Our Beginning
Taylor and I are newly wed. I think I'll consider us newlyweds until we've been married so long that 'there's no one left that has known us apart'*.
*Jason Robert Brown - "The Last Five Years"
*Jason Robert Brown - "The Last Five Years"
Taylor and Suzette both served in the Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission. Taylor Served from June 2009 to June 2011. Suzette served from October 2010 to May 2012. It is true that they met in Argentina but contrary to common belief, they were no more than acquaintances while serving. Taylor can remember a conversation they had together on a bus after a mission leadership training and Suzette remembers a conversation they had on a train after a different mission meeting. But Taylor and Suzette never served in the same areas together. In fact, there isn't even a picture of them from Argentina to be found!
Luckily, the brief conversation on the bus was not the last time they would cross paths. Six months after Suzette got home, Taylor and Suzette were both invited to a Waffle party. It was held at Valerie Whitehead's home. She was Suzette's companion in Argentina and several other missionaries from the mission were there as well. Now that Suzette was home from Argentina it was ok for Taylor to think she was cute, which he did, so he asked her to drive him home (a 45 minute ride). Something clicked because Suzette agreed. Unfortunately, they hit a road block which not only made the drive much longer, but also quite awkward. Too much silence and not enough talking resulted in an unlikely possibility of seeing each other again. Taylor was disappointed but fortunately he would get a few more chances!
Shortly after the waffle party, Taylor and Suzette's friend Steffannie came to visit the United States from El Salvador. Taylor and Suzette both knew her well because they served with her in Argentina. Steffannie stayed at Suzette's house so Taylor had a great excuse to hang out with Suzette and try to win some points ;) During the two weeks that Steffanie was here Taylor and Suzette got to see each other almost every day. They went bowling together, went to Taylor's flag football game in the snow, watched Taylor's favorite movie together (Nacho Libre), and Suzette even went to church with Taylor to see him sing a solo. By the end of all of it Taylor felt confident about asking Suzette on a date. He was offered some tickets to a U of U football game and immediately invited Suzette to be his date. After a few more dates Suzette finally got over the fact that Taylor was younger than she was and they never looked back!
The summer of 2013 they endured a long-distance relationship. Suzette was working in Juneau, Alaska for the summer while Taylor stayed in Salt Lake City working for a family friend. The 1,600 mile distance not only meant that Taylor and Suzette would not be with each other, but it also meant that an engagement had to wait.....or did it?
Suzette was planning on coming home for a week in July for her cousin's wedding. Suzette thought that maybe she would return to Alaska with a ring but Taylor had even better plans. While they were skyping one night Suzette was buying her plane ticket to come home and without Suzette knowing it, Taylor was buying a plane ticket to Alaska and a ticket for that same return flight Suzette was buying. All summer Taylor had secretly been planning a trip to Juneau to propose to Suzette. Suzette's friends in Alaska were in on it and helped Taylor plan everything. On the morning of July 11th, Suzette's friends brought Taylor to the bus yard where Suzette worked and snuck him on the bus that she would be using that day. When Suzette got on her bus to prepare for her work day, Taylor popped out from one of the seats, surprised Suzette, and proposed to her in the aisle of her bus with several of her friends watching. Suzette's boss was so nice and gave Suzette the whole day off. Suzette took advantage of the time to show Taylor what Juneau was all about. They went to the best breakfast place, went whale watching, and flew to a glacier on a helicopter! The next day they returned to Utah together and attended Suzette's cousin's wedding.*updated in 2017* Taylor graduated from BYU in April 2014 and Suzette graduated from The U of U in May 2014. After graduation they look forward to many more adventures!
