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How We Met


Our wedding day, June 2001

We met in college where we were both in the musical theatre department and it was love at first sight. Well, almost. During the first week of school (Lara’s first year, Justin’s third), the theatre professor held a cookout at his home, which involved a competitive game of croquet. Justin was the judge or referee or whatever kind of official croquet games have. Lara noticed him in his striped shirt with a whistle hanging around his neck and thought he was pretty cute. During the game, she broke a few rules (a.k.a. cheated) and Justin thought she was so adorable that he let her get away with it.

Later as they were sitting around the campfire, Lara decided it was time to get to know this cute guy. She sat next to him and as soon as she sat down, Justin stood up and left. Lara took that as a pretty big hint that he was not interested. Though now Justin says he was just oblivious.

A week or so later, we sat next to each other at the campus café and started talking. There was instant chemistry and sparks were flying. Justin asked Lara out for that evening and we were inseparable from then on. After our date we stayed up all night talking. We spent every waking moment getting to know each other and falling in love.

After ten days, Justin surprised Lara with a diamond ring and a proposal. Though it was fast, we knew it was right (Lara will argue that ten days wasn’t too fast. We spent practically every minute together since we had all the same classes and the same schedule. So rather than looking at our courtship as only lasting ten days, you can say it lasted 240 hours or 14,400 minutes. It takes some couples months to spend that much time together. So there!). Nine months later, we were married in the Idaho Falls Temple.

We’ve now been married ten years
and are still madly in love.
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