Katie and Ryland: Sedona Arizona Portrait Photography
Sedona Arizona Portrait Photography: Katie and Ryland’s Adventure Session. Katie and Ryland are members of my gym Crossfit Flagstaff. They met as members of this little community – throwing around heavy weights and meeting like-minded individuals. These two have been together for a few years and have built an awesome life in Northern Arizona.
I had a blast adventuring with these two around Sedona. We wanted to combine creek shots, red rock views, and some beautiful sunset light in our session. On a beautiful summer afternoon, I showed Katie and Ryland some of my favorite Sedona spots. It was a blast working with this couple and hearing about their love.
During sunset, we hiked up to a vortex and enjoyed the evening light. I love being able to blend the grandeur landscapes with the intimate relationships of my clients. I believe I have the best job in the world and am continually thankful to the amazing clients who explore with me!
Their Love Story…
Ryland told me…
“So in a “classic” love story the boy asks out a girl. They go out on a date and the boy buys her dinner and is a gentleman… and then they fall madly in love. This lasts forever And they have kids. This isn’t a classic love story. More like a millennial love story. That starts over text.
I first met her at the gym when she notice these sweet sweat pants. Grey, hanes, sweat pants with holes in the pockets. They were about 9 years old and finally broken in. The best workout sweats a guy could have. She hated them. More than a normal person hates something. Because secretly she liked me. Each conversation started with, “why are you wearing those sweat pants? They don’t even keep you warm.” My response was always “they are comfy”. I didn’t see any issues with this. This continued for a few months until one day she picked on my phone’s screen saver. It was a picture of a mustache. Somehow she thought it wasn’t good enough and replaced the picture with one of her dog. I could tell slowly she was making her move. Slow like a turtle. With no legs. But nevertheless she made it.
Fast forward
to a few months again I was sitting at home and decided to text her. She was in Hawaii and I felt like I was wasting her time. No way she was interested in me. But she responded, and kept responding. Before I knew it were were texting occasionally and one evening I invited her over for a wonderfully romantic night. The night consisted of the Connor Mcgreggor and Floyd Mayweather fight and hanging out. Apparently she hated fighting but came over anyway. She stayed the whole night until it was time to go let her dog out. Which then turned into us picking her dog up and returning to my house. Where she’s stayed for almost the last year and a half.
Our relationship grew fast with us being a compliment to each other while also being opposite. I’m a hopeless romantic and she’s not. And it just works ;). But as the weeks went on and on it just felt normal for her to be there. I know longer wanted to spend my nights alone and neither did she. And we didn’t. Weeks turned into months which turned into over a year and only happiness kept coming. It was something that was unexpected but very very welcomed.
From traveling the world to making trips to each other’s family, there isn’t anything we haven’t done together. And I wouldn’t change that for anything. People say when you find someone that you want to do everything with that, “they are the one.” Well she is the one. She puts up with me at my worst and brings out my best. She puts up with my stupid nicknames for her and she doesn’t complain. She’s everything I could have dreamed of. Her name is Katie and she is mine. And this not normal love story is better than any boring traditional one.”
Katie told me…
“Ryland and I have been together since August of 2017. Before then we were friendly CrossFit acquaintances. We had known each other and chatted in passing, but we really didn’t know each other that well. There was one time that we both vividly remember before we were together. I was babysitting in the side room of our gym and Ryland came to warm up, or flirt, one of the two. He was wearing these baggy gray sweatpants….. with a giant L-shaped rip in them near the pocket. Of course, I immediately start teasing. They were so ridiculous looking, how could I not? He loved them because he could reach his pockets on the shorts he wore under the sweats.
Days after this romantic encounter, he stepped through the tear and basically ripped the entire right leg off of his favorite sweats. (Thank goodness… they needed to go.) I will never understand this man-logic. That day came and went but we still joke about those pants. We started chatting more frequently and out of the blue, Ryland invited me over to his house to watch the Maywether MMA fight. I said no. I don’t like fighting or watching it! Also, his friends were there (who I didn’t know) and I am a fairly reserved person. He was persistent and I did end up going to his house. Best decision ever.
We watched what apparently was a good fight, and his friends disappeared. We sat on the couch for hours talking. It was close to 2 am, when we decided we wanted to stay together that night but my condition was I had to go get my dog, Hennessy. Needless to say, Ryland drove me to pick up Hennessy in his obnoxiously loud Jeep. I basically never left. Ryland works 48 hour shifts as a firefighter/paramedic and then has 4 full days off. I was still in school so I stayed at his house all the time. We moved fast.
Fast forward
a month and we were taking our first (of many) road trip to San Diego, California, so Ryland could meet my parents. Fast? Maybe, but it seemed totally normal to us. We did everything together. A few months later we were flying across the country to surprise his mom. Best early Christmas present ever. Seeing his mom totally freak out because her favorite son was on the other side of her see through storm door was one of my favorite memories. Six months after that we were flying across the world to celebrate Ryland’s 30th birthday. 2 weeks in 3 different countries across Europe and it being Ryland’s first time out of the country was an experience I can’t even begin to explain. It was truly incredible.
A few weeks after getting back from Europe (July 2018) I got the crazy idea that I wanted a second dog. Ryland was reluctant. We went to meet her, which turned into a sleepover with her, turned a week long sleepover, turned full on adoption. Hennessy and Stella Artois (Stella) are totally insane but they are truly our whole world. Hen is such a mamas boy, Stella a daddy’s girl. Had you told me Ryland was my guy a few years ago I would’ve laughed. I
’ve never been happier to be wrong about a guy with questionable style. Looking back he did always have LuluLemon under those crazy sweatpants so I was clearly too quick to judge. I’ve never made it this far in a relationship with a man and had such minimal arguing, or just wanting my own space. Ryland always knows what to say (or not to say) to cheer my up, calm me down or anything in between. He’s my man and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him, whether he likes it or not.”
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