Jeffrey & Dara : New to the Game

After two months of marriage we (I) have finally decided to make a blog! Who knew designing blogs was so difficult? I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to make it as cute as every other blog I've seen, so be patient with me...

This being the first post on our blog, it's time for the obligatory biography of Jeffrey and I. I met Jeffrey at BYU in August 2009. My friend Natasha had met him and his roommates at church and asked me to go with her to hang out with them one night. Jeffrey and I bonded that night by burning matches and writing our names with the charred stick... a true recipe for love. It was hard for me not to be enthralled by the idea that he was from Southern California and not Utah. A cute Mormon return missionary not from Utah? I had to learn more. It turns out Jeffrey was by far the funniest, most interesting person I'd ever met. Known for my witty and sometimes tactless remarks, I was amazed that this kid could dish it right back at me.. and faster than I could keep up. It had to be love.

I learned later that Jeffrey had just gotten back from a 2 year mission in the Baltics. {Wondering where the Baltics are? Don't worry, so did I. When he told me where he had served I pretended to know and replied "Oh, that's awesome!". He looked at me and asked, "Do you konw where the Baltics even are?" "Of course! Everyone knows where they are", I said with full confidence. Jeffrey then told me they were in Africa, to which I responded "I knew that. So do you speak Africaans?" I was so happy I knew some language that existed in Africa. He laughed and continued the conversation without responding to my question. I later learned, some months after, that the Baltics are in Eastern Europe. They speak Russian, not Africaans. Whoops.} He served mostly in Latvia and Estonia and spent 2 weeks visiting the remaining country of Lithuania. He loved his mission, and I loved that he loved it. We started dating some time later (in Provo, the term "dating" is used lightly in the beginning. I'm sure many of you know what I mean). It wasn't until we went to a So You Think You Can Dance show that Jeffrey and I decided that we really wanted to get serious, as those shows can be telling of one's true inner feelings. I sat and watched him get almost too excited to watch Twitch dance and realized I could spend eternity with this kid.

So, in June of 2011 Jeffrey got on one knee in Sundance, Utah, with a beautiful ring in his hand and asked me to be his wife. We spent the summer planning our wedding (and by "we" I mean my mom and I. Jeffrey's one request was to be at the cake testing, but woefully could not make it to Danville to do so) and on October 15, 2011 we got sealed in the Oakland, California temple. And the rest is history.

So not to bore you with this first novel post, I'll briefly tell you about our wonderful Christmas break. My sister and brother in law recently moved to Washington DC so he could go to Physician's Assistant school and she could work. We decided to haul everyone to DC for Christmas this year. It was so fun! I'd never been there before, and it was such a beautiful city. My favorite part was that my sister lives close to Georgetown, so we frequently visited all those cute shops. After a few days in DC, Jeffrey and I went to New York to go see the sites. Again, I was blown away by the city. New York is huge! It was so fun to see the things you see in movies or TV all the time, but never think you'll see in real life. After a few days in New York City, Jeffrey and I ventured back to San Francisco to see my parents again. SF was beautiful, as always, but after a week with my parents we decided to come back down to Los Angeles to see my in laws. (Can I just explain again how happy I am to have in laws that live in California?? Their hometown is so cute and so similar to Danville, its easy to feel at home there. Not to mention his family is the cutest and warmest family I've ever met.) And tomorrow we head back to Utah. Whew! A literal TransAmerica Christmas vacation. We've had so much fun and do not want to go back to the Utah cold, but I guess its an unfortunate reality that BYU is located there. At least those mountains are incredibly beautiful.

So, as I watch Jeffrey play with his brothers remote control helicopter (frequently telling me in his best operator's voice to stay still so he can land "the bird" on my head) I'll leave you with some pictures from our vacation. I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and wonderful New Year!