One Year.

March 1st marked one whole year of dating for me and Dev.  

365 days. 4 seasons. Holidays. Birthdays. Vacations. 

We've done it all!

(in order of events)

Our story actually began 6 years ago. Me and my friend, Layne were walking out of church early, when some unfamiliar faces (who were sitting in the foyer, not in class) tried to convince us to stay and hang out with them. We exchanged numbers and started to hang out. Longboarding down to the strip, hot tubbing, and guitar playing at the caves were how we spent many nights that spring. That is until the boys' job abruptly ended and they headed home to Utah. Dev and I had bonded over our similar tastes in music, but he had a girlfriend so I didn't think too much of it.  We continued to keep in touch through occasional texting until he broke up with his girlfriend and somehow we ended up talking more regularly. Texts turned to phone conversations and phone conversations turned to road trips  I remember planning out our life together in the wave pool of Seven Peaks. However, things fizzled and the next thing I knew, baby Matix was on his way. One last phone call to fill Devin in, and that was the end of that.

...Or so I thought.

Fast forward 5 years later and I was newly divorced and re-added Dev on Facebook. He was happily dating someone but we began to converse occasionally. His relationship ended and his job started bringing him to Vegas once a month. We started hanging out and then his sisters played MASH with him during conference and I won. Our fate was sealed. We were to me married on October 14, 2012 and live a poor life with medium love. Sounds romantic to me. But if we were to be married, we needed to start dating. The joke turned into a reality and after a few long distant trips to see each other we officially became boyfriend/girlfriend. We owe our love to MASH. 

For Christmas, Devin bought me something on my bucket list: A hot air balloon ride. And we finally booked it just in time for our anniversary. It was perfect! The weather was great and our pilot was super cool! Highly recommended. Bucket List: CHECK!

Here's my first attempt at making a video to recap our experience:



Love my Devy Baby. 

valentine's day.

Valentine's Day marks one year of actually dating for me and Devin. It was last year at Valentine's Day that we took the step towards actually dating and actually admitted to ourselves and each other how we felt, instead of joking about the idea that we were getting married in October of 2012 based on a general conference mash game his sister made a few months earlier. Romantic, I know. So I was kind of looking forward to Valentine's Day this year. It brought back the memories of the butterflies I got last year when Devin called to wish me a happy Valentine's Day. And I remember how I frantically thought about something to get him since he took me to Love that weekend, and I felt like I should get him something but wanted to play it cool and not scare him away. And I didn't even know if he really liked me, but I knew that I really liked him. And...oh man. How much has changed in a year!

This year we celebrated twice. Devin had to work on Valentine's Day so we went on a little date the night before. He planned the whole afternoon and evening. The Neon Boneyard which was awesome because my uncles business...YESCO owns most of the signs there and is a huge part of the history of Las Vegas. After that we stopped by the infamous LV sign, the art gallery and then went to a murder mystery dinner show downtown called Marriage Can Be Murder. We've been really curious about these things and even if we were one of the few non-senior citizens there....we actually both really loved it. And the food was pretty good too. I would recommend it. We ended the night cuddling and naming the star Dev bought me. Bucket List...Check. We decided on Dean Allecca. It's the combination of all our middle names. I love it. Plus it sounds so star-ish to me. I don't care if you disagree. 

The next night me and Matix spent most of the day preparing a homemade dinner for Dev after his long day of work. We never cook so it was definitely a treat. I think I impressed him iwth my cooking for once. He had to follow the string around the house to find it. And Matix was super stoked. We ended the night playing Wii as a family, our favorite family pastime. 

♥

The City.

A few weekends ago, my super awesome boyfriend's super awesome job took him to New York for some work things. And being that my boyfriend is just that--super awesome--he decided that it would be super awesome if I joined him. Especially because I have a super awesome friend who recently relocated there. So we packed our carryon bags for five super awesome days in one of my favorite cities. 

The red eye went quick but the next day was long. I'm sure that was partly due to the fact that subways were having traffic congestion and I didn't even know that was possible. But we finally made it to the upper west side to Brynn's apartment in the sky. We almost didn't make it because Devin was distracted by the fireplace in her lobby, but I was cranky and wouldn't stop til I found a bed to catch some shut eye. Four hours later we hit the streets to find food. Indian it was. Dev needed to get some work done so his was hand delivered by yours truly. Plus he had a hard time leaving his newest bestie: Beju the hairless cat. He later nicknamed her Bejeweled and after that, their bond was unbreakable.  We had a movie watching snuggle party for the rest of the night and it super awesome.

The next day we had a mission. And that mission was accomplished when we scored spectacular seats  to Newsies on Broadway for a super awesome price. Our next mission was to eat super awesome food. That always happens to be our default mission. We ate at Stardust Diner and Shake Shack. And saw "Starry Night" in real life. Talk about a jaw dropping experience. Speaking of Jaw Dropping. Newsies. Also Jaw dropping.

Brooklyn was our plans for Saturday. I'd never been to Brooklyn before so I was quite excited. Especially since we were starting or day at The Brooklyn Flea. I had my heart set on one item: a vinyl record clock. And wussed out. I've regretted it ever since. However, meeting Epperson from Project Runway season 6 almost made up for it. Is it pathetic that I recognized him? He was stoked about it we are now homies for life.  No shame. #realitytvjunkie Then we ate delicious gelato while planning out how to accomplish my second mission of the trip: find Sister Zimet. Which happened to be a SUCCESS. It took a lot of scheming and maybe a little bit of lying but WE DID IT! Tears were shed and it was the most joyous reunion of three best friends ever! We were on such a high that we just had to feast. And that we did at the most delicious restaurant in Chelsea Market. By that time is was snowing and time to have another reunion...with the boy who spent the whole day working.

Super Bowl Sunday was filled with church going, The Met browsing, play watching (we couldn't resist), napping, and football watching while feasting.  I picked Once. He picked Newsies. He loved Once. I loved Newsies. How perfect are we for each other?! Aweee. And then there was Beyonce. Who won the superbowl.

Our last day in the City started off at the butt crack of dawn to go watch the Early Show. We froze our butts off but we made it on television several times so it was all worth it. Then we headed back to Brooklyn for more missionary fun. This time it was planned, but just as good. Oh how we miss our Janey. Then it was time for the dreaded goodbyes all around and we made our final subway ride back to JFK. 

I Love New York City!!