How We Met
Dillon and I go WAY back. He was always the boy I knew, but at the same time, I really didn’t know. Mine and Dillon’s parents have been friends for many, many years. They both enjoyed NASCAR. They often spent weekends at races and enjoyed every second of it. When I was born, Dillon’s parents were there to see me and when Dillon was born (a year and five months later), my parents were there to see him. His parents often joke that they’ve known me longer than him!
Aside from that, Dillon’s mom has been my mom’s hairdresser for years. When I was ready for my first haircut, it was only right that Lori would be my hairdresser too. Though life happens and our parents didn’t see each other and get to go out as much, they always stayed in touch. Through the years, I knew Dillon’s family and we’d often see them out places and I’d go see his mom at least twice a year.
The real connection started right after my junior year of college. I was home for the summer in Mooresville, NC and was out to lunch with my mom at Chick-Fil-A. We were sitting at a table when my mom said, “well there is Dillon, Lori’s son.” I was absolutely in shocked, because he had changed so much since the last time I remembered seeing him. I even had to make some lame excuse to go to the condiment counter just to make sure it was really Dillon. As I made my way back, I spoke to him and he just gave me a smile and a nod. As we were leaving, my mom stopped to talk to him and his uncle. As soon as we got out the door, I stated (prettly loudly), “Damn, he’s hot.”
Just when I thought I would never see him again, I received a Facebook Instant Message from him. It took me a couple days to respond, mainly because I thought it was a joke. When I finally responded, we began to message back and forth and a couple days later began to text. I eventually found out that my mom had been to get a haircut a couple days after we saw him. So of course, she told Dillon’s mom what I had said about him. Although, it took him a while, he had finally taken a chance by messaging me. Unsure of what our parents would say, we kept it a secret for the rest of the summer. We have been talking/dating ever sense and have loved every second of it!
how they asked
Dillon’s brother and sister-in-law, Dustin and Ally, sent a group text to us and his mom and dad right after Thanksgiving saying that she had booked a mountain cabin for New Years Eve weekend and wanted to know if we’d be interested in going. We had been in January 2017 and absolutely loved it, so I was 100% on board. Dillon told me to just reply back to the group text and tell him that we were in, so I did. As the weeks went on, things were pretty quite and around Christmas, we began talking about the mountain trip. I was so excited to get away. It was just what I needed right before I headed back to teaching my fifth graders at the beginning of the new year.
As we headed up to Boone on Friday, December 29th, we all were jamming out to the radio and singing. About halfway up, Ally grabbed Dustin’s phone to change the music. The songs that were now playing were all some of my favorites. I wondered if they had taken songs from my iTunes to play because these were the songs that Dillon and I listened to riding around. When we were about 15 minutes out, we started talking about where we would eat dinner. Since Dillon and I are picky eaters, Ally told us to pick. Dillon began looking up all the restaurants and we eventually settled on a Japanese steakhouse.
When we got to the cabin, we decided to go ahead and go on in, change, and then we would leave to go eat. We each went into our rooms to change and came back out to admire the view of the river from the back windows. (The river was our favorite part from the last time we were there!) Ally asked if we wanted to go down to the river before we went to eat and we all agreed. Dillon and I were ready and Ally and Dustin still had to do something, so we went ahead on out. I noticed how quite Dillon was as I shared my excitement to feel how cold the water in the river was. When we got down to the river, I jumped over the rocks right to the edge to stick my hand in and feel the water. When I got up Dillon grabbed my hand and we stepped back over the rocks. When we stepped, he immediately turned to face me and ask me about the music we had listened to the in the car. He asked me if I recognized it or if it sounded familiar and I told him that I thought my phone might have accidentally been connected and playing.
From there, he asked me about the last song that had been playing when we got out. The last song that played was Grave by Thomas Rhett. (Since that song came out on his latest album, Dillon and I have agreed that we would dance to that song at our wedding.) Then, Dillon began telling me that this trip was his idea and it was all for one reason. That’s when he dropped down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. Everyone that knows me, knows how indecisive I am, but that was no doubt the easiest decision I’ve ever made. I said yes! He then began pointing out that Ally had secretly followed us down and been taking pictures and Dustin was up on the deck videoing it all. I was in total shock, but I’ve never been happier!
