Our Love Story: Part IV

Previous parts

one

two

three

In August I flew to Texas to spend 10 days with Leland. (Having no job had it's perks.) We planned to spend time in Austin where he was living for school, his mom's house in East Texas and at the beach near his sister's house in Corpus Christi. I knew he was going to propose during the trip but I was adamant that the only thing I cared about was being surprised. Leland is notoriously horrible at surprises so I didn't get my hopes up too high ha. I figured he was going to do it while we were at the beach.

During our time in Austin I stayed at the house of someone in his ward. It was kind of uncomfortable but they had a giant nice house with a guest suite so I didn't mind too much. On the first day I was there Leland took me on a walk near Ladybird Lake. I suspected nothing when he took me out to a gazebo on the water and popped the question! It was super hot and I don't remember much of his speech except that he surprised me and I was so happy I was surprised and also that he cried and I didn't  ha #storyofourlives. A funny side note, even though I had told him my ring size, the ring he got was 3 sizes too small, but we just shoved that sucker on anyways because he was sure it was a size 7 haha. We got it fixed before I left to go home but I still laugh about it now. 

The rest of the trip was spent in newly engaged bliss. I met the rest of his family that I hadn't met yet, we went to the beach (Texas beaches are way better than West coast beaches) and took a tour of the State Capital in Austin. 

After I left we both jumped right back into school and into wedding planning. We had a longish engagement by BYU standards (4.5 months) but it was hard to navigate doing things long distance. They say that Satan tries to tear you down when you're engaged and that was definitely true for us. I felt very isolated being in a new ward and being newly engaged to a fiance across the country. I largely had to do most of things for the wedding by myself and at times I really wondered how it would all work out. Leland came for one last quick visit before the wedding in October of that year. We took our engagement pictures and I'm not even sure what else we did except that I was stressed, but so happy to see him and so sad when he left. 

Finally the semester was over and Leland flew out to Utah after his last final. The plan was for us to get married 3 days after Christmas, go to California for our honeymoon, then drive back to Austin to live for Leland's final semester of school. During which I would be taking online classes through BYU.

As stressful as weddings can be (especially right after Christmas, sorry mom!) everything really went down perfectly. We were married in the St. George Temple on December 28th 2012, almost one year after we had first started texting. I felt the most amazing peace and happiness the whole day. I knew without a doubt that I had made the right choice in marrying Leland, and I just felt so blessed to have him forever. Everyday I am reminded what a great decision marrying him was. Our marriage has had ups and downs but I'm so grateful to have him as my husband and the father of my children. Love you babe!