In the beginning...we first met when Joni moved into the same neighborhood as Chase and we attended the same church. Joni pretty much fell in love with Chase right away! Maybe it was his cute face and charm or maybe his goofy ways! But Joni just knew that she would someday marry this wonderful boy. Now Chase on the other hand didn't take much notice of Joni until one day in high school. During junior high our buses met at the front of our subdivision. Sadly for Joni her street was the first one and Chase's was farther down the road. Joni was always jealous of her friend who lived closer to Chase and would consequently walk with him the remainder of the way after Joni parted to her own abode.
During high school we were both in a show choir together which met early morning so we would car pool. Around Christmas time we would have performances all over town so we also car pooled to those. It was like a dream come true for Joni and soon a little more than a friendship bloomed.
It wasn't until Joni's senior year of high school and Chase's freshman year of college that the relationship started to become more. We hung out pretty much every weekend and started doing things with each other's families. The summer after Joni's graduation from high school, we hung out a lot until Chase left for a two year mission to Spain for our church. He left July of that year. During Chase's mission, we wrote back and forth throughout the whole time. Joni dated other guys but nothing serious because her heart belonged to Chase! Toward the end of Chase's mission, Joni left to volunteer in orphanages in Ecuador for 7 months. Chase got home and we continued to write and plus were able to talk on the phone and email which helped the communication!
Joni came home at the end of 2005 from Ecuador and we met again after 2 1/2 years of being physically apart at the beginning of a new year~ 2006. And we just picked up where we had left off! We got engaged quite quickly (but really we had known each other for 9 years by that point so not too quickly!) and got married 4 months later in the Logan Utah Temple. It was the happiest day of our lives!