Once upon a time, Ian stumbled across Carol's online dating profile and decided to send her a message. After much debate on her part (after all, Ian seemed intriguing but it was possibly weird that he was another redhead), Carol replied. We went on a coffee date that turned into a 2-hour walk and started a really fun adventure.

We've painted, built Legos, and taken Carol's dog on many walks. Ian would like to claim that he is now Pippi dog's favorite person, and he might just be right.

We have explored the science museum several times. In fact, on our second date, Ian listened to Carol nerd out about ankle bone structure and still wanted to go on another date! We've also spent a lot of time watching butterflies at the museum and watching a baby monkey learn to climb at the zoo!

Best of all, we got to spend some amazing family time with both of our families over the holidays. We cooked a massive amount of food for Thanksgiving, had many tea parties with Carol's nieces, built trains with Ian's nephew, and generally had a great time!

In July, Ian and Carol kayaked down the (fake) Colorado river. It was a Friday, and the river was low. We were the only people on the river. We took a few hours to explore up a creek where we skipped rocks and sunk knee-deep in sticky mud. We spent a whole day exploring and being silly, and we both knew we could spend many, many days that way together.

On December 22nd, we were going to the Christmas concert at the Houston Symphony. We were dressed all fancy and excited for something special. Ian conveniently "forgot" his binoculars (have to be able to see the symphony people, you know), and we needed to stop at his new apartment in Katy that we had just moved him into. Carol tried really hard to stay in the truck, but Ian convinced her to come inside. All of a sudden, Carol turned around and Ian was on one knee proposing. Well kind of. Ian had to be reminded to ask a specific question. But don't worry, Carol said yes anyway, and we enjoyed a fancy dinner (we may have had no clue what was happening at a Brazilian Steak House) and some great music.