Hi! We are getting married....finally.

The Rios Family was hosting one of the weekly HPT Poker get togethers on a Saturday night. Back then it moved around to a different house every weekend between old high school friends and James ( Joey's Uncle ) had invited Rich ( Joey's Dad ) to come play. Joey & I had known * of * each other for quite awhile but this was the first time we had actually met face to face. Well...sort of. I ( Court ) remember seeing him for the first time like it was yesterday. I usually hid in my room playing Guitar Hero and wrangling all the kids ( they were all about 5 or 6 back then, and Carleigh was barely 1! ) I snuck out to grab some pizza to go back to my cave when I looked up and saw a new face on our couch. Listening to his iPod touch and wearing pants with a HUGE dragon patch, big puffy white DC shoes, with white LA Dodgers hat and matching red DC shirt. ( He was very matchy-matchy back then ) I remember not being able to stop looking at him. Even now I can smell pizza and hear everyone laughing around me back in the kitchen on Gay Way. I made sure to make about 25 excuses to walk back and forth to the kitchen that night. Fast forward a couple months and my Dad finally invited Rich and Joey to a Ducks and Flames game. Back then I had my designated seat and he sat next to me. During the game I made sure to put my number in his phone and spent the next few months making up every excuse in the book to text him. I would wait until Sunday mornings after I knew he went to poker to ask like, oh did my mom leave something? Who won? What were the placements my Dad can't remember? Until finally we were just texting daily. I'll never forget when he came over after a highschool dance where he had gone with someone else. I was so pissed...made sure to turn on the charm for the rest of the night. We finally went on an official date June 17th, 2009 to see Star Trek, and we were officially dating July 17th, 2009. We spent the entire summer before Senior year together and the beginning of 2010 attending dances together, graduating together, and starting this next chapter of life together. Through it ALL...now we are here over....15 years later. Let's get married!

During the poker craze, my dad and I were invited to play with my uncle and many of his high school friends. There is where I would meet Courtney who was normally stuck on daycare duty. It was crazy to instantly click with someone like I did with Court. From obscure book knowledge (which for me is extremely limited), to love for trashy VH1 and MTV shows I can still remember our conversations during the various poker breaks. I would like to take credit for making the first move to get to know Court, but it was all her. She was the one to orchestrate us going to a Ducks Flames hockey game and put her number in my phone before I could even say a word. From there we would text often and once one of us made the first initial text we would spend the rest of the day talking to one another about anything and everything. We finally went on our first date on June 17th 2009 and would spend the entire summer watching music videos, going to the mall (she wasn’t the biggest fan of my wardrobe) and making her watch hundreds of movies I couldn’t believe she’d never seen. From there we spent our senior year together, college, and so much more including this new chapter of our lives. Love you Court!