Our Story

I don't think I've actually written down how the Hendricksons came to be.. So here it is. This is such a long version of such a short story.

      I was a Senior in High School and Amy Davis was my Young Womens leader. One Sunday after her lesson, she asked me to write her brother who was on a mission. At first I think I was excited by the idea and after writing him an email saying "I think your sister wants us to get married", he kinda didn't write a whole lot back. (Would you?)

     A few short emails later, he came home. (April 30th) About a week after he returned home to California, his niece was getting baptized in Las Vegas. Amy wanted to take me so Chris and I could meet. To be honest when we first saw each other, neither of us were interested. We went to a park with the Davis kids before the baptism and that's when the awkwardness started. While walking through the park together with his niece Kiera, she innocently asked "When are you guys gonna kiss?".Cue the awkwardness.. We both looked down and away. He had completely forgotten how to talk to girls and I was a total HS Senior brat.  We didn't even want to sit by each other. Funny how things worked out..

    Amy and Kai invited him to come back to Mesquite with them instead of going home, so he came. We sort of tried to hang out but again, not interested and I had school and work. When we did hang out, we mostly avoided each other and man.. the only word I can think to describe it is awkward. I kept calling him weird (because he was) and he didn't really say anything..at all. So he left back home and life went on.

  Then he called me (with his brother playing the guitar in the background) and we tried to just talk. He kept calling me.. like every night. And I liked it. Him and Ryan (brother) would come up to visit every now and then. June came around and I invited him to my graduation and the after party. He came and then had to go home that weekend. I remember after he left thinking "I should marry him". Then going "What?? Get married?"

     I can't remember who called who that weekend but I remember saying "So I have this feeling we should get married"... (long silence from the other end). It took Chris a couple days, he went to the temple and fasted and prayed (like a true RM). And I just waited. Later that week (Sunday) he called and said that he had been getting the same feelings. And then we carried on a totally normal conversation about work and life, like getting married was no "biggie".

Wednesday of that week he came up to visit again and don't worry, by this time we liked each other. The next day he proposed! To catch up, he got home the end of April, we met for the first time in May and he proposed  a week into June (a week after graduation). All the while he is living in CA and I in Mesquite.. so we didn't get to see each other that often. But it worked.

      The Proposal

      My calling at the time was the Stake Youth Young Womens President. I was in charge of Youth Conference that year. Chris and I had been at The Davis when one of the Stake Presidents counselors called me in to talk about conference. This far into it we had everything figured out so I was clueless as to what we were going to talk about. He sat me down and started going over everything we had already covered. I kept saying "Ya, I know". "Right". "I thought we handled that already". (See? Brat) Then Chris came out of no where, got on his knees and asked me to marry him. Being totally clueless I told him I was in a meeting. Seriously I did. SO embarrassing! Really? Who says that when someone proposes?!

   After Pres. Hafen told me he helped set this up I believed him and let out an embarrassed laugh. I said yes and we hugged and Amy and my mom took pictures. (Thankfully, so I can relive this humiliating moment).

This is my "I can't believe I just said that" face

President Hafen, Chris and I 

     July, Chris continued to come up and visit every other weekend. He even broke down a couple times in the middle of the dessert.. in JULY! True love. On the 11th I turned 18, meaning I could get married without mom and dad's signature! :) My sister and I flew to New York for some last time being single. August Chris and I got to spend a lot more time together. To be honest I didn't do any of the wedding planning. All the credit goes to my mom and Amy for putting everything together!

    Then came the wedding day. It happened so fast! I borrowed a dress, a lady in my ward took the pictures and we didn't have a honeymoon planned. All you can tell it all worked out perfectly.

 I remember walking in the sealing room with him and seeing everyone I love. It was an incredible feeling. Also a feeling of "Well everyone's here, I can't back out now". Kneeling at the alter, I thought, "I don't even know this guy, nor do I love him! What am I doing!?" Talking to Chris afterwards he said the same thing was going through his head. We had a beautiful reception and a funny honeymoon. We helped my parents move to Utah.. in return they got us a hotel room. Very nice. We night have to redo it sometime in the future.

A friend flew from Hawaii to bring us the leis

My beautiful borrowed dress. 

But that's us. And I can honestly say I love him now (don't worry, I have for a while) And he loves me.
And I'm grateful for the support given to us from our families.