This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

My brother is getting married next month, my sister just got engaged, and Valentine's Day is tomorrow. All of these combined have me in a sentimental and lovey mood, so I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share my love story. Complete with embarrassing old photos of Ben and me! I don't think I've ever shared this here before...it's probably going to be way more than you any of you ever wanted to know about us, haha! But hope you enjoy. :D I've documented the last several years of our lives pretty thoroughly on this blog & my Instagram, so I'll spare you ALL the photos. But I put in a few from our early days (back when we had a point and shoot camera and flip phones...so the photo quality is prettyyyy bad).

First came (young) love...

Technically, Ben and I met when we were thirteen and fifteen! Practically babies! It was at a high school church retreat, and I had a crush at first sight. We talked, I made him laugh, we hacky sacked together, and when I got home, I wrote in my diary that I was going to marry Ben Allen one day. Evidently, I didn't make as big of an impression on him (whaaat, no declarations of love in your diary, Ben?!) but he does remember me from that time. Over the next few years, we saw each other at a few more church gatherings. We didn't grow up in the same city, so it was only a couple times of year. Each time, I still thought Ben was super attractive, but nothing happened. In 2006, I moved to Seattle for college. I was going to the University of Washington and moving into an apartment near campus with two girlfriends. The first week after we moved in, we had some friends over. Ben also knew several of those same people, and he ended up getting invited through a mutual friend. We talked a little bit and sparks flew. We were both interested, but for the next couple months, we just hung out casually in that same friend group. We played ultimate Frisbee, made bonfires on the beach, drank bubble tea, and explored Seattle. Moving to a new city was already exciting, and getting to know Ben during that time made it all the more fun and memorable!

Another church retreat was coming up on Whidbey Island (about an hour from Seattle), and Ben offered to give me and my roommates a ride. I took him up on it (DUH!) and asked if I could borrow a sleeping bag from someone in his family, since I didn't bring mine when I moved. When we got back, after Ben dropped us off, I realized that I still had his sleeping bag so I called him up to let him know. He asked what I was doing the rest of the day (nothing much) and decided to come back to "get the sleeping bag" and hang out some more. We ended up going to the Space Needle, getting coffee at the observation deck, and talking all evening as we watched the city lights, until they closed. The next day Ben called and asked me out to dinner (we got Indian food, which is probably why, to this day, I always feel like Indian food on romantic occasions--ha!), then we went to Edmonds Beach where he asked me to be his girlfriend. Who knew borrowing a sleeping bag could change my life forever?

this is the car ride right back from that retreat.

Then he put a ring on it...

Because Ben and I started dating so young (I was seventeen, he was nineteen), we dated for quite awhile before getting engaged. I actually knew he was "the one" fairly early on in our relationship though. I mean, I already knew at thirteen right?! ;) But we wanted to finish college before getting married.

Even though we had a plan, I started getting antsy after we'd been dating for two years. I'd found my perfect man, and I wanted a sparkly ring to make it official! I dropped some hints that I would be fine with a long engagement, and we went ring shopping "just for fun" to find out my ring size, see what styles we liked, and look at GIA Certified Diamond Rings.

On February 6th 2009, almost exactly 10 years ago, Ben asked me to marry him at Edmonds Beach, the same spot where he'd asked me to be his girlfriend. He brought cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, we sat there and watched the ferry gliding across the water, then he asked me to take a picture of him and handed me his camera case. Inside it was a ring box, dangling from the camera cord, and inside the box was a perfect, beautiful, diamond ring. Ben got down on two knees (yes, two! he was nervous), said some nice things, and of course, I said "YESSSS!!!" That's why Edmonds (where we lived for four years) will always be special to me. We have so many significant memories there, from the beginning of our dating relationship to bringing our first baby home...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A straight up terrible photo of me, but it's the only one I have from that night (ahh, the pre-social media days when you only took one photo of a significant event)

Next we planned a wedding!

One nice thing about a long engagement (ours was a year and a half), is that we had plenty of time to plan our "perfect" wedding. But while we had lots of time, we didn't have lots of money...so I tried to find budget-friendly alternatives for everything. I shopped thrift stores for the centerpieces, crafted paper decor, got my wedding dress online, and rented grills so we could make burgers for the food. We enlisted the help of family and friends for a lot of things. Our photographer was a friend. Ben's dad make the cake (plus hundreds of cookies!). Both of our families made all the food.  I arranged all the flowers along with my mom and bridesmaids. It was a lot of work, but it also made our wedding extra meaningful.

Then came marriage...

Once we tied the knot we just enjoyed married life for awhile. We never lived together while we were dating, so it was blissful to have quiet Saturday mornings together, to stay up (way too) late binge-watching Netflix shows, and to attempt learning how to cook together (we burned spaghetti and made a lot of Trader Joe's green curry...we've come a long way). We traveled as much as possible, had many game nights with friends, and thoroughly enjoyed being married and having a home together. For any couples who get married young (we were 21 & 23), I recommend taking time to enjoy being married before having kids. It's a special time, don't feel like you have to rush to the next stage.

And the baby carriage...

Although I just said not to rush it, I do feel that having kids has made our life fuller and richer. I know kids aren't in everyone’s plan, and that's ok. But for me personally, although I was SUPER nervous about becoming a parent, and apprehensive of all the ways it would change things, this is my favorite stage of life so far. My kids have brought me more joy than anything else. Becoming parents has also made me fall even more deeply in love with Ben. Seeing him as a father gives me all the feelings...he loves being a dad and is so sweet and loving with our boys. We had Ian in June 2016 (six years after getting married), and Emmett in April 2018. I know more good stages are still to come, but I reeeaaally feel like this is one that we will look back on fondly. I'm trying my best to soak it in, and to focus on the good parts (because there are certainly hard parts too, with a toddler and a baby). But mostly good parts.

The boys' love bug tees are from Tenth & Pine. So cute and soft.

And there you have it! The long version of our story, just in time for Valentine's Day. I was very blessed to find my forever valentine when I was so young. Did any of you also get married young?

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