July 13, 1988...The beginning of our story. Well, it really began in January 1988 when Cleo and I were set up on a blind date by mutual friends. We went on a double date with Kurt and Keri to a pizza joint in Rock Springs, WY. I knew then (I really did!) that I would marry this man. Cleo, well it took him a while to come around (not long, as you can see we were married 6 months after that first date!). We were, and still are to an extent, polar opposites. He LOVES the outdoors, hunting, fishing, camping...Me, well I'd rather be in a hotel with room service and bathroom facilites, but I think this is why we've made it work. We both love what we love and respect that we have different interests...although the longer we're married, the more we have found we really do have in common. When we met, Cleo had a 7 yr old son, a 5 yr old daughter and a 3 yr old daughter...I had a 6 yr old son, so we had an instant family. It wasn't always easy, and we didn't have a lot of money but I think we all have some pretty good memories of those days...I'm sure the kids would tell you there were some hairy times too (what kid wouldn't?), but after 23 years all 4 of our kids have grown into amazing adults...all are married to wonderful spouses and we have 5 awesome grandkids! Who would've thought??? There were many skeptics back then...I mean the odds were pretty much stacked against us, but here we are and I believe there will be MANY, MANY more wonderful years ahead of us!
Our Wedding day...in a chapel in Las Vegas, NV. We went to the Courthouse the night before to get our marriage license. It looked and smelled more like an inner city police precinct! We filled out the license, in pencil (yup, the exact same kind you would use to fill out a golf score card!) stood in line and when it was our turn, the clerk asked to see our drivers' licenses', she briefly glanced at them (heck they could've belonged to Elvis & Priscilla and she wouldn't have seen the difference..lol!) no blood tests required, and next thing you know we were holding our official License. The next day, we were picked up at our hotel by a sweet stretch limo. Our driver, Bruno, took us for an "eye-opening" tour of the back streets of Vegas before finally taking us to the chapel. It really was a beautiful chapel and decorated very tastefully, not a "dive" as I kind of expected...I was pleasantly surprised! A woman "minister" appears and starts the ceremony and quickly stops, asking "who/where is your witness?" Oh dear, we didn't think of that, we hadn't asked any family or friends to go with us, so Cleo quickly runs out to the limo and grabs Bruno telling him we need him to be our "witness". After a brief ceremony, we were pronounced Man and Wife by this woman who proclaimed her faith to be something like 10 words long...you know "The Church of the Holy Name of blah, blah, blah"!!! To this day, we sometimes wonder if we were really legally married, but after all this time I guess it was legit...LOL:):):) We enjoyed a night in Vegas, with Cleo begging me to go back to the room, to which I quickly responded "I'm winning, we have the rest of our lives for that!"...and left the next day for a week long honeymoon in California. It was amazing and every day since has been an adventure.
So, here we are 23 years later and I could not be more in Love with this man. He is my everything and I would not want to be on this journey with anyone else. I love you Cleo Kevin Cheney and look forward to many, many more years with you. Years filled with fun and adventure and good times and more Love than ever!!!
