Our love story started off as a Rice University classic, we met during our very first day of orientation week (O-Week) and instantly became friends. During the matriculation ceremony Leebron (Rice's President) pointed out that Rice graduates have an incredibly high intermarriage rate, some say upwards of 70%. Katie, being statistically inclined, must have picked out Phil that very first night as at least having solid backup potential. Phil was likely oblivious to any of this.

Aside from being the smaller more athletic-type throwers on the track team we soon learned all the things we have in common. We are both right all of the time and display varying degrees of a competitive type A personality. Although from different coasts, we both grew up by the ocean and can't imagine living too far away from water. We both love to seek out new places where we can meet good people and try new foods. We both take a family vacation every year around the same part of summer. We both love each other. We both have strong legs.

By sophomore year, we became neighbors in Jones college and somewhere in between studying for economics classes, working out, and going to a few of Rice's public parties we became more than just best friends. Since college, we have spent a lot of time traveling, Phil working as a 7^th generation farmer in Santa Maria and Katie trading natural gas in Houston. Making the best of our separation brought us closer together, and gave us a great excuse to visit many new places together such as Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Italy, Belize, and Japan (later this year).

It became obvious to us that our relationship is the boat with which we will navigate our life together and on a trip to Italy we decided to make it official. Freshly sweaty from a morning run around Florence and after enjoying breakfast on a sunny balcony Katie stood up and said she was ready. Philip took this "I'm ready" as a cue for something totally different and that simple breakfast on a sunny balcony turned into quite the memory for the two of us.

We can't wait to move on to the next chapter of our lives together and are truly blessed to have a great group of people supporting our marriage. Here's to 50 more years of food, laughter, sweat, and love.