Jeff at Weddings

So far Jeff has been in a similar picture at mine, Nathan's, and Kevin's weddings.

My Wedding.

I wish it had turned out better, but oh well. Won't be able to frame ours like Kevin and Aubrey did.

Nathan's Wedding

Nathan was posing for the camera too in this top one. Christina and Courtney had no idea it had even happened until after the fact.

Kevin's Wedding, the one that started it all

Your turn, Bwood.

I'm sure everyone wants other wedding pictures too. They will soon be up, but on mine and Christina's new blog. You will need a password for this blog that I can send you—http://hochstrassers.blogspot.com. So if you think I don't have your e-mail address, send it to me on facebook or to my e-mail, jordan.hochstrasser@gmail.com.

Wedding Invitation

Just in case you never got yours in the mail or we didn't have

your address, here's the wedding invitation.

The one we sent out had a little different spacing because we had to make it shorter, but I only have a photoshop version of that right now (so I can't upload it). It's pretty much the same.

Halloween Date

Christina and I went on a Halloween themed date last night. It was a lot of fun. We went to the store before dinner to pick up a pumpkin and some ingredients. After dinner, we carved a pumpkin! Even though we didn't have very good knives for it, it turned out really well.

Then we made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for some friends and delivered them.

After we got back we watched a Halloween-ish movie (not a scary movie, cause Christina or I aren't huge fans of those). We watched Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. I thought it was an amusing story, pretty strange though.

Overall, it was a lot of fun!

A Few Engagement Pictures

We got our pictures back on Friday night. Here are a few, I'll post more later on Facebook. We've almost made a decision.

Engagement Pictures

Okay, so sorry if you thought by that title that I would have pictures to post. I just wanted to announce that we took them today. It was fun. We took them up at Bridal Veil Falls and the surrounding park and down by the Provo Tabernacle. Christina and I had lots of fun doing them and are excited to get them back and choose our favorites!

P.S. Max Hall needs to quit throwing two interceptions a game. The first one tonight was an understandable mistake, but the second . . . what was he thinking throwing that one?!

100th Wall Post!

This is a momentous occasion. Here's some random thoughts to celebrate it . . .

-Tennis is amazing. I watched the final U.S. Open match today between del Potro and Federer. What a game! Del Potro won, by the way.

-There's a lot to think about for a wedding.

-I'm excited to see all of my family together when they come to Washington for my wedding.

-I accepted the offer with Ernst & Young in Palo Alto, CA.

-I love Christina!

Engagement Ring

Here's the ring! And this is the wedding ring too cause Christina doesn't want a wedding band.

First Day of School Pictures

Here we are ready for our first day of school. (These were actually the retakes on the second day of school because I couldn't find my camera the first day).

The Proposal

As most of you already know, I'm engaged! It's pretty exciting! Christina and I have enjoyed all of the wall posts on Facebook. We will be getting married December 22 in the Seattle Temple. So here's how it went down.

If you already know the background story of Christina and I and just want to hear the proposal, skip this and the next paragraph, but it's a good story. Christina and I have known each other for two years. We lived in the same apartment complex until she moved out this last December. I had never taken her out that entire time, but we were good friends. We stayed in contact a little bit the next few months and saw each other at a few get-togethers. I even called her one evening in May, I believe, to see if she wanted go to a dance with a group of us. The whole group thing fell through and it just would've been me and her, so I called to cancel (I know, what was I thinking). After that I started thinking it would be fun to go on a date with her. But since I had already been accepted into the Jerusalem Center for fall and would be leaving for an internship shortly, I didn't expect anything to happen.

I organized a group to go see Up on it's opening night, May 29. That's the night we both decided we liked each other (but didn't say anything, we hadn't even been out on a date). Then that next day I invited her to volunteer at Special Olympics with me, we also went swimming, and then she came over to catch the last bit of a movie (the movie had just ended and we ended up talking for a while). Anyway, she was very clear that she liked me (hint, girls, that makes it so much easier) and we were dating by the next Friday (a week after Up). We didn't need a DTR (define the relationship, for those who don't know), but that's what day we look to because that was our first kiss. After an amazing three weeks, I was off to my internship in California. She came out to visit me the next week over the 4th of July. We video chatted or talked on the phone every day while I was in California. I had a tough decision to make about going to Jerusalem or staying and getting married in December. After talking to some great friends, praying, fasting, and going to the temple, I knew that I wanted to get married. And even though she would've waited for me, it wouldn't be worth it to be away from her for so long. And the fact that I would come back from Jerusalem broke didn't help. So on July 12th I told her I wasn't going on the study abroad and we decided we wanted to get married (I know, we had to keep it a secret a long time). We saw each other one other time when we went to go meet the parents at the end of July. Although I left out the part in that blog entry of me talking to her dad.


The Proposal

This last Saturday, August 22, Christina went wedding dress shopping (haha) so she could get an idea of what she was looking for when her mom comes to town this week. That gave me plenty of time to finish up my plans for that evening. She thought it might happen soon, but wasn't sure if I had the ring yet. (I had tried to make it seem like it would take a week or two to be ready.) Around 4pm we went to a favorite park of ours in Orem and played some card games (Lost Cities and Ligretto). Then we went out to dinner at Carrabba's. Afterwards we went looking for a dessert to take with us for a walk along the Provo River. She was getting suspicious, because she had suggested going there earlier, but I told her I'd rather go to the other park. We couldn't find any dessert, so we went over to the Provo River trail by Bon Losee off of University Parkway. She had worked nearby during Spring Term, so we had taken a lot of walks there during her work breaks. We talked for a little while on the bridge we usually go to. I thought about doing it there, but the fear of losing the ring to the river by accidentally dropping it was too great. So we walked about 20 feet to a bench. I told her I made her something and pulled out a book I had been working on. In it are all the journal entries I've written about her and the things we've done the last few months, along with pictures of many things we've done.
The last page I wrote a letter to her expressing my feelings for her and read that to her. Then I pulled out the ring. She said yes (or I probably wouldn't be writing this). We're both extremely happy and excited. We haven't been able to take a good picture of the ring yet, but hopefully we will soon. Oh, and the book has a lot of blank pages for the future. (Yes, the book idea does come from the movie Up.)

Sweet Home Washington

This last weekend I made a trip up to Washington. Christina came too! This was a weekend to not only see each other, but meet each others parents since we are both from Washington. She picked me up Thursday night from the airport and we went down to my house. Most of the pictures in this blog will feature my adorable niece--cause she's really cute (well, so is Christina, but she gets tired of me trying to take pictures of just her). Friday we went to a small water park. That was fun and the weather turned out nice, but the water was still super cold.

That afternoon Christina and I went out to the Chambers Bay park overlooking the water in my city (University Place). That evening we had pizza with the family and played some games.

In the morning we went over to my sister's to play with my niece for what we thought would be the last time and to say goodbye. She was soooo hyper and excited to see us. She would run up her slide and come down over and over, stomp all around, and squeal as I chased her around.

On Saturday we went up to Poulsbo, where Christina is from. I always tease her cause she says she doesn't live on a farm--but she does. There's a barn, cows, and five acres. But it's a nice farm. I met her whole family (her oldest brother wasn't there, but I'd already met him). We went to a ward activity, walked around downtown Poulsbo, watched some old home videos, went mini-golfing. Then the young couples (her sister and husband and us) went to her sister's house to watch a movie. Here's the one picture I took in Poulsbo.

Sunday was relaxing and we went to church. Because I forgot my sandals at my place that gave us a reason to go back there (I didn't do it on purpose!) on our way to the airport and I got to see Daysha once more. A very eventful and great trip.

Wonderful Weekend!

So I finally get a chance to post about my weekend. Christina came to visit! It almost didn't happen, but she bought a plane ticket out here on Thursday and after a lot of plane problems arrived at 8pm Thursday evening. On Friday we headed up to San Francisco. The first stop was Golden Gate Bridge (further away from the main part of the city than I thought).

Next stop was parking the car in the city. There were some steep hills! And this is coming from a quasi Seattle-ite. This one was like a roller coaster, especially with the trolley tracks there.

We stopped by Pier 39 and walked around the water.

Here's a view of Alcatraz. We didn't have time to go out there.

We then walked about 40 minutes to the theatre where Wicked is playing. We entered a raffle to get 2 tickets for $25 each. I really wanted them! With the amount of people there we probably had about a 1 in 3 chance of getting them. After about ten or so people they ran out of seats next to each other. Christina's name was called out for seats on opposite sides of the theatre. We turned them down--she's only here for the weekend! We didn't want to be apart. She's already seen Wicked and I'll go with some friends to see it sometime this summer.

We decided to go back to Palo Alto, walk around the fun (and much cleaner than San Fran) downtown. We looked at several places and decided to eat at Bella Luna, a nice little Italian place with live piano music.


On Saturday we went to a barbecue/pool party with some ward members. Then we went to a place called Half Moon Bay.


Because of the clouds we decided to go to Foster City for fireworks--a pretty good show. (And yes, I did find these last two pictures on the internet to liven up the last bit of my blog where no pictures were taken. But these fireworks are from the Foster City Firework Show.)

Sunday we walked around Stanford campus in the afternoon after church. Very nice place!

You are a true Jordan Hochstrasser blog follower if you have read through this whole thing. The next day I took Christina to the airport bright and early--4:50am. It was a wonderful trip for both of us. I'm really glad that she came out to visit.

Angels Landing

Sunday afternoon Christina and I drove down to St. George and stayed with my Great Aunt and Uncle. It was a lot of fun and they are a very nice older couple. The next morning we drove an hour over to Zion National Park. One of my life goals is to hike Angels Landing (another is to hike the Narrows from top to bottom). Mission accomplished for the first one. It was a beautiful day with some breath-taking views. Here are a few pictures.

Near the beginning of the hike.

A beautiful view from the top.

Another view.

Resting after getting to the top.

On our way back down.

As you can see, chains help you through the last half mile as there are cliffs on one, or both sides, at times. The hike was a lot of fun. Not as difficult as some may say, but would be scary if you are really afraid of heights. Christina didn't like it when I got close to the edge to look over. The pathway is very well kept--much of it paved. We were able to take our time getting up there, spend some time at the top, and make it back down in a little under four hours (not including the shuttle to the start of the hike from where we parked). Though we were tired afterwards. Leave in the morning so you can be in the shade for a good 45 minutes of the hike (Refrigerator Canyon), including some switchbacks. I highly recommend the hike!

Oquirrh (Oak-er) Mountain Temple

Yesterday Christina and I went to the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was awesome. I hadn't been to an open house since the Portland Temple when I was three and Christina had never been. There were many volunteers there to show us where to go. And I think a ward all showed up together for the same time we went, so there were a lot of people. The inside was very beautiful. I recommend everyone go see it--it's not even that far from Provo. It's in South Jordan (closer than Salt Lake).