people i love: landon.

a very happy birthday to my husband, landon, who turns 24 today. it's hard to know how put words together that might capture what he means to me, but i'm going to give it an honest effort. 

i met landon my freshman year of college, though we grew up just a few miles apart. you can read the full story here, from our wedding storyboard [and please substitute "2006" for "2007" in the first sentence...yes, i had a typo in our wedding storyboard that i created]:

[click to enlarge]

i'll be honest, i love to think about the fact that we ran cross country and track meets against each other in high school, and never knew that the person we'd spend our lives with was warming up on the other side of the field, or walking past us in the grandstands. and that it took traveling 1,000 miles from home for us to find each other. needless to say, i'm sure glad we did. 

both of us can be rather shy and nervous at times, so it took a while to get to know each other, but i didn't mind. it allowed me to observe him from a bit of a distance, where i could see his character--perseverant, strong and dedicated--without too many emotions involved. and even when we started dating, things progressed slowly, but it began a journey of growth and unity that we're still traveling on. i hope we never find a settling point on that journey.

 as landon mentioned in my birthday post, we remind each other often that we're a team. i've been a part of some great teams in the past, from an undefeated elementary basketball team to a college track team filled with All-Americans and conference championships, but i can say whole-heartedly, this is the best team i've ever been on. 

i love you landon. happy birthday.

[photos by nate goins]