My parents were really good about making sure we took trips when we were younger to get to know our extended family. I remember driving to Colorado several times from our home in New Mexico to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousins and those times together often were some of our summer vacations. So I feel like I have gotten to know Austin really well over the years. I knew how much he loved Basketball, I saw him get a church mission call to Guam, and then see his adventures as he went to BYU-Hawaii. That always made me miss my short summer semester out at BYU-Hawaii myself, because lets get real, living in Hawaii as a college kid is a fantastic dream!

I didn’t get to see much of Austin when he was at school, Hawaii is kinda far away after all, but I would hear from time to time that he started dating a new girl. Then there were talks about how great this girl was and soon we saw a few picture on Facebook. She was gorgeous! They dated, had a lot of fun adventures on the island, saw Jack Johnson, went to school and played at the beach. Truth be told, I can’t think of a more perfect place to fall in love. The had a close group of friends and you could see that easily on their wedding day by how many traveled pretty far to attend. Eventually Austin and Whitney got engaged after a ride in a Sno-cat to the top of a mountain in Colorado while spending time is Austin’s family.

Their wedding was beautiful. Whitney’s family was so easy to talk to and celebrate with! It was easy to see where Whitney gets her kind hearted personality and beaming smile! It started to rain on us a little bit at the Denver LDS temple after their ceremony, but truth be told, I kinda love how these portraits turned out. The moody skies behind the temple, the quiet air it brought, just time for these two to enjoy the first few moments of being married.

Lucky for me to have these two as cousins! Lucky for the two of them to find such a beautiful and wonderful relationship and if you know these two, you know that they most certainly will have a lifetime of adventures together!