At the time I was struggling, because my best friends were in Provo, UT at BYU and I didn't really have someone who 'got' me. I did have wonderful roommates, but it wasn't the same. It was nice how easily and quickly Zak and I 'clicked'. It was like he was my best friend, only in male form. He was easy to talk to and fun to be around and always made me laugh and feel special. One night we were chatting on-line and he asked if I wanted to go stadium singing with him. But we were both lazy and didn't feel quite motivated to go sing in the cold February night air...So I flipped a coin and it turned out that we ended up going. It was a lot of fun, as usual. When we got back that night, we started chatting on-line again, and I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I do know that I asked him out. I'm sure he had told me how much he liked me and pretty I was, and I went for it. So it was official, February 12, 2007.
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| our first couple picture |
The next two months at school were great, even Valentine's Day was awesome, although we had just gotten together. He made a CD for me and played me a song he wrote for me on his guitar, I swooned. We loved spending time together, especially exploring the buildings on campus! That was really fun and some of the best memories I have of BYU-I. April brought the end of the semester and my parents to Idaho to come take me and my stuff home. I talked them into letting Zak stay with us the week he had off before the summer semester started. That week in California changed our relationship. We had kind of decided to end things, but by the end of the week, I had made my decision: I was going to marry Zak...eventually. So the week ended and he went back to Idaho and I stayed in California. It was a rough summer, but we spent as much time as we could talking on the phone or on-line, writing e-mails and letters, and sending boxes to each other. Although it sucked to be apart, we were able to get to know each other really well.
Once his semester was over, I had earned enough money to go visit him and his family in Connecticut. That was so much fun, and I fell in love with Connecticut. His family was great and loved me, and although it was humid, it was a great, great trip.
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| Rose Garden in Hartford, CT |
The plan was for him to come to Rexburg for the fall semester and work while I went to school. Unfortunately, that didn't work out as planned. I didn't even find out until I was in Rexburg that Zak was on academic probation and couldn't live in the student housing he had put a deposit on, and it turned out that he didn't make it out to Idaho that semester. That semester sucked. I had new roommates, who were awful, and I didn't have Zak. But fortunately for Zak, he was able to get a job and earned a lot of money and made some great friends. He was going to surprise me for my birthday (December 28), but I made him tell me that he had plans to come visit me in California. His trip to CA was awesome, it was nice to celebrate my birthday (20th) with him and my family. He had met most of them the previous April, but it was still a bit overwhelming, as almost all my family live in CA and there's almost 30 of us now.
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| being silly at my parents' house |
Winter semester 2008 was better, although it was one of the coldest winters I've experienced in Rexburg. I had better roommates (except for one crazy one) and Zak was at the local community college to get enough credits to make it back in BYU-Idaho. Our one year anniversary wasn't too bad; he had beautiful roses sent to my apartment. It was so perfect: I had just walked home in the frozen snow and ice from a 2-hour drawing class that sucked my soul away, and saw these beautiful red roses waiting for me on the counter. It was so sweet. We had sent each other boxes as well, which was great.
I went to visit Zak in CT once his school semester was over, in May. The trip was amazing, like the rest had been. It was nice to spend time with him and his family, but mostly with him! Before every trip I got really anxious--what if he didn't think I was pretty or cute anymore, what if we weren't as in love as I thought?--but the fears and tears were gone the second he scooped me up in his arms at the airport. Every time we got to be together we were both so happy.
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| New Jersey shore |
The next fall went as planned, he had been accepted back into BYU-Idaho and came to work in Rexburg that semester. I had the worst roommate that semester, who was engaged. She and her fiancé had only been dating 7 months, and Zak and I had been together for a year and a half! I starting getting antsy--it seemed like everyone around was getting engaged but us. There were some arguments and discrepancies, and as much as I wished it had happened that semester, it wasn't the plan. That Christmas was spent apart, but we were back together in January.
The winter 2009 semester was much better. I had moved to a different apartment, which was a two minute walk from Zak's place, so it was nicer than the previous journeys to apartments. Unfortunately, our 2-year anniversary was on a Thursday, the most awful day of the week for us both: Zak had a lab for his geology class, and I had an art seminar in the evening. Of course the art seminar that was on our anniversary was the ONLY one in February; all the rest were in March! I had e-mailed Zak's mom to get her recipe for chicken pot pie, Zak's favorite. I was planning on surprising him with it for dinner; I kind of hoped something special was going to happen that night, also. Zak actually had a test for his lab class, and got back from it early, so we quickly ate dinner, which was delicious, and ran off to my art seminar together.
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| I tried to make it really special! |
We snuck out a little early and went to one of our favorite buildings on campus, the Romney. Well, I had to use the bathroom anyways, and it was nice and warm inside. Our favorite place in the building is by this elephant periodic table on the second level.
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| awesome, right?! |
I remember sitting on the benches by the poster, just waiting, but I didn't know what for. There were some people walking around and I noticed Zak started getting a little nervous. But the next thing I knew, he was down on his knees, opening a white ring box and asking me to marry him. It was 100% not was I was expecting (I figured we would go for a walk later that evening or something, I don't know) and it unbelievable. I couldn't even speak, I had started to crying and all I could do was hug him and nod. Eventually I did say the word 'yes', though. We quickly walked back to the lounge area in Zak's apartment complex to call family and friends. It turns out that Zak had called my parents a few days before to ask their permission, which I thought was nice.
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| my beautiful, vintage ring |
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| one of our favorite engagement pictures |
The next few months kind of flew by but also took forever. I was fortunate enough to be selected to go on the school's Humanities Europe tour and spent 3 weeks in May traveling through England, France, Italy, Austria, and Germany. Zak and I were able to talk almost every day, even for a few minutes. He had decided to stay in Rexburg to work and go to school. My younger brother, Kenny was called to serve in the Stockholm, Sweden mission and left for that in July; he was not able to make it to the wedding, which was scheduled for August.
The wedding took place on Friday, August 7, 2009. It was as close to perfect as any day has ever been. We were married in the beautiful Oakland, California temple with most of our family and friends present. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, especially for August. The pictures went well, despite our huge number of family members, but it all got sorted out. My best friends took our pictures, and did an excellent job! The flowers were incredible; my mom, aunt, grandma, friends and mom's friend from work made the bouquets from pink and white roses we got from Costco the night before. Everyone looked great, one of my best friends did my hair and it looked amazing. It was just perfect. The family luncheon at my aunt and uncle's house with a short but lovely ring ceremony went wonderfully and it was so great to be able to eat some food and spend time with our families before the big reception. We had smartly planned for an evening reception and were grateful for that--we were able to eat a good lunch and even rest for about 45 minutes before guests starting showing up. We had the reception at my grandparents' house, and it was great--my cousins and brother and I had spent weeks preparing the front and backyards for the reception and everything looked beautiful. We didn't get to eat the food until we were at the hotel, but it was great. Our cake was perfect, absolutely splendid--my friend's mom did it for us and it was exactly what I wanted. The tables and the centerpieces that my mom and I spent hours and hours trying to figure out looked awesome; it was just a perfect day.
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| my favorite picture of the two of us on our wedding day |
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| another favorite |
We spent a few days in Monterey, CA for our honeymoon, and then came back to my parent's house for a few days. They were gracious enough to drive us and our wedding gifts up to Idaho the week after the wedding. Zak had gotten us a place months before and was told it would either be furnished or there would be some stuff in the basement for tenants. Neither of those things worked out. I was really upset at the beginning of the day, but everything did work out. We got an excellent deal on a bed, and found some decent furniture from the D.I. store. My parents helped move us in and we were lucky enough to find a car that same day!
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| 3 years together/6 months married anniversary |
We lived in a windowless apartment from August until I graduated in April of 2012. It's wonderful not only to go to bed and wake up with each other, but to have everything in the kitchen belong to just us! It has really been fun, living together. We spent one weekend in Yellowstone, since I had never been and it seemed silly to be so close to it for years and never go. For the holidays, we went to Connecticut for a week--his parents planned an open house for us on the day after Christmas, which was a lot of fun, we had a good turnout and enjoyed delicious food. The next week--we actually flew on my birthday--was spent in California, which was great, despite a few hiccups (a storm delaying our initial flight to CT, flying on my birthday and having to wait 4 hours at the airport, Zak being sick on New Year's Eve/Day). It was great to be able to see both of our families and friends.
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| goofballs at the De Young museum in San Francisco |
Our next step in life was my graduation and our move to Moscow, ID. I graduated in April; my grandparents and parents and sister came up, and it was so great to spend some time with them. A few days after graduation, we moved to Moscow, ID. We moved into a great townhouse apartment, complete with two bathrooms, a garden area and lots of windows! While we lived there, I worked for about a year at Macy's before leaving. Zak worked for 2 years at a jewelry store, Harry Ritchie's Jewelers. I also ended up working part-time as a hostess at Smoky Mountain Pizzeria & Grille for about 6 months. With our first year in Moscow came the disappointment of Zak not being able to go to school because he didn't have enough proof to verify his Idaho residency and without that, we couldn't afford tuition. He worked and worked at Harry Ritchie's and eventually got his residency issue sorted out. My little sister Jenna has visited me a few times in the summer, and it's always been a blast. Zak's grandparents and cousins live 2 1/2 hours away, in Washington. We try to see them for holidays, it's always nice to spend time with family and take a little break.
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| Halloween 2011; I was Belle from Beauty & the Beast, Zak was a lumberjack |
2012 has been a big year for us. Zak finally decided on his major: Recreation and Resource Tourism (minor in Parks, Wilderness & Protected Lands Management). He plans on going into the forest service and hopefully staying in the Northwest. He has 3 more semesters to go before his projected graduation date o April 2014. It'll be so nice to have him done with school! For his internship, he has been doing 'ride-alongs' with the local forest ranger. It's been really great for him. It's nice to see him happy with his classes and future plans. I finally got a great, full-time job in Pullman (Moscow's 'sister city', 10 miles away in Washington) at a place called Digilent. We manufacture & sell educational circuit boards and stuff engineering students use. I process orders and I just love it. It's so wonderful to finally love my job and not dread going to it every day. We also moved to a new place that we are in love with. It's the bottom of a house (not exactly a basement, kind of like a duplex) and it has tons of storage space, a yard, washer/dryer...it's lovely. We also found a great deal on a piano for me and have slowly been furnishing our place. It's starting to look and feel like a home.
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| celebrating 3 happy years! |
We are in love with the Palouse region and plan to stay in Moscow as long as we can. Hopefully Zak's job search will land him in this area or somewhere in the northwest region. The weather here isn't bad, the people are nice, and there is a surprising amount of culture and a focus on local, community events and products. It's a lovely haven in Idaho and we are thrilled with it. We have most recently celebrated 3 years of marriage, and are doing very well. We have a great group of close friends that we spend time with and love our lives at the moment.
So that is the story of Zak and Rachel. There have been some ups and downs, but we are very proud with our relationship and how it's been able to withstand so many trials. We're so excited to be moving onto a new part of our life together!
