Summer & Tyler

You all wanted details on how I ended up with such an amazing catch so here goes...

first a little background:

I left Utah one year after Graduating BYU in '03 and ended up in Orange County from '04 until '08. Life was good, I had a good job, great roommates, and I loved where I lived, only 2 houses off of PCH in Corona Del Mar, a nice little area of Newport Beach. In May of 2008, I left it all behind to move into the "investment" property I bought in 2006 just down the street from my older brother, Trevor.

For the first 5 months, it felt as though I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I hate the weather here, and owning your own home isn't all it's cracked up to be... those general sentiments all changed once I started dating the most beautiful girl I had ever had the chance to even just be around... and strangely enough, she somehow thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Not sure how I lucked out... but in retrospect, it's funny to see that everything happens for a reason. I have a great group of friends who are all in some way responsible for me and Summer ending up together. My best friend, Greg McGrath introduced me to Eric Bork, who I moved in with in Huntington Beach back in 2004. Eric Bork introduced me to his roommate and co-worker Seth Lytle, my current roommate and good friend since Seth needed a place to live as Eric was moving to Provo. Seth introduced me to his group of friends he had grown up with when I went to his birthday party, and in that group was Summer, the first girl to catch my eye since I had moved to Utah less than 3 weeks earlier.

Summer and I had talked off and on, and it wasn't until I was actually dating someone else (for the first time in years) that she decided she wanted to pursue things with me. I'm a sucker for half-Japanese girls, but never in my life have I come across a woman as sweet, as beautiful, and as affectionate as Summer. It didn't take long for us to fall in love, and within a month we were already exchanging "I love you's" despite the fact that both of us had had our hearts broken before which should only make one be more cautious than we were...

It seemed impossible to stop though, and it only took us a few months before we both knew that we wanted to be with each other forever. Summer had gotten divorced the year before, so we weren't too keen on waiting for months on end before the opportunity to marry in the Temple would be available. We knew what we wanted and we wanted it now.

So... with no warning to our family in friends we took the opportunity to get away to California for President's day weekend. The purpose was to take the first vacation either of us had had in months, and to finally "meet the parents" - Summer's family lives in Ventura County, just north of LA. We had talked somewhat jokingly about eloping and had even let it get to the point of us looking at Vegas wedding websites just days before our anticipated departure for California. Well, neither of us balked when we'd share a link for a wedding package online, or when Summer had finally made room reservations in Vegas so when our day of departure came (Friday the 13th of February) we were somewhat nervous, but nevertheless ready to go forward with our plan.

We almost got held up by my roommate Seth who was getting me his February rent payment in cash, and so when we finally hit the road, it was almost 7 PM in UT. We didn't pull into Vegas until about 11:50 local time, and by the time we reached the door of what we thought was the Marriage License Bureau, we were the 2nd to last ones in the door before they locked them.

While filling out the Marriage License application, Summer remarked that she didn't know that my dad's real name was Roger and not Nick. The guy behind the counter asked us how well we knew each other half-jokingly, but after about 5 minutes, he had a printed Marriage License for us, the first one issued in the state of Nevada on February 14, 2009.

Only 10 minutes later, we were across the street and one block down in a little chapel where they gave us the option to marry in the "flower chapel" for $400, by the fountain for $200, or at the walk-up window for $99. Without hesitation my beautiful bride-to-be said "walk-up window" and we found ourselves at the window after a 15 minute wait, holding each other's hands and exchanging vows. I'll admit I got a little teary eyed... but strangely enough, neither of us were nervous in the least. It all felt so right.

So after the ceremony, we checked into our "honeymoon suite" at the Monte Carlo, I'll leave the rest to imagination, but we got into Southern California on Saturday early afternoon, and shared our news with only one lucky couple, my best friend Greg McGrath and his wife Michelle. We kept it to ourselves until Sunday evening when we shared it with one of Summer's close friends, who coincidentally was named after my mother (her mom and mine were roommates freshman year at BYU).

Summer couldn't keep it quiet Monday morning and we dropped the news on her parents, who took it surprisingly well. I was greeted as their favorite son-in-law (also the only son-in-law) and it was actually a great experience sharing the news with them. We drove back through a non-stop rain and snowstorm on Monday and waited until Tuesday evening to let my parents know.

I was somewhat nervous of how they would react, but given that they were already obsessed with Summer, I was pretty sure they'd be happy. My dad was somewhat paranoid that I'd somehow screw it up with such an amazing catch, so when they found out... the 15 seconds of silence got me nervous, but as I expected, they were elated at the news.

Yes, it was impulsive, yes it was crazy, but absolutely yes, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. I'm so excited to share the rest of my life with this woman, and sometime this summer I'll be sending you an invitation to our reception. At this point I have no idea of where we'll register, but if I could, I'll register at Costco.