Disclaimer

Nobody has ever told me (Kelsey) that I’m a good story teller. Honestly, I have often been told the opposite. Something about too many out of order and unimportant details? At times out of order or getting distracted. Anyway, feel free to read quickly, skip around, or just go with what you already know about how we got here.

Love at First Sight

Randy and I first met on March 4, 2017 aboard Inconceivable, on the way to Buck Island. He was on island (Thanks Vern!) for Pandinos bachelor party and my friends (s/o Jessa and Taylor) convinced me to stop studying and come out to have some fun for the day. I quickly wowed him with my wit? Or maybe my athleticism? Probably my complaints about the frigid temperature of the Caribbean Sea in Winter. He had me hooked as he ran out from watering the bushes at the end of the trip to give me his number. Yet, he then proceeded to not respond to any of my texts that night. However, the next day he succeeded in convincing a handful of exhausted guys to come to a beach in the opposite direction of home after an early morning of scuba diving so he could run into me. I quickly forgave him and introduced him to Sunday Funday volleyball at Rainbow Beach. Afterwards he was back to Fort Lauderdale the very next day. A 48 hour whirlwind. Neither of us are very keen on texting or care to talk on the phone for very long, but we found ourselves talking to each other nonstop. Texting, FaceTime or telephone calls, it didn’t really matter. We would chat for hours and hours at a time, learning as much as we could about each other. After a few weeks of this, I planned a weekend trip to Ft. Lauderdale. I didn’t want either of us to be spending all of this time chatting if it didn’t work in person. I met his friends (s/o Norma, Keith, Everyone at Miscue), he took me on our first date, we planned a 10 day road trip together, and I was back to St Croix.

In May, we embarked on a 10 day road trip together in Randy’s TSX. Lots of talking, not talking, music listening and miles. We went on hikes, we met each other’s families and friends (s/o Brandon, Amanda, Jamar), got a parking ticket in Charleston and made it back to Ft Lauderdale in one piece. I believe it was after this trip Keith made a bet with Randy that we would be married by the end of the year. To which my response was maybe in 7 years. (2017+7= 2024 🤔). My random retort then, now seems pretty spot on and won us a case of coronas. (Thanks Keith!)

And Then Came the Storms

4 short months later, Randy had his bags packed to move to St Croix. About the same time as Hurricane Irma was coming to visit the USVI. While St Croix was thankfully on the outskirts of Irma’s path, we still lost power for a few days and the airport shut down, delaying Randy’s flight. When flights were back up and operational, Irma had moved on to South Florida, where Randy was spending his birthday inside, with no power. He finally made it to St Croix after about a week of delays and we thought we were set. We woke up the next morning, excited to plan our day, only to walk outside and have our friends ask us immediately what our plan was about Maria. Who is Maria?

Maria was another Cat 5 hurricane, that seemingly appeared out of nowhere on a direct path for St Croix and was estimated to hit in 2-3 days. My school decided to charter an evacuation flight for students and family. So we hand wrote our boarding passes, got on a plane, and went back to South Florida about 72 hours after Randy had left. Maria caused major destruction in St Croix and Puerto Rico, losing power in most places on average for 3-4 months. Meanwhile, Randy and I bounced around Florida, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Indiana (Thanks Josh and Daniel!) for 3 months before finally making it back to St Croix.

Building Our Life Together on St. Croix

We made it back to St Croix right around Christmas 2017 and we’ve been here together ever since. Spending almost every Saturday at volleyball and Mondays/Thursdays at Ultimate Frisbee. Now Wednesdays and Sundays at soccer. Diving/snorkeling when we find the energy and the right conditions. And we do love a good game night, trivia night, or bonfire.

I’ve been working as a PA, mostly in Family Medicine since I started in 2018. But, this year I transitioned from family medicine to hematology/oncology and couldn’t be happier. Randy spent several years running snorkeling charters to Buck Island until 2022 when he opened his own fishing and snorkeling charter business- Down South Charters. Which has been an adventure of its own and quite the culmination of so many of his lifelong passions.

Big Things

2022 was an eventful year for us all around. While Randy was bringing Down South Charters to life, we also had two big adventures planned - Hawaii and Alaska. My marathon running, athletic training, undergrad classmates (s/o Liz, Christina, Jenny, and Jamma!) came together for a 10 year reunion half marathon in Oahu. We stayed in Waikiki for a few days, I ran some miles, then we rented a van and camped all around Oahu. We swam with some huge, friendly, turtles, were chased by dinosaurs, jumped out of an airplane, showed our respects at Pearl Harbor, and watched a pretty spectacular fire show and luau, all while catching up with some of the best people from the College of Charleston as if no time had passed at all.

A few short months later we were headed back across the entire continental US, for another adventure of a lifetime (that we will be repeating, hopefully, many times in our life). All my life I remember my dad dreaming of a great Alaska adventure. Several times I’ve tried to make that happen, but have been delayed for one reason or another. All Randy’s life he’s been dreaming of getting to Alaska to fish the salmon runs. It was time! So my mom and dad joined Randy and I on our great alaskan adventure. We road-tripped for days, stopped for every road side moose, hiked and explored in Denali, picked out Christmas ornaments in North Pole, rented an RV, explored all around the Kenai peninsula, searched for the whales, watched as huge glaciers calved, fished, and then fished some more. Then, at the top of the Byron Glacier hike, Randy asked if I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Naturally, my response was “Are you serious?” As he’s down on one knee wondering how he could be more serious. I said yes, or this would be a much different story. For the sake of time, I’ll skip the story of how approximately 1 hour later I lost the ring for the longest 20 seconds of my life😳.

Randy and I are pretty slow planners. Perhaps a little too laid back when it comes to planning certain things. But here we are 2 years later, with part of a wedding planned. We could not be more excited to have our family and friends come visit St Croix for the first time (or the 5th, Amanda) and celebrate this life we’ve built together. Thank you so much for your love and your support and for each of your parts in getting us where we are now! We love you!!