...katy & brandon...: The Beginning

Katy

I was born in Santa Monica, California. I'm the oldest of five. I have one sister and three brothers. I love them. A LOT. We moved to Pleasant View, Utah when I was four. I grew up there. I went to Weber High School. After graduating, I moved to Logan to go to Utah State University. I studied elementary education. I loved it. A LOT.

I graduated from Utah State University in May 2010. I got a job teaching 3rd grade at Mountain Green Elementary. I moved to South Ogden for three years while I was teaching there. At the end of the three years, the contract for my apartment ended. I had a friend who wanted me to come live with her in Logan for the summer. I had the summer off, so I moved up there. I have always loved being in Logan. All summer I had been praying and praying about where I was supposed to live. Towards the end of the summer, I had a strong feeling I should counsel with my bishop about it. While meeting with him, I received the strongest answer I have ever gotten in my life. It was that I needed to stay in Logan. School was starting in two weeks and I didn't want to leave my job in Mountain Green when they were counting on me being there, so I commuted all year. I was in the car over 2 1/2 hours almost every day. I was living in Logan, teaching in Mountain Green, and working on my master's degree from Weber State University. I was SO busy! People would ask me all the time why I was commuting and I would tell them confidently that it was what I knew I needed to do.

Long story short, I met someone up there and almost married him. However, I didn't feel like it was right, so I called it off. That fall, a guy named Brandon Ashcroft moved into my YSA ward. I was dating someone else at the time, so I didn't talk to him at all. When I broke up with that guy, I started to notice Brandon.

After talking to each other a few times, Brandon called and asked me out. I was so excited, I started jumping up and down. I had been wanting him to ask me out. Our first date was December 11, 2014. We went on a triple date with his roommates and two other girls. We went to dinner and saw the lights at Temple Square. It ended up being about a 6-hour date, because we drove from Logan to Salt Lake and back. Brandon and I talked the whole time. We loved being together even from the beginning.

Brandon ended up taking me on 4 dates in one week. Then, he went home to California for Christmas break. While he was gone we texted each other every day. On New Year's Eve Brandon texted me exactly at midnight and said, "Happy New Year, Katy!" The next morning I told my mom that I thought this guy really liked me. Then, he came back to Logan. He held my hand and kissed me on our sixth date on my doorstep. It was perfect. :)

From that time forward, we saw each other every night (except for one). Brandon was different from the other guys I'd dated. I felt so comfortable with him. It just felt right. I loved being with him and always wanted to be with him. It was easy for me to fall in love with him.

Brandon

I was born in Provo, UT and my parents moved to California after I was born. I grew up in Clovis, CA as the oldest of four kids. I graduated from Clovis High in 2005, and that November left on a mission for Ukraine for 2 years where I learned to love sharing the gospel with the people there. When I got home I went to BYU and loved it there. I got a degree in actuarial science and graduated in 2012.

I had a difficult time passing my actuarial exams and after another frustrating failure I decided to go back to school. I decided to embrace my destiny and become an engineer. So after substituting, being a math aid, reffing, and being an EFY counselor, I went back to start a second bachelor's degree. This time I moved up to Logan and started at Utah State in the fall of 2013.

My second year at Utah State I moved into an apartment with some great roommates who I didn't know before and had never met. I was in a new ward as usual, and toward the end of my first semester I started noticing this girl that I thought I should ask out. She was cute, friendly, and close to my age, so I asked her out.

I enjoyed spending time with Katy. She was only the second girl I had ever dated consistently. She was so easy to talk to and have fun with. She never even said anything about our first awkward kiss (I was not an experienced kisser at the time). I tried taking her ice skating on several occasions, but it has never worked out. That's still on our bucket list. We continued to date and fall in love.

Here are a few pictures from when we were dating: