Engagements...

We had our engagement pictures taken at my Grandparent's house in Charleston. They live right on Deer Creek Reservoir. It's beautiful and it's one of my all time favorite places to be. I am so grateful that our photographer (Annie Duckworth: V-Photography) suggested it. I will cherish these photos forever..

Here's just a few of my favorites:

Wait... how long has he been home?

I am pretty positive that this question ran through everybody's head when they found out we were engaged. Especially people who didn't really know us that well.

Let's be honest... me and John always knew we were going to get married. I had lots of ideas of what I wanted for a wedding  (thanks to pinterest, mostly) and guess what? I bought my wedding dress a whole month before John came home.. I know for a fact only a select few people know this. Surprise! Call it what you want (most people think it's crazy) but I went to try on dresses on my birthday in Saint George and I absolutely fell in love with one. It was PERFECT. Everything I could ever want in a wedding dress. I couldn't pass it up.. and besides.. it was one less thing to have on my ToDo list when John and I decided to get married.

Marriage talk came up very shortly after John got home.. obviously. We knew what we wanted. Now we just had to put a time frame on it. I honestly didn't think we would get married any sooner than November of 2013. That was the SOONEST that ran through my head. Little did I know I was very wrong, but believe me, I am NOT complaining :)  John got home June 18th. We looked at rings for the first time mmm.. mid July? We chose and booked our reception center and had our photographer booked with engagement pictures set by the end of July. The only thing that was missing was that ring on my finger. I was getting anxious.. It was August 2nd and we had tickets to the Brad Paisley concert. For those of you who don't know us.. Brad Paisley is just our thing. He sings "our song" and Brad Paisley was the first concert John ever went to and it was our first concert together. I had hoped that he was going to engage somehow during the concert but I was almost certain that he wouldn't because I would be expecting it.

Little did I know.. he had it all planned out. He was going to propose while Brad Paisley was singing our song. However... I totally ruined this plan. Let's rewind a couple of days... Wednesday he had flowers delivered that had a note saying "Because I love you"

The next night he doorbell ditched a butt load of candy on my porch. Each candy had a little "because" note. I didn't get any pictures of them and I so wish I would have because I don't remember what they all were. 

Okay now it's the day of the concert.. well on the way to dinner John wanted me to drive he said it was "because he wasn't familiar with City Creek (which is where we were going to dinner) so he didn't want to get us lost" so as i'm driving he snuck the ring box in to my purse. He couldn't keep the ring in his pocket because he had written in the box "because you're my best friend" so he couldn't proposed without the box... Well here's where I ruined his whole proposal. We get to the concert and I am debating whether I want to take my purse in or not. He was so sweet and offered to hold it if I got sick of it.. but NOOOOO I insisted that he shove it under the seat and leave it in the car. He was just trying to make me happy so guess what? He shoved the purse under the seat and that was that. We went in to the concert. We sat in the pit and we were so close to Brad Pitt I could have grabbed his butt if I wanted. It was AMAZING. Well.. the concert ended and no proposal. I wasn't sad because I figured he wouldn't do it because I would be expecting it.. but we were running out of time.. Our engagement pictures were scheduled to be taken in 5 days and we still weren't "officially" engaged. We got in the car started driving home. Well if you've ever been to a concert at USANA you know that traffic is a beast to get out of. So we were just sitting in the car stopped and he just casually asked me to get chapstick out of my purse. Well he had put my ring in the side pocket where the chapstick was and so when I went to open it there was my cute little ring box. That was that. He asked me to marry him.. right there in my cute little Ford Fiesta. It was not how he planned (thanks to me) and not how I expected it to be.. but it was perfect! 

Welcome Home, Elder Kendrick!!

Two years... are you kidding? I still don't understand how two years flew by so fast. Some days were longer than others but for the most part it FLEW by. I tell John all the time that it doesn't even feel like he was gone for two years. I mean, come on, two years is a LONG time and I basically blinked and it was over.

I had a lot of great experiences while John was gone.. I was able to get my associates degree, got a dental assisting certificate, lived in Kansas for 3 months with my brother, sister in-law, and adorable nephews, got my first "big girl job", strengthened my testimony and realized how crazy I truly was about John.

After two phone calls a year (mother's day and christmas), hundreds of emails and probably even more letters, it was time to prepare for John to come home. What a crazy emotional month I had preparing for this. I never had any doubts that everything between me and John would work out, but we were about to see each other for the first time in TWO YEARS. June 18th came quick. I had to work for part of the day.. but let's be honest, I don't think I really worked. I was SO anxious. I got off work, met my friends at my house, freshened up and we headed to the airport. John's flight was a little bit late and then we waited.. and waited... and waited.. I swear we were at the airport for HOURS.

There he was. This was the moment I had been waiting for.. my handsome boyfriend was headed down the escalator and he was beaming! 

I melted. Do you blame me? Just look at him :)

As soon as we made eye contact a wave of relief came over me. I just knew. Nothing had changed. We were still crazy about each other. I waited for him to hug all of his family members and then it was my turn. We hugged. We took a picture and then it was time to head out. I remember getting back in to my car and just losing it. All of my emotions just came out. He was FINALLY home. It's over. We can finally move forward with out relationship. It was the best two years and I literally would not do anything different even if I could. We both grew so much and being apart just made us realize how much we love each other. 

We all headed over to his house for dinner. I remember every time we would catch eye contact, or he would put his hand on my leg my stomach would just go crazy. It was so natural.. but it was so exciting again. Like it was when we first started dating. 

Was it hard? Of course.

Was it worth it?

ABSOLUTELY.