Welcome.

Carrie and I didn’t start dating until college but I began to fall for her in the 7th Grade. We became table partners in science class and right away, I thought she was hilarious. I’ll never forget how cool the way she cracked her knuckles was. We didn’t see each other much until senior year in high school. I joined Carrie’s lunch table group and began many excellent friendships. I got to know her more and more from lunch chats but only as friends. Though, we happened to be single at the same time during spring break our first year of college. The friends got together for dinner at Red Robin in Woodinville, and planned to see Divergent at the movie theater nearby. It turned out everyone changed their mind except Carrie and me. That evening I realized we had something special. Earlier, during dinner, loose plans were made with the group to visit Carrie in Cheney. I was so making that happen! Only two of us ended up making the drive but that weekend would ignite my love for her. I’m pretty sure I won her with how well I could roll down a hill. Carrie got a ride back with us and I was nervous as hell trying to think of how to ask her out. I was able to spit it out as I pulled into her neighborhood. She said, “let's plan on a date when I get back.” That date ended up being incredible. We bummed around Woodinville, got some lunch, and hit up the thrift store. The next few weeks we spent as much time together as we could. Eventually, we decided to make it FBO. Huge! My life was changing and I never wished it to end. At the end of the summer, she was going back to Eastern. Could we make the long distance work? Another potentially devastating question, but knew it was inevitable. Something like a week before she was to leave, we finally found the right segue. Easiest conversation ever! Phew. Over the next few years we would travel back and forth once a month. I managed to get speeding tickets 3 valentines’ weekends in a row. Skype was also critical to our success. We had to put in some extra work but it was so worth it.

Tyler and I first met at a lab table in 7th grade science class. We had just been assigned to the same lab group and were working on our first project. As we were brainstorming drawings for the safety manual, I said something that made Tyler smile. Though I’ve never been able to remember what I said, I have never forgotten the way he smiled at me over our notebooks. Two years later, we went on our first double date, but with different partners. Tyler’s sister got us free movie tickets, and we had burgers and milkshakes at Red Robin afterwards. That was the last time we spoke for about 3 years. Halfway through senior year of high school, Tyler joined our lunch table group at the start of the new semester. I remember thinking he had gotten really cute since 7th grade, and he still had that pretty smile. I asked one of our friends what his deal was, and they happily informed me Tyler had been with his girlfriend for over a year. I noted that, and promptly put him out of my mind. Our lunch group became quite close, and we all ended up at prom, making it the second time Tyler and I went on a date together with different partners. Spring break of freshman year, our lunch group reunited at Red Robin to catch up and share college stories over milkshakes. I mentioned how fun it would be if all my friends could come visit me at school, if only it were possible. someone suggested seeing a movie after, but by the time we all finished our food only me and Tyler were still interested. When we went to buy tickets for Divergent, Tyler refused to let me pay. That was the first moment I wondered if this was becoming a date. The second was at the end of the night, as I was dropping Tyler off at his car, when he took several seconds to get out of the car, seemingly deciding if he was going to kiss me or not. The very next day he texted me and asked when would be a good time to come visit me at college, as he was asking for time off work for the trip. Immediately terrified, I decided not to respond to that text for a week. 7 days later, Tyler texted me again just to say hello, and politely waited maybe 20 minutes to ask about when would be a good time to come visit me at school. I said I would love to have everyone visit, and mentioned some times near the end of the year. Tyler hastily threw together a group of our friends to visit, but it ended up being just Tyler and one other friend. The three of us rented a hotel room and proceeded to get very drunk, partying the night away. Somewhere in the Pinnacle Whipped madness, Tyler and I ended up kissing, though both of us refused to mention it the next day, as we had a 4 hour car ride back to Kirkland ahead of us. Once we arrived at my house, Tyler stopped me before I got out of the car, and said he wanted to kiss me again, and officially ask me on a date for when I came home for the summer. We went on that first date a few months later, and spent a magical summer not thinking about when I would have to move back to Cheney. One fateful night a couple of weeks before I returned to school, we finally had the conversation of what would happen when I went back. It went almost exactly like this: “I don’t want to break up” “I don’t want to either” “Okay then I guess we won’t” “How often will we be able to see each other?” “We can start with once a month, one of us making the trek across the mountains.” “Okay, let's make it work” And we have been putting in the work for the last 11 years. I’m so excited to work together for the rest of our lives <3