Photo class
We met in Junior High in photography class. Might have been the last pictures we took with film, but the first of many pictures we’d take together.
Our Journey
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May 21, 1999
Ashley asked Carson to be her boyfriend at the last Junior High dance of the year. Carson said “Yes” and Ashley quickly ran away to find her friend Andrea and giggled like little teenage girls, (because we were teenage girls!).
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Redmond High School
Carson went to high school in 1999 and got his driver’s license at 15 because his beloved dad lived in North Dakota. Carson bought a bright orange 1973 GMC Jimmy - you could always hear and see him coming! Carson was captain of the Soccer team and Ashley was captain of the volleyball team. They'd support each other’s sports and both won first in State in soccer their senior year! We have many fond memories of summers in Seattle, Lake Chelan, Cornerstone Construction, and two not so fond memories of a bird suit and truck driving.
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A year apart…
Carson went to college a year before Ashley at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. One of the most difficult days in our relationship was saying good bye. We'd see each other only 4 times that year, but distance only made our love grow stronger. His dorm room had a view of the Pacific Ocean - can't beat that!
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Back in the same state
A year later, Ashley went to the University of San Diego. We were able to see each other about twice a month, often times meeting in Newport Beach at Ashley's grandma’s house. We'd also meet up to go hiking with Ashley's aunt and family friend. Our high school friends would come for long weakened visits, too. We had great moments together and apart! We learned to sail, lived on the beach, and fell in love with California.
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The Pebble Problem
Ashley was accepted to math camp her junior year of college. OK, it wasn’t camp, she was awarded a grant to do research at Hope College in Holland, MI on theoretical graph pebbling (yawn!). Carson came to meet Ashley in Chicago which sparked our bug for adventure. It was the first of many big cities we’d experience together.
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eBUS live
After college, Carson had a brilliant idea to live on a bus and travel around the country. Carson bought a 1982 Bluebird school bus for $800 on eBay and spent the next year renovating it to a RV for an epic cross country journey. Carson and friends probably spent 3,000 man hours and 2,900 Home Depot runs (all under $5) building the bus. Lieu moved down to live and work on the bus too! When Ashley graduated college, we all began an epic 8,000 mile road trip around the perimeter of the United States, which is a whole other story.
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Berzerkeley
Ashley left the bus trip in Washington DC to pursue a masters in Biostatistics at UC Berkeley. Saying good bye again was tough, but we knew we'd see each other soon enough. After the bus trip was over, Carson moved down to Berkeley, to be closer to Ashley. Carson worked at two fun start up's and began his career in marketing. Berkeley is crazy.
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Cambridgeshire
Ashley secured a working permit to move to the UK and work at Cambridge. Carson's English work mate had a friend who had a cousin who was looking for flatmates near Cambridge so we thought, perfect! We lived in a house on a farm with them called Harvest Home in Babraham just outside Cambridge. Babraham is little more than a collection of houses, but don’t worry there was a pub too, it’s England after all. In May that year, Carson was the 6th employee hired at Made.com, so we moved into Cambridge and enjoyed a bit of 'city' living and for Carson to have an easier commute to London. We traveled around Europe as much as humanly possible. We bought roundtrip flights for £6 to Berlin our first January!
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The Angel and Travels
Carson worked long hours at Made.com, so we moved to London and Ashley commuted (3hrs/day!) to Cambridge. Commuting sucks, so after 8 months Ashley got a job in London doing HIV research. We’ve been lucky enough to experience many places in Europe and beyond. We’ve enjoyed the beer and Christmas markets in Germany, the food, cities and architecture in Italy (our favorite!), wine and art in France, tapas and flamenco in Spain, sailing on the Turkish coast, skiing in the Alps, northern lights in Iceland, the fjords of Norway, swam in Croatian waterfalls, visited the Parthenon in Greece, and the list goes on. We even went to South East Asia for Graham’s 30th and to Tanzania for Carson’s 30th, which too are whole other stories. We’ve also had the time of our lives in London. We joined a volleyball team, but we spend more time with them at the pub than on the court. We went to the Olympics and Wimbledon too! It’s truly been a fulfilling and fruitful 5 years abroad.
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Engagement
For our 15 year anniversary, we planned a trip to Naples and the Amalfi coast. We ate pizza every day (sometimes twice) for 4 days in Naples - Carson’s food haven! After Naples, we went to a beautiful hotel on the Amalfi coast, Villa Scarpariello. We had a nice swim in the Med and watched the sun begin to set over the mountains when Carson asked Ashley to marry him with a gorgeous ioilite ring. Ashley of course said “YES”!