2018

Two Strangers Met and Fell In Love

In May of 2018, we were both invited to a Cinco De Mayo get together through a few of our mutual friends. We didn't share many words throughout the night and mostly stuck by the people we came with, but we did talk here and there in passing. At the end of the night, we went our separate ways, not knowing that we'd see each other again the very next day. Julia and a few of her friends were planning a pool hangout and the mutual friend we shared had invited Ryland to come swim. We instantly hit it off and spent the entire night talking, laughing, and making memories that would last us a life time.

In June, we made it official after knowing each other for just under a month (crazy, we know). Our first date was Texas Roadhouse, where we ate about 6 baskets of rolls and none of our dinner. The weird part is, that first date seemed to have started a new tradition because almost seven years later and we are still taking boxes of our untouched food home. At the time, Ryland had a car with a loud exhaust which, if you know anything about Julia's dad, that is a huge no no. We strategically came up with a plan on how to drive into the neighborhood without alerting Ron that the guy her daughter is bringing home has one of his least favorite car accessories. We thought if we could avoid that conversation on day one, that we could avoid it our whole relationship...it didn't work. But don't worry, he got a new car shortly after.

We then spent the rest of the year traveling to some of our favorite places. We took a drive to Canyon Lake, and Tortilla Flat where we took some cute pictures and enjoyed the beautiful view. We went to Knott's Berry Farm, which is an amusement park in California, and that was so much fun. However, we made it a day trip so we left early in the morning, spent the day at the park, and then had to drive back to Arizona, which was by far the worst idea we've ever had. In October, we took a trip with Ryland's dad to Ryland's favorite place on earth, the sand dunes in California. We spent a few days out there shreddin' the dunes in Rzr's, quads, and sand rails, having cookouts with the rest of the group and enjoying nightly bonfires. No one can prepare you for the amount of sand you carry with you weeks after these trips.

2019

Let the Adventures Begin!

We celebrated our very first Valentine's Day together! Ryland surprised Julia with her favorite drink from Black Rock, and a Valentine's bear in the morning before school. Which, if you know Ryland, you know waking up early is not an acceptable thing for humans to do, so this really was a surprise. After school, we exchanged our other gifts for each other, grabbed dinner, and had a fun night out.

One of Julia's favorite memories growing up in Illinois was her season passes to Six Flags, as she lived relatively close to one. However, after moving to Arizona, the closest park was a whole state away, so it took a lot of planning to be able to go. Ryland also hadn't been in a while, so for Julia's birthday in May, he planned a trip for us to stay a few days in California to visit Six Flags and surrounding areas! We spent the day riding rollercoasters, eating lots of food, and even got a caricature picture drawn, which to this day has us questioning if we really looked like that... We visited Monica Pier where we shopped, rode the ferris wheel, which showed us the beautiful Southern California coastline, and watched various weird, but oddly good pier performers. Later that month, we took another trip up North to Payson, AZ where we visited the Mogollon Rim. We spent the day hiking, exploring and kayaking on Woods Canyon Lake.

In September, we went to Bearizona which is a walk through/drive through wildlife park. We got to see so many different animals including buffalo, wolves, bears, goats, and so many more. If you've never been, we highly recommend going, it's such a fun experience! However, if you're anything like Julia, you'll be begging to bring the bears and wolves home with you because they just simply "look so sweet and cuddly". This is where Ryland met his best friend, the goat that was obsessed with him and wouldn't leave him alone. He didn't look as cuddly though, otherwise we would've tried to bring him home too.

In November, Julia surprised Ryland for his birthday. Before picking him up, she told him to make sure he wore his best country attire, as if that wouldn't give away the surprise. We went to Durrant's Steakhouse in Phoenix (which was delicious) before going to the Luke Combs concert, which was Ryland's first concert ever! Although we thought we knew majority of his songs, that was far from the case. But we still had a great time making memories and singing our hearts out!

2020

Covid Hits...

In January, we realized it was probably in our best interests to do what we still cannot seem to regularly do, and that was get a gym membership and actually attend. We were both working crazy long hours, Ryland was in nursing school and Julia was studying to get her Bachelor's degree, but we still managed to stay on track for what felt like eternity (it was only 3 months). Just as we were in our groove, everything came to a halt.

Up until this point, we had spent majority of our time traveling, attending various events, exploring, and eating delicious food of course (hence the gym membership), when the Covid lockdown hit. Because of our jobs and Ryland's nursing program, we were both heavily exposed to the virus and all of the unknowns that came with it. In order to keep both ourselves and our families as safe and healthy as possible, we were forced to take a step back and limit our exposure to one another. While it was not ideal by any means, it showed us how strong our relationship and love was, despite all of the loneliness and devastation around us. We spent our days and nights on FaceTime, playing games, and having virtual date nights, which consisted of us each doing our own thing and not speaking more than a sentence the entire time, very romantic.

When the guidelines lifted, we took the opportunity to do what we do best. Go on another adventure! This time, we decided to visit Sedona, where we spent a few days walking around the town, shopping, and hiking. We visited the church were Julia's parents got married, finally able to experience their crazy stories from their special day in real time. Outside the church is where we found our first painted rock. On the back was a QR code with a link to a group where you could keep up with the places your rock travels. Once you have it, you drive it to a new location for the next person to find. Our rock started in New York and as of today, it's in Colorado! On our way back from Sedona, we took an unexpected detour after Julia saw a sign on the side of the road for the Out of Africa Wildlife Park, next thing you know we were at the front office buying tickets! We got to see so many different animals, went on a safari ride, attended a show where we watched tigers dive into a pool after their toys, and even got to feed them. It was such a cool experience, we had a great trip!

And what would a year without the sand dunes be? According to Ryland, it would be "tragic" and "a great sorrow", so of course to end the year and avoid tragedy, we went back!

2021

Family

You guessed it, another year full of traveling and exploring! In February, for Valentine's day, we took another trip up North since it had recently snowed. We didn't have any plans for the day, so we just drove around, took a few walks in the snow, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Before we headed back home, we decided to stop at a campground and take some pictures which turned out to be some of our favorite pictures together. We had snowball fights (more like ice fights), made snow angels, and created so many memories from this trip that we will forever cherish. This is also the day that Ryland realized wearing shorts in the snow and cold for hours on end is not necessarily comfortable or ideal.

In July, we drove to Nevada to help Julia's sister, Danielle, move. The trip was smooth sailing, but we drove Julia's car, which Ryland described as "sitting on a concrete park bench for 12 hours". He now refuses to let Julia drive her car if our destination is more than 10 minutes away. On the way to see Danielle, we stopped at the infamous Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada, which honestly was nothing short of just plain old creepy. Walking into a motel full of over 5,000 clowns that stare you down is not as comfortable as you might think...not to mention the cemetery next to it. Helping Danielle move into her new place was just about as scary as the clown motel, but that's a story for another time. Ryland got to visit the National Bowling Stadium; if you didn't know, he's secretly a professional bowler. They were undergoing renovations so we didn't get to see anything other than the outside, but it was still a cool experience for him. On our way back to Danielle's place, Ryland hopped out of the car at a red light to help an elderly man cross the street as he was struggling to get across by himself, which just proved to Julia how kind and genuine this man truly is. It was an eventful trip but overall we enjoyed getting to visit Danielle!

In December, since Danielle was back home visiting for Christmas, we went with Julia's family back to Bearizona! Although we had already gone a few years prior, it was her families first time being there. We first drove through through the wildlife portion of the park and then spent a few hours walking around the walk-through portion where Ryland reunited with his goat friend (we had no idea which one it was so we just guessed). We each got some souvenirs, ate some delicious snacks, and enjoyed our family outing!

2022

A year filled with so much love, adventure, and new beginnings.

In May, to celebrate Julia's 21st birthday, we took a trip to Vegas with our best friends. Although the trip ended in what we would describe as a "disaster" (that's a story for another time) it was such a fun experience. We got to go to America's Got Talent and see so many great performers, walked around the strip exploring places such as the M&M factory, and played slots all night thinking that we would leave with more than we brought in (that didn't end well).

In August, we went to see The Weeknd in Glendale, AZ which was part of Julia's birthday gift from 2020. Unfortunately, when Covid hit and everything shut down, the tour was cancelled. We weren't sure what was going to happen until late 2021, when he announced he would be coming to Arizona in 2022, so we made that our opportunity to go! We sang our hearts out, got a few t-shirts to remember the day, and had a blast!

In October, we made our first big purchase...OUR HOME! At the time, we both still lived at home with our parents when we decided that we wanted to make this adjustment. After a long few months of looking, shopping, planning, and budgeting, we finally found a home that would be perfect to start our life together in. We moved in, found some furniture and decor, had a few get togethers and settled in. Owning a home has been such an eye opening experience and has given us both the opportunity to grow in many ways. We are beyond blessed and grateful to have had this opportunity and to open the next chapters of our lives together.

That brings us to November and Rylands' birthday! We decided this year that we wanted to take a trip to the Midwest, as Ryland had never been. We met with Julia's best friend and her boyfriend, and spent a few days in the Wisconsin Dells, it was so fun! When we weren't at the water park, we were playing laser tag, mini golf, arcade games, and hanging out playing card games in the resort. It's safe to say that everyone's biggest highlight from that trip was spending a ton of money on arcade games and winning something we could have just bought at five below for $3.00!

After we said our goodbyes, we drove down to Illinois to visit Julia's home town. We met with some of her friends, visited some family members, and took a trip around the town so Ryland could see where Julia grew up. We spent a day walking around Millennium Park, where Ryland got to experience some of the most amazing things.. (The Bean and what it felt like to be pelted in the face with raindrops on a freezing cold and windy day). We can't wait to visit again, maybe in the summer this time!

And December, the month that gave us the biggest blessing of all, Milo, our two year old micro-mini goldendoodle. We were in no way prepared for, or planning on getting a dog. We just had a busy year traveling, buying a home, adjusting to our lives, not a chance we were going to add a dog into the mix. Wrong...we got a dog. Julia found the sweetest family in Utah who had the cutest puppies, and we instantly fell in love. We remember seeing the picture of him in the coffee mug and thinking, there's no way that dog is real. He was, incase you were wondering. We drove to Vegas, where we met the family and began our lives as a family of three.

2023

WE'RE ENGAGED!

We had just spent the previous year traveling, buying a home, and welcoming our fur baby into our lives, so this year we decided that we would take a step back, relax, and enjoy the wonderful accomplishments we'd made. However, what better time than the time you're supposed to be relaxing, to start a full garage remodel? Apparently there was no better time; this was it. Although it was a bit of a long process since we both worked crazy hours, it was our first home project together and we had so much fun. We held many late night concerts, had lots of laughs, and at one point told ourselves we probably shouldn't admit to anyone that we were the ones who did this remodel (it's okay, it turned out wonderful).

We spent most of our year with Milo, taking him to the puppy park and Grandma and Grandpa's house where he found his love for swimming. At first he was hesitant and didn't know what to do, but about a week later he became overly obsessed and now thinks every visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house is a pool party. This was also the year that we attempted to make him TikTok famous, that didn't go so well...we're still working on that.

In October, Ryland's family had a halloween costume party, and we thought we would be creative and make our own costumes. Milo's litter was originally named after characters in Despicable Me (his name being Gru) so we thought it was the perfect idea. Ryland was Gru, Julia was a purple minion (a terrifying version), and milo was an OG minion...boy was that a disaster. We had our costumes on, on the way to the party and for whatever reason completely forgot that we were in costume. The looks of the people in the car next to us when we stopped at a red light, snapped us back to reality real quick, we looked absolutely ridiculous. I think it's safe to say we're going to be buying our halloween costumes from here on out.

In October we attended a wedding for one of Ryland's good friends and had such a great time. We spent the night dancing, singing, and celebrating the newlyweds. When it was time for the garter toss, the DJ asked all the single men to step out onto the floor, Ryland got up from his seat and ran to the dance floor...that was confusing to say the least. The best part is, he caught it and began waving it in the air. The conversation later was that he was trying to show that we would be the next couple to get married.

On December 23, 2023 we spent the day at Julia's aunt's house for a Christmas get together. Julia's sister, Danielle, was in town, so we were trying to plan something to do once we left the function. Ryland came up with the idea of going hiking at Tortilla Flat with the dogs, and Danielle was beyond excited for that idea. While Julia wasn't thinking much of it, it was a bit odd that two people who have never offered up hiking as a fun option were now all of a sudden overly-excited avid hikers. Unbeknownst to Julia, Ryland had spoken to Danielle earlier in the day and asked her to be a photographer for his proposal, hence why they were both so excited. We got to Tortilla flat and Danielle asked us to take pictures of her and her dog, Kodiak. She then asked us if we wanted our pictures taken with Milo, which of course we did. She then suggested that we take pictures of just the two of us, and held Milo. Just as we were about to take our photos, a group of sports cars came racing down the mountain. Julia sat there and watched each one of them as they passed, not realizing that Ryland was down on one knee, for probably what seemed like an eternity. The last car drove by and honked, which Julia (unknowing why they honked), took as an insult, and yelled at them. Julia eventually turned around, and saw Ryland knelt down on one knee (his poor knee), with a ring in his hand.

In complete shock, Julia said yes (and screamed of course), and that is when our journey as future Mr. and Mrs. began!

2024

Work, Work, and More Work

In February, we took a day trip up North with Milo since he was a bit older, could hike, and play in the snow. We didn't really have anything planned, our only goal was to find snow, which honestly was not as thrilling as we had hoped. By the time we got there, it had all melted and our hike consisted of slush and mud...which in combination with an overly fluffy and curly puppy, was not great (for us at least; Milo had a blast). He got to explore off of his leash, and lead our hike. We stopped at a few puppy parks where Milo got to run and play with the other dogs and get his energy out before the long ride back home. Needless to say, that trip was more for Milo than it was us!

When we moved into our home in 2022, we knew there would be some expenses and renovations such as getting a new roof, remodeling the garage, etc. What we were not prepared for was a full master bathroom remodel. What started with some water leaking out of our shower, turned into a 5 month long project. Julia's dad worked tirelessly to help us create what we wanted while also giving us the opportunity to learn as we went. It's safe to say, without him we would likely still be watching a YouTube video on how to successfully take apart a toilet (the first step). Neither of us had ever done something like this before, so it was a new experience, but we had so much fun watching, learning, and creating memories. While we would like to take credit for the finished masterpiece since it looks incredible, all we can take credit for is the headaches Julia's dad went home with after working with us daily for 5 months straight.

We told ourselves after the bathroom remodel that we really needed to focus on saving for our wedding. We spent our nights playing tennis, watching The Rookie, going for drives, hanging out with friends, and enjoying our time together. During this time we also picked up DoorDashing in order to help us make a little extra money, which meant we were both working 7 days a week which was exhausting. In November, after spending Thanksgiving day with our families, we drove to California where we spent a few nights at the sand dunes. This time, we brought Milo and of course, he was the star of the show. Julia took him on all the long rides in Ryland's dads RZR and he had so much fun being the newest dune dog. He even got to show off his bright orange goggles, and little Christmas sweater. So sophisticated!

Just as we thought our hard work was paying off and we were on track with saving for the wedding, we were quickly humbled. Ryland's car had other plans for us and that unfortunately did not consist of us saving. At the end of December, we made our purchase and got Ryland a new car! Although the timing of his car giving out was not ideal, we are fortunate to have been able to make the switch and we are loving it. "I'll be outside washing the car" seems to be the new weekly quote around here.

2025

AND THE PLANNING BEGINS...

SEE YOU SOON