We're finally getting married!

We first met in 2012, when Triston was a Freshman in high school and Derek was a Junior. We sat next to each other in our Spanish class. Triston had another boyfriend at the time but Derek knew he had a crush. Triston initially thought Derek was loud and obnoxious but soon came to realize his sweet side. At the end of 2013, Triston was newly single and Derek started snapchatting Triston in a friendly way and we began a truly amazing friendship. We would hang out at the park near Triston's house and go bowling every Friday night. Derek then started complementing Triston on her smile and personality and this is where Triston changed her feelings for Derek. We went to the Winter Formal dance together and had the best time and this is when sparks really started flying between the two of them. Valentines day 2014 is when Derek asked Triston to be his girlfriend. She of course said yes! Then, a mear 3 months later Triston found out that her family would be moving to Florida for her Junior and Senior year of high school. This was absolutely devastating for our relationship as we had only been together a few short months and long distance is hard. We spent everyday that summer hanging out and soaking up every second we had together. In June, 2014 Triston left and we decided we would try long distance. I know we are crazy... and it was not easy. We spent every night on Facetime falling asleep together. We had our one year anniversary a thousand miles apart but we didn't let that dim the spark we knew we had together. In 2015, Derek moved to Florida since he had graduated from High School in May 2014, he was going to attend community college in Florida while Triston finished out her last year of high school. This was the best experience and we are so grateful for our parents allowing us to be together and creating even more memories together. We loved taking walks and going to the beach during our time in Florida. 2016 rolled around and Triston decided that she wanted to go to KU for college so in the middle of the school year the whole family moved from FL back to KS and in the fall of 2016 Derek and Triston went to KU together where they made the best of friends and the best memories. The next four years we lived in the dorms, multiple apartments and got our sweet dog Lucy in the height on the pandemic. In 2020, Derek graduated in May and got a job working for Oracle and Triston was finishing up her degree and graduated in December of 2020. We then moved to Shawnee, KS with Ashton and Victor, Triston's twin sister and her now husband. In August of 2022 Derek asked Triston to go ring shopping as we have been talking about it for what seems like forever so to actually go and see rings in person was a surreal moment for both Derek and Triston. Then in October of 2022 WE WERE ENGAGED!! Derek popped the questions on our annual outing to the Red Barn Farm in Weston, MO which was so special. We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary in 2024 which is very exciting for us and our relationship!! We cannot wait for what the future has in store for us and we can't wait to celebrate this special moment with you!