-You're late!

-I'm 10 mins away. Most girls will make the guy wait...

-Something tells me you're not like most girls ;)

The text conversation starting our first date.

I knew that Juliana was not an average girl from the start ;) Two and a half years later, I'm still right! I've never met a girl that is simultaneously as intense as a tornado and sweet as an angel flower. Sounds scary? Yep! Juliana told me once that if she was a bee that was about to die of old age that she would find someone to sting before she passed on. She said there are many people out there who probably deserve it. So she could probably sting the nearest person and be ok with it. I tell her that she has to be nice so she will go to bee heaven - she says she'll get in cus she's an angel bee.

The next date - we get overtaken by darkness while mountain biking in the lost woods outside the old and overgrown Stronghold Mansion. Big signs tell us to get out by dusk and our car is the only one left after feeling our way back. We saddle up and sneak out evading enemy detection only to find ourselves in the middle of the country with an itch to explore. We go barreling down country roads looking for anything and suddenly - nature calls. Juliana needs to make a pit stop bad. There is nothing close and we both are uneasy and quiet. The odds of finding anything civil are against us; so we wander further into the night. But wait! suddenly, through the shadows of the road, we spot a little blue house... made of plastic with a little chimney spout. Juliana yells, I stop, and behold a wilderness porta potty stands before us. Placed there by God to save second dates from becoming horror stories, and instead becoming our story. Then with renewed zeal, we take off again into the night and find a dock on the water, silent, full of stars above and below. Juliana just happens to be carrying a full assortment of gourmet snacks and a dreamy attitude. So we sat on the edge of the universe and talked about what we love. We didn't realize it then, but that night we described the two and a half years that became our story.

From beach visits on icy winter days, to skies filled with firecrackers and bonfires, to exploring abandoned buildings with histories as colorful as their spray paint, minivan camping in vast desertscapes full of sunlight and midnight, tracking down underground fires ablaze for 50 years, and much much more. The fun and excitement marches on. We sometimes have to remember to stop and talk about serious stuff or risk never drifting to those subjects because of all the fun. Our story is filled with zeal and the surreal. Once we were offered an ocean cruiser and trailer for free from the nicest man in the nicest town of America. The plan? To explore the abandoned island residences in the twisting ocean-ways off the Delmarva peninsula.

Our story is marked with too much fun to and not enough time. And now, in perfect style, our wedding is following the same suit :)

Registry