From Twenty to Two at 22

One of my favorite parts of Earth Life is family.

I was blessed to come to big one. There were seven in it when I arrived, and last I counted it has grown to twenty. That's a lot of people, Uncle Ed! I love my family very much, and I am so happy that I was blessed to be raised by them.

Now lets have story time. 

In September 2010, the ex-Elder Bernal returned to visit his mission friends in Kiev, Ukraine. He planned to go a couple months earlier to see the temple dedicated, but every time he thought about going he got sick to his stomach. September felt right, so he changed his plans and went late. That same week, my parents were also visiting Ukraine. My Aunt Jenne (the sly mission president's wife who had asked Bernal to call me when he left his mission) introduced Bernal to my parents and offered him as their tour guide. I got at call at 3am: "Hey Cam it's your mom! We're in Ukraine! I gave a boy your number!" I mumbled something like, "Mom, that's not OK. Goodnight!"

On December 27th 2010 I was visiting home for the holidays. We planned to take a trip to SoCal, but winter storms prompted the idea to have a stay-cation in Salt Lake. In the middle of a Grizzley's hokey game, I got a call from some random kid. (whispers) "Mom, it's that kid Bernal you met in Virginia... What should I do?" "SDFOIOAOIEYYYYEESSSS!!!!!! TALK TO HIM FOREVER!!!" He felt bad for not calling, and called to say he was on his way to school in Virginia and he was sorry he didn't call me months earlier. Cool? We talked for about an hour and decided that despite our awkward set-up, we could still be friends.  

On March 8th 2011 after 3 months of Skyping, Garret decided to go home to Seattle for Spring Break. He came to my house, introduced himself, and we loaded up our ski stuff. 

 Our first picture together, in the car, driving to Whistler BC, Canada 

 I'm not sure whose idea it was to go on a 3-day ski trip/blind-date to Canada, but we had a good time :)
We talked a lot. We talked about hypothetically getting married, and I told him I was going on a mission (the first time the thought had ever entered my brain) so... sorry, man. 

 Later that week we did some Seattle exploring

 Garret's sister snuck a pic of us sleeping in mass. Those Gregorian monks know how to put on a show, tell you what.

 Months earlier I had planned to attend an Open House at Southern Virginia University. So two weeks after Canada, we met back up in Virginia. We went to a costume dance as Tiger Woods and his Mistress. It made school history. 

 We kinda broke up after that... the long-distance thing is crap. But in the spring, Garret moved to Portland! So we started hanging out again on the weekends. We rented our first home - 2 days in this lovely Yurt on the Oregon Coast

We might have lived here, too, for a little while

 One weekend we brought along our adopted son, Ben. We love Ben.  At 6'6" he is so clearly our offspring. He is a missionary now. 

 We weren't really "dating", we just looked super hott together, so we had to hang out all the time.

Or something.

 Weekends in Portland were interesting. 

 Every-other weekend or so he would come up to Seattle and we would party

 Then in July it was time for me to move back to Utah. Then he decided to move back to Virginia. So we drove to Utah, then Virginia! 

You really don't know someone until you drive 3000+ miles with them.

 We saw some sights and set up camp in some super sketch places. 

Then we broke up again. Lots.

 In December of 2011 I was back in Seattle visiting/working, and Garret was home for Christmas. He called me up and wanted to hang out. Hmmm... fine. How could I say no to so much attractiveness? 

Then he talked me into heading back up for New Years. I brought Hanna. She's pretty safe. 

That night he told me he wanted me to go on a mission then come home and marry him. HAHA. I didn't believe him, we broke up (were we back together? I can't keep track), I left on my mission, he was bad at writing me for the first few months, then he got pretty good at it. I remained bad at writing him back... forever. 

In April 2013 I was doing my P-Day emails and received a picture of him in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He thought he would just stop by Rome and say hey. He called me and I told him to get lost :) But I was actually pretty sad. And confused. For 18 months. 

 I got home on September 6th 2013, and 5 days later he came to visit me. Suddenly it all just came together. It is amazing how much forgiving and forgetting can happen in 18 months, and it was exactly what we needed to start fresh and just be who we have become instead of dragging on the sad beings of who we were before. Who we were never worked. Who we are is just lovely :)

 On October 6th 2013 I moved to Virginia. 

 We hung out every day and accidentally matched. Every day.
We kind of un-writtenly decided to think about eventually getting around to talking about getting married in March. Then one night I said, "Hey we should get married before my parents leave on their mission in 3 weeks" I think he peed a little.

A week later, he proposed

 On December 6th 2013 we were sealed in the Bountiful Utah Temple. 

Sealed means married.

We got married.

WE FINALLY GOT MARRIED! 

I love my new family of two.