Cougar Pride: Rhen and Kori Brown

In the Beginning

Summer of '05

Fishing in '06

How did we end up in Provo?

Rhen & I started dating just before his 17th birthday. It was the summer before our junior year of high school & we had recently met at youth conference (an activity held every summer for the LDS church youth ages 12 to 18). In South Carolina, the church is a little spread out; so even though we were in the same stake, we lived about 50 minutes away from each other and went to rivaling high schools. We dated our junior year, visiting each other every weekend – rotating every other weekend who would make the 45 min to 1hr long drive. That year was seriously the best year of our high school careers.

Rhen’s family moved to Utah the summer before our senior year – not the best year of my high school career. We look back and realize that it was the best way to prepare Rhen for his 2 year mission (moving to Utah with his family) – but at the time, it was almost too much for my teenage brain to handle. A lot of my tears were shed that year (my poor mother… she was so sweet about it all). The day I started college at BYU, was the day that Rhen left for his 2 year LDS mission to Argentina. Fast forward 2 years: he comes home speaking the sexy Spanish, 6 months later we’re engaged, 6 months later we’re married in the LDS Salt Lake City Temple, and 2 awesome years later, voila, here we are.

Some of our favorite memories over the years:

*Seeing Rhen play football for the first time (our junior year of high school) – it’s so fun to see him in a competitive atmosphere. Since our high schools were rivals, I got a lot of crap from classmates about dating someone from “Scummerville” (Summerville).
*Summer after our senior year just before Rhen’s mission – I spent a week out in Utah. It was the first time I had ever seen Rhen 2 days in a row… and it rocked! We spent the majority of the time fishing… it’s his favorite past time. He catches the fish, and I set them free.
*Marrying the fool – it rained on our wedding day and all I could think was “who cares, we’re finally together”
*Hiking the Y – a year ago I got it in my head that I needed to hike the Y since Rhen does it all the time with football. He tried to convince me that I shouldn’t, that it’s harder than it looks – but if he could do it, clearly it must not be that hard! ;) Halfway up the Y I tried to turn around…. My husband ended up practically carrying me the rest of the way up. He always makes sure I achieve my goals – even when he’s the one who usually suffers. Such a stud.
*Laughing – seriously, the stupidest stuff always happens to us and there is no option but to laugh it off. Like the time Rhen took my house key on accident to football with him so when I got home, I slept in my car for 2 hours waiting for him to get out of practice. Or the time Rhen tripped over me and fell down the stairs and shattered our laundry basket at the bottom (no injuries, thank heavens). And one time Rhen dove for a ball (on his intramural softball team) and his pants were ripped off. Or the time I thought someone else was Rhen, so I went up and held his hand – yeah, that was awkward. It’s been such a fun journey – and it’s only the beginning.

And now… time for a gazillion pictures of us because we’re narcissistic & met almost 6 years ago.