The Life of Kristine & Juan

Christmas '06

2009-04-11T16:03:00.003-05:00

Only a few pictures from this Christmas... that i can find.

Our first Christmas tree...

and a family picture.

First months married

2009-04-11T14:38:00.012-05:00

So, we leave Norway about ten days after coming back from Spain, and start our new lives, married, and in our first apartment together. Kristine's parents drove us to the airport to bid us fair-well.

Shortly after our arrival to the US, we had what we call our 2nd wedding, or our reception in Houston. It was arranged by many helpful friends, and it went ever so smoothly. It went/looked something like this...

After all that was done, we could get started with life...jobs, schooling, & white tigers

Thats my boy Ruben!

The location of where the tiger cages were has gone from me, but still crazy to be driving along a random road in the middle of nowhere, and find 8-9 cages full of tigers...

Eden & David got married!

Booty call...

Astros game...

Pimping in the Audi before it got totaled in an accident a few months later ( Juan was driving :/ )

Check out our Grill!

The car accident...before and after

Kristine's back...this injury was cause by playing handball in Norway for 8 years on concrete floors...it was re-injured after our car accident. This happened in Nov 2006

Back to Norway 2006

2009-04-05T14:45:00.002-05:00

So after Spain it was back to Norway for 10 more days...

Have only found pictures from the same day we came back from Spain, and were taking the ferry home.

Spain 2006

2009-04-05T14:13:00.004-05:00

We visited Spain a couple of days after getting married:

Pic 1 - Most of the extended family
Pic 2 - Kristine & Juan w/the Giralda in the background
Pic 3&4 - Kristine & Juan in different places around Sevilla
Pic 5 - Kristine and the view from grandma's balcony
Pic 6 - The Benito's (except for Max who was on his mission) taking a walk in Sevilla

The rest of 2006

2009-04-05T13:47:00.009-05:00

In order to complete the entries that are missing to make this blog an up-to-date blog, I am going to summarize the rest of the year(s) after the wedding...

Here goes:

The Family united for a picture

Brother-in-law Glenn André, the love of his life, Tone, and their son Sondre

Kristine in front of the palace in Oslo after a visit to the US Embassy where we went through our interview for the green card application.

Visitations

2008-12-02T08:08:00.000-06:00

The WEDDING!

2008-11-09T17:11:00.008-06:00

So after a couple of days of being in Norway, we flew to Sweden to meet the rest of the Benito family, who had come straight to Stockholm from the USA.

The Stockholm, Sweden Temple:

And the Bride & Groom on that special day, May 20, 2006:

The Family,

And the most precious of them all!

In Norway before the wedding.

2008-11-09T16:50:00.011-06:00

So, I didn't shave for about 1.5 months before I came to Norway on May 2, 2006.

I looked like this:

Kristine didn't really recognize me (which I understand), and there was still snow around, Kristine looked like this:

And three days later we looked like this:

It had gotten "warm" enough for shorts, and a t-shirt

One of our other favorite pictures on the island where Kristine's family lives,

FEB - MAR 2006 Kristine's Trip to USA

2008-11-09T16:10:00.013-06:00

So at this point by the end of this trip, we will have dated a total of 8 weeks in person...Yep... 8 weeks together is what you read! Of course, we have been together just a couple of months shy of a year, but when you think about it:

Both of us worked full time - Kristine a bit more as she was the manager for Carlings (clothing store) in Moss

7 hours of difference

5pm USA = Midnight Norway
5pm Norway = 10am USA

Not exactly the easiest times to talk when working...
For about a year, sleep deprivation prevailed! BUT... it worked, or better said, we did what it took to make it work :)

Long Distance calls - eventually Kristine's parents acquired an IP telephone meaning free for Kristine to call, and free for Juan to receive on a land line

And probably the hardest:

Being in a long distance relationship with the person you love the most in the whole entire world.

A short synopsis of Kristine's second trip to the USA:

Juan worked, while Kristine was at home with the family, that's sad.

Unfortunately Juan worked for Atlantic Service and Supply, an A/C unit installer, as well as siding installer for mobile homes, and he worked long hours. So on one of the jobs Juan had to finish, Kristine came along.

On another occasion, we ate alligator meat...

let's see, what else...well, we were happy to see each other!

And we looked into the apartment that we would be living in, soon, ONLY 3 more months until the wedding in Stockholm!

November trip to Norway, 2005

2008-07-30T21:39:00.008-05:00

Again!?!?!?! How? Huh?
So you're saying that Juan went to Norway from July-August, Kristine came to Houston for three weeks Sept-October, and Juan was back in Norway for Thanksgiving break, although only a grand total of 5 days?

What can we say, it was MEANT TO BE, and in our case, "meant to be" meant that we were given these opportunities and we didn't go broke...haha...this time Juan's mom, Darcy, along with two wonderful friends, Denise & Trent Swanson. Oh, wait, and someone else... THE RING!

So, we had a short but sweet time there...

Seriously, with the 5th day being the day you have to leave, it doesn't give you much time to do anything...but here are a couple of pictures:

A winter wonderland!

Sunday at church

here is the family (mom taking the picture)

mini-cart at the store

Bye, bye at the airport! (until next time)

September 27th, 2005 Trip to USA

2008-07-30T20:41:00.009-05:00

So, a couple of months after our dream-like summer in Norway, Kristine came to visit the Benito Family in Houston. She was scheduled to arrive Friday the 23rd of September...for those of us in Houston...that was the day Hurricane Rita landed on...Houston...so flights were canceled. With a little help from Kristine's mother, Lisbeth, Kristine arrived the following Tuesday.
Well, we put her to work! We drove out to Beaumont and helped FEMA deliver water, hygienic pkgs, and food.

we did have a good time!

So, next part of the trip, hmm, changed our lives. On October 8th, 2005, Juan proposed to Kristine! The story kinda goes like this...

Kristine loves airplanes, so Juan thought it would be awesome to propose while at the annual air show...maybe over the speakers at the event...that was the original plan anyways. We got there, and the first stand we get to this man see's Kristine's incredible beauty and we kid you not, proposed...

There was only one option...get rid of him!

So Juan did what Juan had to do...

The speaker thing didn't work, announcers and all that, it just didn't feel right once I got there...so after the event, thinking downtown might have the romantic feeling I was looking for, ooops, wait nope...nothing there, nothing open on a Sat. evening, unbelievable...well, Juan had been to the Mercer Arboretum before and knew that it was a wooded area with trails, probably the closest to nature that you can get in Houston...

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Juan took Kristine on a walk, and we were about to sit down on some benches, when while Kristine was turning around, Juan knelt down, and asked Kristine to be his wife ( she said yes!).
After we calmed down, we took this picture...

No ring (she loved Juan for who he was)...but it was coming!

After the mission - Summer 2005

2008-07-30T18:49:00.008-05:00

So, after a brief time at home (two months), by the grace of Kristine, Juan made it back to Norway. This happened because she was rich and he was not. Juan got to come back to Norway, see his last companion who was still in Moss, and we also had a pretty neat experience happen to us on that first Sunday when we reunited, there was a gentleman who had also served his mission in Norway...only 40 years ago. He remembered almost nothing that he saw because so much had changed. From then on we promised ourselves to encourage others to do the same...go back to Norway, or just travel, before its too late, before too much time goes by. Seeing how happy he was to be back, yet knowing how lost he felt because he didn't quite know where he was in relation to what/who he remembered, showed us that that is a very important part of life, more than money (because we don't have any), more than stability, people is what it is really about. Caring for each other!! On to the pictures already!!!!!

Re-enactment of our first kiss, on actual location of where it happened...pretty cool, eh? It was in Sweden of all places...It took Juan a kiss on the cheek, an attempt in the car on the way, before Kristine said it was ok/the right time!

A random small European vehicle in Sweden after we drove for 8 hours to get there

Nature shot on the way to Northern Norway after having been to the Sweden Temple for a week with the Moss Ward.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of Kristine!
We were on our way back from having spent a week in the middle of nowhere with The Danielsen Family. We ate fish, and some more fish, and we fished, and we swam in near freezing water...here is the map of our travels that summer...

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We started in Moss(B), drove to Stockholm(A) and back, and then up to...well don't exactly know the name(C)...you drive to Mosjøen, then you take the ferry with two stops, get off, drive 30 more minutes, park your car, and make sure that Alf Danielsens parents know your coming, they are the only people that live there throughout the year. :)

Where & When we met

2008-07-11T17:25:00.011-05:00

While we are here, we might as well add a bit about how and where it all started.
It was mid-July, 2004, and Juan was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, living in Moss, Norway.

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Kristine had never spoken to the missionaries previously, although her best friend lived right next to us in the apartment of a member of the church from that city. She always had assumed that we all only spoke English. That night as me and my companion (Wilbur, in Moss for 6 months as companions) spoke with Solveig Rui (wife of Sverre Rui who were our landlords), Kristine came right up to me and introduced herself as Kristine Johansen, and then did the same to Wilbur, then hurriedly went her way to visit Elisabeth Rui.

[From Juan's point of view on the mission]: We kept on talking to Solveig about how we don't really associate ourselves with the younger opposite gender while on the mission, and how the short and to-the-point introduction was the perfect example of how to keep things stricktly business.
[From Kristine's point of view]: Did you see his eyes?!?!?!?!?! Her friends quickly told her what she should and shouldn't do when interacting with a missionary, which of course is what she did because Kristine is a good girl. :)

From there, we continued to be friends until my departure from Moss, and from Norway.

Looking back, we were probably living in different worlds, but how awesome none the less to have met my future wife(and In-Laws)!

The Beginning

2008-07-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

Hello,

This will be our first attempt at a blog!
We recently purchased laptops to be able to better meet the needs of very demanding Internet based classes, which we both "attend" full-time.
The neat part is that at the same time we are able to resume communication with family and friends, and we are truly excited about it!
Our goal with this blog is to be able to log our "Story" and how we got to where we are today, and maybe even some of our exciting hopes for the future.
Slowly but surely we will add the events that have brought us together, and make a place for you all to share with us, as at one point or another you have been there with us, making the story.
Love to all from US!

www.familienbenito.blogspot.com