"E-session"

A bart train and an airplane ride led me straight into his flower carrying arms at LAX...it was going to be an awesome weekend.

Aaron picked me up at the airport on Friday afternoon and we hit the ground running. We grabbed a quick dinner and headed to my apartment to do some preparations for our big Saturday activity. We coordinated some outfits and spent all of about 5 minutes making our "save the date" sign, haha.

I didn't sleep much at all that night. I was excited to be in my own big bed, but I guess I was too excited about meeting "Mississippi Matt" and getting all dressed up to take pictures with Aaron the next day. The whole time I laid there, I kept telling God, "please let me get some sleep....these are our engagement pictures and I don't want to look like a tired bride-to-be!" The morning came soon enough and Aaron and I loaded up the truck and headed to Matt's hotel. I think that our comfort level around Matt was created almost instantly. As we pulled up to the hotel, it was almost like picking up an old friend. As I sat in the middle seat of Aaron's truck, I was pretty much in heaven surrounded by Southern drawls: Texas on my left, Mississippi/Memphis/Southern Missouri on my right. We took Matt to breakfast at the Omelette Parlor on Main Street and got to know each other better. We decided that we'd head up to school and hope for some sun later on in Santa Monica. The sun came out in Malibu but only for a little bit. After "session one", we took a break and Aaron and I got lunch and Matt hung out at Starbucks and edited some of our pictures. Aaron was pretty bummed about the fact that, once again, we couldn't watch the Texas game out here on the West Coast, so he resigned to take a nap with my sleepy face, haha:) At about 4 pm, we got Matt for "session two" and headed back to Main Street. We had pretty much given up on the sun at this point but at least we didn't have to worry about squinty eyes in our pictures, right? After we were done shooting, we finished Matt's time off with us appropriately with dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in Marina Del Rey. He headed back out to Mississippi on the 6:30am flight on Sunday (what an absolute trooper) and it's crazy to think that we won't see him again until the WEDDING!

We had such a great time with Matt and I think it shows in our pictures. To further his awesome-ness in our book, he already had a slideshow posted this morning with some of our shots. Check it out!!

**updated to add: Aaron taught me how to hyperlink!

OUR AWESOME PHOTOS!


Sunday was wonderful too because I never take for granted the opportunity to worship with Aaron. We went to the early service at University Church and then had a very special treat for lunch. Our Vice Dean and his wife invited some students over for lunch so we had a home cooked meal with sweet tea and chocolate cake and precious company. It's how Sundays should be spent...

Of course, Sunday night was not as fun as I had to leave Aaron and fly back to San Francisco. The weekend was definitely too short but at least I have some of the pictures to remind me of how great the weekend WAS and how great my fiance IS!

Hope everyone had a great weekend...wow, October's nearly here, isn't it??

"The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them." Psalm 145:18-19