'Although many of you think I live in Colorado and immediately picture Sean White when you imagine what I'm doing with my life, heres a little recap of the past three years.' ~ Al

I moved to Salt Lake City to take a job at Brighton Resort in November of  2014.  Little did I know that the girl I would fall in love with relocated to SLC from Lake Tahoe, California around the same time.  During the 2014 / 2015 ski season, I lived with a group of friends near downtown Salt Lake.  In May of 2015, right after Brighton had closed for the season, I was taking a couple weeks off before heading out to Mt. Hood Oregon to work at Windells Camp for the summer.  About a week before I left for camp, I was walking into my house around the same time as one of my roommates and a couple of her friends were getting back from dinner.  Having never met my roommates friends, one of them was slightly weary of the bearded man driving a mini van that was following her into the house.  Concerned for her safety, my roommates friend turned to me and said "can I help you?" to which I replied "yeah, I live here".  These were the first words Katie and I exchanged and little did we know that our lives were about to change forever.  After a long night of stimulating conversation, I was convinced that Katie had a boyfriend because there was no way that somebody hadn't locked her down yet.  Luckily for me, this wasn't the case.  After she left, I remember asking my roommate (Chelsea Waddell) 'So whats up with Katie?  Who is she dating because he's a lucky dude'.  Much to my delight Chelsea groaned and said 'no one'.  A week later Katie and I went on our first date to a Waka Flocka Flame concert and our lives immediately turned into a 'Waka Flocka Fantasy'. 

Whenever I heard people say 'when you meet the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with, you'll know immediately' I would laugh to myself because I knew that would never happen to me.  That was until I met Katie.  I knew from the moment we met that I couldn't spend a day without her.  Fast forward a year and half later to early December, 2016 when I received a text from Katie with a screen shot of plane tickets she had just purchased (without telling me) to Switzerland in May of 2017.  At first, I wasn't completely sold on the trip but after convincing my and Katie's parents to join us on the trip, I knew this would be the perfect place to have our wedding.  After a couple more phone calls and the inevitable 'you want us to go WHERE for your wedding?' conversations with our friends, everything was set; Katie and I were going to get married in Switzerland.  This presented somewhat of an awkward timeline for me.  Having already planned the wedding, I had yet to ask Katie's Dad (Pat) for permission to marry his daughter.  Fast forward again to Christmas 2016.  Katie and I were spending the weekend with her family in Tahoe.  Since Pat already knew that I had to ask him to marry his daughter that weekend, he thought it would be a great idea to make it as difficult as possible for me to do so.  After pushing me out of the lift line on multiple occasions I finally managed to sneak onto a chairlift with him at Alpine Meadows while we were skiing.  Starting the conversation with 'so, dad, can I call you that? dad?' I was off to a great start.  After the whole 'can I marry your daughter' stuff' took place, I didn't get the immediate 'OMG yes of course I can't wait to have you as my son in law' that I was expecting (but after 25 years of living with Marty, I should have seen that one coming).  Instead, Pat replied with 'What makes you think you're qualified to take my daughters hand in marriage?' 'Well, what did you have in mind' I replied. 'I have a job site that needs to be completely clear of snow by Monday.  Take care of that and then we can talk'.  This wasn't exactly the response I was hoping for but even the three feet of snow we got that weekend seemed like a small price to pay for getting to spend the rest of my life with the girl of my dreams.  After some extensive cross referencing between Pat's construction companies website and google maps (he didn't tell me where the job site was btw.  He told me that would 'test my ability to overcome adversity' in the process) I headed to the hardware store, bought a shovel, and started digging.  About an hour of diligent shoveling and six missed calls, I finally answered. Pat; 'Al I was joking about having to shovel that job site.  Come home dinner is almost ready'.  I replied; 'Listen, Pat, I committed to this task like I committed to spending the rest of my life with your daughter'.  I'm still convinced this is what sealed the deal.