He’s my rock. I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else.
We met when we were teenagers, but we never dated until we were adults. BUT it all makes for a good story. Our love story. It’s surprising how much we get asked about how we met, but it’s the rest that I like the best. I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else in the world.
How We Met
A lot of you know that I am from Florida, but not many people realized that Taz is too. This is where our love story begins. We met at our church’s summer camp called Especially for Youth (EFY.) We are both LDS (aka Mormon) and it can be difficult to find other kids of the same faith in Florida. I always looked forward to going there every summer and during my first year, I met Taz
It sounds so silly, but he was in the middle of a dance circle (since he is a FAN-TAZ-TIC dancer…see what I did there?) My sister-in-law found that video from 9 years ago recently and there I am in the front row. I talked to him later that night, but we didn’t really keep in contact. One of my biggest regrets is that I never once took a picture with him during any of the 4 summers we knew of each other, but the video is proof that I was there!
How We Reconnected
Fast forward to the spring of 2015 when I saw a post on Taz’s Facebook page. His mom wrote about sending him a letter. Taz was serving a mission for our church in Colorado at the time. I figured we hadn’t talked in years, but I kept feeling a push to write him so I did. We wrote letters and emailed for two months until he came home after being away for two years. After he got home, I left for a couple months to go to Europe on a study abroad. It wasn’t until I got home that we had our first date.
This is one of the first pictures he sent me while he was on his mission.
Dating
I came back to Florida for two weeks before starting school again at Brigham Young University (BYU) in September. We set up a time for a date and then I drove the 2 ½ hours to his side of Florida. (I’m from the east coast and he’s on the west.) I was unsure at first and it was pretty awkward for the first few hours, but it all ended up working out in the end. We had an unusual courtship since I met his parents on our first date and he met mine on our second, but it was all for the better.
The first picture we ever took together.
Watching the sunrise on our second “date.” We were so tan!
I lived in Utah and he still lived in Florida which was so hard. We talked 24/7 for a little over a month and then it wasn’t until he came to Utah that we were official. He said he was coming to visit in October but it turned out he was staying for good and I was so excited!
I surprised him at the airport when he came to visit Utah. Little did I know he would surprise me by moving here.
I was just so happy to have him in the same zipcode.
Marriage
We got engaged in December of 2015. Some may say that is fast, but we knew it was the right thing to do during our love story. We got married in Orlando on May 6, 2016 and I love him more and more everyday since.
Taz proposed to me with my two favorite things: pineapples and diamond rings.
I’m so happy I get to be with my best friend forever.
Our Future Plans
We have tried to make plans. Some succeeded and some failed. We don’t have kids yet and we don’t know when that will happen. All I know is that I’m blessed to have him in my life and everyday is better because he is in it. Our love story is my favorite.
XOXO Kayla
