Happy Anni

Once upon a time there was  guy named Matt who lived in Northridge, California. He graduated from  high school, he graduated from college, he went on two mission trips to New Zealand and even thought about moving there. Thankfully, he remained in California instead and got a job at a Music Publishing Company. One day when he was looking for some adventure, he called his cousin Christine who lived in Utah to see if he could come visit her. He flew to Utah that winter and went snowboarding. Meanwhile, a girl named Kristen was going to cosmetology school at Paul Mitchell in Provo and was friends with none other than Matt's cousin Christine. Christine tried to set them up during Matt's snowboarding trip, but alas Kristen was out of town. Matt returned to Utah two more times, the second time to celebrate Christine's birthday with her. The weekend prior to his second return trip, Kristen's brother Ben got married and at his reception Kristen caught the bouquet. Her mom predicted she would be married within a year! Kristen, not even remotely dating anyone at the time,  laughed at the impossibility. That day was May 21st 2005.

Christine's birthday dinner rolled around and on May 27th Kristen took her roommate with her and met up with Christine, Matt and some friends at Flemings Steak House in Salt Lake City.  Christine deliberately had Kristen and Matt seated next to each other at dinner. They started chatting and as they say, the rest is history! Matt flew home to California a few days later and lovestruck Kristen drove to California with a friend a few weeks after that. Matt took a two days off work to take her to Disneyland and then to San Diego another day.

That July Kristen flew to Arizona to spend her 21st birthday with her brother Ben and his wife Chantal. The original plan was that after she graduated from cosmetology school in the coming fall, she would move in with them and work at a salon in Arizona; however, that plan was before she had met Matt. Not feeling right about moving there anymore, topped with getting heat rash while visiting (a sure sign the move wasn't met to be!) she returned to Utah. Matt flew up again to visit for his birthday in August and then again for Halloween. Sometime between those two trips they both knew this was the real deal as in "L-is for the way you look at me, O-is for the only one I see, V-is"....well you get the idea. Kristen actually 'fessed up to knowing that a few weeks before Matt did :)

Okay the story here on out, is switching gears to first person. I hate to ruin the ending for you, but I am the Kristen in the story. Yep, it's true. That fairy tale romance was about myself and the hubs Mattarooksi. I'm having trouble remembering the details of what happened next after we decided we were in love. I know there was so much talking on the phone and texting that in the first month Matt had a very large phone bill and switched to a different phone plan to we could talk for free. I'm surprised neither one of us got carpal tunnel from texting each other every 5 seconds when we weren't able to actually talk on the phone.  I don't remember having an actual conversation about getting married, but ultimately that was what we decided somewhere along the way. I moved back home to Idaho for the holidays in preparation of moving to California. Before Christmas came, I flew to California and met Matt's parents. They had a suspicion the reason he was on his phone 'round the clock and kept taking trips to Utah of all places was because of a girl, but I don't think he actually confirmed their suspicions until that fall. (My man likes to really 100% know he is making the right decision before he tells anyone about it.) After Christmas Matt flew to Idaho, met my parents and subsequently got permission from my dad that he could marry me. "Hi, nice to meet you, can I marry your daughter and take her 1,000 miles away to California?" Thankfully my dad said yes, or that would have been a really awkward rest of the trip ;) 

New Year's day we packed my Ford Taurus up and hit the road. I got an apartment in Encino, or really I should say Matt got me an apartment since he was the one who paid the deposit and the month's rent even though he lived at his parent's house. What a guy! Sometime that January he officially proposed, as in the works with flowers, dinner, dessert, and then down on one knee with a ring. And then (drumroll please) on May 20th 2006 we were married.....exactly one day to the year since I caught the bouquet at my brother's wedding. Turns out, mom's are always right!

This photo was taken on one of the trips Matt took to visit me in 2005 and we went to the park in Sugar House, Utah. 

2007-Our first wedding anniversary spent at Disneyland.  

2008- Second wedding anniversary when we unknowingly started a zoo tradition for anniversary celebrations.

2009- Our third wedding anniversary spent at the San Diego zoo again and surprise, five months prego. 

2010- Fourth wedding anniversary with seven month old baby boy. We took a weekend trip to San Diego and visited the same beach that Matt took me to when we first started dating. And of course, we also went to the San Diego Zoo. See a trend? 

 Sixth wedding anniversary in 2012 spent at the Boise Zoo.

 Where did our 5th anniversary go? That is a very good question. We could not remember! Finally I found a post on here where I had blogged about it. Apparently we had gone bike riding. Obviously we had forgotten about our zoo tradition! 

Matt's mom had given us a gift card for our anniversary to a restaurant in town called Bardenay's that we had never been too. The weekend after we went to the zoo, we had my parents watch Sawyer over night and we were able to go out to Bardenay's for dinner, go see The Avengers and then stay the night at the Hyatt. It was one of my favorite dates we've been on. Dinner was incredible, as in the best food we've eaten since the food we had at the motel in Australia. Don't remember that particular meal? We do. It was the best food of our entire life. You can read about at the bottom of this post here. The next morning we were going to head to the Farmer's Market, but it was pouring rain so instead we went to Rembrandt's in Eagle and enjoyed Boise's best White Chocolate Mocha's. It was fun to just hang out, relax and catch up with each other the way you aren't normally able to in the mad rush of day to day life. The best part is that I can say that after 6 years of marriage I love Matt more now than I did the day we got married, and trust me that was a lot of love back then! I feel like we have grown so much since we first met, but have grown together. Since being married we have moved five times, lost a parent, had a child, gone back to school, moved to another state, and bought a house, but it still feels like just yesterday that we were texting each other back and forth long distance.  I can honestly say the best thing that has ever happened to me is being sat next to Matt at his cousin's birthday dinner 7 years ago.  And here's to hoping that if you ask Matt, he will tell you the same thing! 

P.S. Don't worry, I will not be talking about ourselves in third person ever again. That was just way too confusing, even for me. And weird. 

The End