Vern: We met back in 2005 when a group of us planned a snowboarding trip in Park City, Utah.  We drove down from Santa Barbara: my best friend Diana, her roommate Mitch, our friends Tracy and Helaine as well as the guy Helaine was dating at the time.  I knew everyone going except for Mark, I just knew he was a mutual friend of Mitch and Jason's and they would meet us at LAX.  

Mark: We met going on a snowboarding trip.  and we met at the airport, terminal 4 I think, at Jodi Maroni's where i was getting my hot dog on.  Then your crew came in and I remember Helaine asked if I dressed up for flights.  Ha ha, I said "No, I just got off of work".  

I just started a new job 2 weeks ago and wasn't going to go on the trip anymore.  But we were hanging out w/ Dave (my new boss) and then (Jason) Leal just started ripping into me - and I didn't want to ask Dave b/c I just started, but you know Leal.  Leal got to talking and pretty much had Dave convinced I should go.  And I wanted to go, i just didn't want to take off from work, b/c I had just started.

So, yeah, then we flew out, I think we sat next to each other at Denny's too.

Vern: Actually we sat next to each other on the plane, we did a crossword I had brought.  I was being nice and asking him if he wanted help fill it out.  

Mark: I don't remember us sitting together.  I remember we snowboarded a lot together.  Pretty much everyone went their own route but you and I stuck together.  Well, for lunch, we met up w/ everyone for lunch.  i wish i could remember which place it was.  It was pre-FB so we have no check in.

Vern: Well, long story short, we obviously got along.  Mark started coming up to see me in SB and after a year he moved up!  It was actually a pretty successful trip, we had an amazing time at some of Park City's best slopes and out of  8 people, 6 of us paired up, started dating and have married (or in our case, are about to marry)! 

The picture above is actually one taken that weekend, from left to right: me, Mark, Diana and Mitch.

I was out at The Canary at happy hour with friends from work and invited Mark to come join us.  Just before 7pm, the remaining group started to mobilize for a comedy show downtown.  I tried to get Mark to go but he insisted on going up to the rooftop and catching sunset.

A dinner party literally just finished up and we found that we had the rooftop to ourselves, unfortunately I also just realized that I had to pee...  So I was a little distracted between looking for a bathroom and pointing out rooftops that were "wasting their rooftop space" and didn't notice that Mark was acting a little...weird.  Next thing I know, he's popping the question as we're looking out over downtown Santa Barbara and all I can spit out is "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa???!!!!!"

Mark had arranged it so my best friend and her husband were waiting at a restaurant nearby and they came to meet us back down at the hotel bar for an impromptu celebration.  So yeah, it was a pretty good day.    :)

-vern

A couple of our favorite pictures through the years.