After years unknowingly living very close lives, attending the same schools for 3+ years, we both moved out of town. James in Nevada for 5 years until 2019 and Kristie in Sonora for 4 years until 2018. We had both decided to move back to our hometown of Modesto.

Thats where our story began.

We met online late in 2019, Tinder to be exact, after a short period of getting to know each other, we decided to meet in person and have our first Game Night (a Kristie tradition). We decided to make it official very quickly not knowing where life would take us. James moved in quickly and helped make our tiny house a tiny home. We were thrown into a life with Covid very early, which brought up a new set of challenges. We stuck by each other during the ups, the downs, and yet we made it through. We learned that life will ALWAYS be easier together.

On April 20, 2023, James took Kristie to an immersive museum of her favorite artist, Van Gogh. Unbeknownst to Kristie, James had been planning this for some time. After a couple of hours sitting and enjoying the amazing museum, we had reached the end, a virtual reality walkthrough of Van Gogh's amazing artwork James got down on one knee and asked Kristie to marry him. Of course, she said yes with gleaming excitement, and tears in her eyes. We made it official, deciding to make our families one has been one of the easiest decisions of our lives and we could not be more excited to share these memories with you all. Completing our family in early 2025 with our newest addition Nikolai Walden, we will be ending the year with James, Kristie, Wyatt, and Nikolai Walden. We will be continuing our life story outside of California together as a Family.