This is Where our Story Begins...

For friends and family of Nick's who may not know, my name is Lauren and as of Saturday, August 15, 2009 I am his Fiance. Some of you may be wondering, and the answer is Yes: I am the girlfriend he was referring to in his last post made July 2008. I hinted to Nick numerous times since his last posting, that he should update his blog. However, he never did and when we got engaged, he gave me permission to change his personal blog into our family blog. From now on, I will probably be the one who writes most of the posts, with the occasional posting from Nick, whenever he has the desire to do so. Regardless of who does the writing, this is OUR story. We know how our story begins, and how we want it to end, but the most exciting part are all the details in the middle that are still unknown. I intend to use this blog to document the moments in our life together that will contribute to our "life story". We hope that you enjoy the journey along with us as we share these moments with all of you. I hope that this posting will catch everyone up to date as to what has happened in our lives in the past 14 months.

This is where our story begins. (Mind you, this is the short version). Nick and I met in our singles ward last summer when he was down in Orange County, CA selling pest control. He says that he noticed me the first Sunday he was there. I had some other distractions in my life at the time, one of them being a desire to serve a mission for our church, so it honestly took me a few weeks before I noticed him. Finally on June 10, 2008, the stars aligned. One of Nick's roommates arranged for me to come to the apartment to cut their hair. I wouldn't say that there was an instant connection the moment I started cutting his hair but, he was very handsome...just another client that I managed to make some small talk with. As soon as I was done with the haircuts, the boys kept it very professional, paid me (yes, they tipped me very well) and I left. As I was walking to my car, I felt an unexpected disappointment that I had to leave. I quickly shook it off, but right before I opened my car door, Nick came running out of the apartment, calling my name. He quickly explained that it was his night to take the contracts for work into the office and wanted to know if I would come along...on his motorcycle. I had never been on a motorcycle before and was honestly a little surprised at my lack of hesitation to go with him! Remember, at this point, he was a complete stranger that I knew little to nothing about, and I was agreeing to jump on the back of his bike and put my life in his hands! I was wearing flip flops, and had no extra shoes with me, so Nick offered me a pair of his tennis shoes. You can imagine how unattractive I felt by the time I climbed onto the back of the bike with over-sized shoes, and a huge helmet on my head. Nick must have read the concern on my face, because he assured me that I looked very cute (although, he will admit today that I looked a mess, LOL). After a brief tutorial of bike safety and we were off on what ended up being one of the most fun, spontaneous rides of my life. This is where I felt my first connection with Nick. You can't blame me... it's hard NOT to feel a connection to a handsome man, when you are straddling a sexy bike, going nearly 100 MPH at times, and holding onto him tight ;-) (Que: you can gag now, ha ha). I told him that he would have to take me on another bike ride, because I was hooked... What he didn't know was that I was hooked mostly to him. When we got back, he dropped me off at my car, said he had fun, said goodnight, and that was that. He didn't try to put any moves on me or ask me for my number or even give any inclination that he wanted to hang out again. I went home that night unable to get Nick out of my mind. I was curious about this guy and wanted to hear from him again. Fortunately, he didn't make me wait too long. The next morning, he texted me telling me thank you for his hair cut and that night he called and asked me to go to dinner with him that Saturday. On June 14th we had our first official date. Nick picked me up for dinner and we ate at this little Italian Restaurant in Placentia (he sold the owner a pest control contract earlier that week). After dinner we went back to his apartment and watched reruns of The Office on his laptop. (A favorite show of ours).

June 15th was Father's Day. I was spending time with my family and so I didn't see him at church that day. He texted me that afternoon and asked me if, when I got home from my parents house, I would like to go on another bike ride with him down to Newport Beach to catch the sunset. We did (I wore my own shoes this time), and made it just in time to watch a beautiful sunset. It was a perfect setting for our First Kiss. This time he came back to my apartment and we ended up talking til about 6 in the morning! I don't know what came over him, but he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I don't know what came over me, but I agreed. For the rest of the summer we never spent a day apart. About two weeks into our relationship, I knew that I was in trouble. I knew that there was something different about Nick and the relationship that we shared. I knew that I would not be going on an LDS mission and even though I thought I was crazy, I knew that I was going to marry him one day.


Fourth of July 2008- First time Nick met my Parents


Our first trip together--off to meet Nick's parents in Indiana- Labor Day Weekend 2008




Disneyland Trip, September 2008- Nick's first time in about 20 Years!!

On October 1, 2008, Nick left to go back home to Utah so he could start school again, and I stayed in California and continued working. We decided to continue our relationship and even though the long distance was soooooo HARD, we managed to make it through 8 months of talking on the phone every day and traveling back and forth between our homes at least every 7 weeks.


Overnight backpacking trip at Red Pine Lake, October 2008. It was cold!!!


In the morning.... still cold.


Next night we went car camping with Nick's brother Devan and Nick's roommate Greg


December 2008


We spent New Years with Nick's whole family in Indiana


March 2009- My first time shooting- Nick teaching me:)


We had so much fun!

In May, Nick FINALLY came back to California to work for the summer. We have had an AMAZING summer together. We have grown so close and are best friends.

On August 15, 2009, I was visiting my parents in St. George, UT. My brother Cameron had come home from his mission on August 13th. Nick was supposed to come up on Sunday the 16th for a huge family party and so he could meet Cameron.

However, at about 2pm, on Saturday the 15th, the doorbell rang. My parents were dancing around who was going to answer the door so, I answered it and there was Nick. Even at that moment I had NO IDEA at what he was about to do. He coaxed me out onto my parents' front doorstep, closed the door behind me and proceeded to get down on one knee where he asked me to marry him! My mind went completely blank. I was in complete shock and I said, "YES!!!" two or three times. We sat and hugged for a minute and when we opened the front door back into the house, my parents and grandma were standing right there with huge smiles on their faces. The moment couldn't have been more perfect for me, it was such a surprise.

We are so incredibly happy as are our families. As of right now, we don't have any official date set, but we are thinking, next spring sometime. We are moving to Provo, UT on the 24th, and once we get settled, we'll start talking more about wedding plans.




Where Nick proposed--on my parents' front porch :-)


The ring! I love it!