time he left, but I was still 18 and not ready to settle down and get married anyway, so it was OK with me. It was a long and hard two years, but we wrote letters every week and talked on Mother's Day and Christmas. While he was gone, I went to the University of Utah for a year, then moved back down to St. George to finish my Associate's degree at Dixie State College. I actually went to Sensory Development Institute (massage school) in the mornings, college in the afternoon and to ballet at night. I was very busy but it helped the time to pass. After I graduated from both schools, I got a job at Red Mountain Spa and started making the big bucks.

He's home!! July 2011

 At some point before he came home, I was at good ol' Red Cliffs Mall and ended up buying a wedding dress and a bunch of bridesmaid dresses at Lee's. (I didn't tell him, though. Duh.) Three weeks after he finally came home I was so antsy to know what was going on that while we were sitting at the county fair rodeo watching barrel races, I turned to him and said, "So!.....If we're going to get married, I need to know when because school's starting again in a couple weeks." (HAHAHAHA this story is so funny looking back--I was so aggressive I'm surprised I didn't scare him off.) He had this shocked look on his face, then kind of got down on the bleacher seat in front of me and proposed. And the rest is history! The engagement ring I wanted was $$$, so I helped pay for half of it. I wanted that ring, dangit!! (white gold, 3 stone princess cut diamonds, 1 carat t.w.) Mark is a patient and very understanding man....

 

 one of our engagement pics

We got married that year on Dec. 28th 2001. The attacks on Sept. 11th happened about a month after we got engaged, and actually we didn't tell anyone about the engagement for a couple weeks because we thought they'd think we were crazy. So there was some uncertainty with all that was going on in the world, but in the end it all worked out.

12/28/01 St. George LDS Temple

 We've had quite the journey these past 10 years. We've lived in seven places, been trudging to school about seven years to three (four, technically) different schools, lots of training programs, and had two wonderful, beautiful, fabulous children.

Madelyn, 12/21/04 Cedar City, UT

Getting our Bachelor's at Southern Utah University (SUU) Cedar City, UT 5/7/05

 Mark's graduation from PA school (University of St. Francis) Albuquerque, NM  4/16/09

Luke, 9/25/09 Cedar City, UT

Luke (2) Mark and Madelyn (6 1/2) 10/20/11

If anything, I feel like we're just getting started on "real life", now that we finally have a house and a career and a steady paycheck. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years has in store! ♥