Welcome to our wedding web site. This engagement has been a long time coming, but if there's one thing we've learned as a couple it's that Laef takes his time and makes educated decisions while Allison makes quick decisions based on her current mood.

Laef's patience paid off as now is the perfect time for an engagement. We've moved, changed jobs and been through many changes over the past three years. Finally, things seem to have fallen into place nicely and we are both settled in Manhattan Beach.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years. Good friends and loving family are the best part of this process!

Love,

Laef and Alli

I met Allison during my first year of graduate school at the University of Oregon. She would always come into the athletic training room trying to track down football players who were hiding while trying to avoid doing interviews. I definitely noticed her, but we would just smile and say hi and go about our jobs of finding athletes/helping athletes hide.

Then during the winter of 2005 she actually tracked ME down to "interview" me for my short biography in the softball media guide. She came striding into our (indoor) practice wearing this bright red peacoat, all confident, and I was smitten. (By the way, I've never seen that coat since, but if you ask me, it was money well spent!)

We talked a little bit more over the next month or so until our first road trip. It was to Hawai'i and I was very excited because this Missouri kid had never been west of Colorado before grad school. Oh, and Allison was also on the trip!

When I got on the bus to go to the airport, I was one of the last ones on and pretty much all of the seat rows were taken. Allison offered to scoot over so I could sit next to her and I didn't hesitate. We talked on the way to the airport and then happened to be sitting next to each other on the plane.

A couple of days after we arrived in Hawai'i we played our first game. One of our girls was injured during the game and I spent the next 5 hours with her in the Honolulu emergency room. By the time we met back up with the team I needed to unwind and asked Allison if she wanted to go get a drink after team dinner. Or maybe she asked me and I once again didn't hesitate?ither way our first date was set.

We went out, had drinks, and walked back to the hotel along the beach (foreshadowing for our future life). A couple of days later I skipped watching the Super Bowl so that I could hang out with her on the beach. I heard it was a great game. I've never regretted it.

I started noticing Laef in the Oregon treatment center during football season in 2004. I thought he was tall and cute, but that was about as far as it went.

As I began to prepare for the upcoming softball season, I learned that he was going to be our athletic trainer. At the time, he had a girlfriend, so I didn't really think much of it, but I had to interview him for his bio in the softball media guide. I definitely remember there being some kind of nervous tension in the room.

I didn't really see him around again until the first softball road trip. We were all on the bus in our seats (I had had the same seat for four years!) and Laef gets on the bus last. (I would later come to learn that I would be dealing with Laef taking his sweet time in every aspect of his life). There were no open seats left and not many people are offering for him to sit next to them. I slid over to the window and figure, what the heck, he can sit by me.

It seems as though everything just progressed from there. Our very first road trip was to Hawaii. We sat next to each other on the long plane ride and went out the second night there. I just remember we had a long conversation and I thought he was very sweet and very sincere. We walked back to our hotel along the beach, and as cliché as it sounds, I will always remember that as our first date.

Slowly, but surely we began to date. Laef doesn't make decisions quickly so when it was time for him to graduate from Oregon he was unsure of how we should progress. I remember he told me, "I don't want to do long distance, but it's not like you're going to move somewhere with me." That sounded like a decision to me, so we broke up for a while in December of 2005. Shortly thereafter, I think we both realized that we wanted to be together.

After some time doing long distance and a year of living in Sacramento together, we finally made our way to Manhattan Beach in the summer of 2007. We feel that this has been "our" first place together. That is why we are looking forward to getting married on the beach just down the street from our house.