The one where we get married!

Oh where do I begin. It’s been a long journey to now and so much of our story is built on the Lord’s timing. This is Alex writing, as I love to tell stories and I love to talk about Evan. We met in small group, and honestly I’m going to jump way past the first time we met because it was pretty uneventful until December of 2024. I started attending small group in July after a pretty rough breakup, and Evan started attending in September after moving to central Texas from California. In December, I invited him over to my family’s house for Christmas Eve (I worked Christmas Day in the hospital) and so it began. We hit off a friendship that day that set the footing for everything to follow. In January, probably two or three weeks after Christmas, my mom had a procedure done for her heart. I remember distinctly how Evan texted me throughout the day to check on me and my mama, which stood out in such a big way. I’d just begun to venture back into the dating world and it had been pretty unimpressive to this point. Sometime after this in the month of January, it blurs together now, he confessed how he felt and I promptly said “agh! No!! But you’re so cool!!!!” Because although I did not yet reciprocate the romance, I really loved him as a human being. I know, cliche and honestly pitiful. Towards the end of the month, however, I was craving a vacation. I reached out to a dear friend of mine asking if she’d like a visitor in Colorado, to which she said she’d love that, and I made up my mind. As Evan and I continued our friendship, loosely, we’d talk periodically and I knew he was set to leave Texas at the end of the month. Coincidentally, the same dates I’d arranged for my Colorado vacation. I asked him how he’d planned on going home and he said….Colorado, to Utah, to California in order to hit some national parks. I said…could I tag along with you on the way to Colorado? He said, let’s do it…and now we’re getting married! In the weeks to follow, we talked about our road trip and made a plan. The sweetest part, hence the “warm socks” was that anytime I’d ask him what to bring or how to prepare, he’d consistently tell me to “just bring warm socks.” So I did. He took care of everything else. We bombed it out to Colorado in one day (left at 7:30am, arrived at 9:30pm) and went our separate ways for the evening. The day after, we were all three going to go to the Great Sand Dunes NP but my friend started to feel a little under the weather. He picked me up and we went on our own (first picture in the gallery). That night he dropped me back off and we said goodbye…and it was so sad. I woke up the next morning wishing we’d had more time, not wanting to say goodbye, and I realized wait a minute…maybe I like this army dude from California. After the trip to Colorado, we really began talking every day for pretty extensive amounts of time. We began dating officially at the end of March. A dear friend of mine out at the ranch where I've spent a good amount of time told me "the best way to get to know your horse is to walk 50 miles beside them. Not on their back, but with them on a lead line next to you." Hence, 50 miles...I told Evan I thought this would be sweet to implement since we would be doing so much long distance, and he agreed it would be a great way to get to know each other. Alas, we walked 50 miles! I've listed out some of the cities/places we've walked for kicks and grins at the bottom of this. In May we went to his hometown and I got to meet his people, then in July we went to visit some sweet friends in Alaska (SO worth it, I'll never run out of good things to say). In September we went back to Cali, then in October he bought a ring...and we walked our 50th mile in December. Mileage: Midland, TX Yosemite NP Fresno, CA Sanger, CA Huntington Beach, CA Belton, TX Temple, TX Galveston, TX Kenai, AK Homer, AK Anchorage, AK Morro Bay, CA Saguaro NP Joshua Tree NP Sequoia & King's Canyon NP Guadalupe Mountains NP Carlsbad Caverns NP