us...a love story

the other day i was thinking about time, how fast it goes, and how quickly one year turns into 5 and then 15.  i have lived up here in the last frontier for 15 years.   seems like just yesterday that i stepped onto a plane and headed north to visit this boy i met, fell in love with and couldn't stop thinking about.  


in the summer of 1996 i had just finished my first year of college.  i was attending our local junior college because i really had no clue what i wanted to be when i grew up.  i was still living at home and set to be one of the bridesmaids in my big brothers wedding that june.  i knew all the groomsmen except one.  this guy i had heard so much about who went to college with my brother and was from alaska.  my brother is four years older than me and i honestly had never thought about dating any of his friends.  "alaska" would be flying in the week before the wedding to hang out and see california.  i arrived at the airport to pick him up with my brother and when i saw him i had this feeling.  a feeling that is so hard to describe, but i knew right then that this was the "one".  i know it sounds impossibly crazy, but its so true.  we spent the entire week together and after he left we spent another two weeks on the phone and planning for me to come to visit.  i had never really been away from home and never traveled by myself, so this was pretty exciting.  all my friends thought i was crazy, but it all felt so right.  i spent two weeks here visiting, seeing alaska, and meeting his family.  after the two weeks i flew home to california, packed my stuff, hopped back on a plane to my new home, alaska.   


we sit here tonight 15 and a half years later with our two kids, two dogs and some old videos of our high school days.  our kids think its hilarious to watch us and while they are giggling, i start to think as i watch my husbands senior year football tapes and wonder what i was doing then, 3000 miles away and 5 1/2 years younger.  wow!!  5 years was an eternity back then.  


i have to say thank you, to my brother for introducing me to my alaska, my best friend, my hero, my soul mate.

so funny to look back at these photos!!  we look so young!!