Our Story
Use the links below to skip to a section:
About Karina ~
About Jason ~
How We Met ~
The Engagement
About Karina
Age ~ 24
Life story ~ Karina was born in Spokane, Washington into the loving arms of Kristi and Kim Hatch. She attended South Pines and Freeman Elementary Schools, Freeman Jr. High, and graduated from University High School in 2002. Karina was always very involved with sports including: snow skiing, soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, and track. In 7th grade, Karina injured her knee and the rehabilitation following the surgeries sparked her interest in physical therapy. While growing up, she was fortunate to travel many places. Some of her most memorable adventures include a family road trip across the country, a cruise in the Bahamas, winter skiing weekends at Schweitzer Mountain, and many camping trips and family reunions all over the Northwest. Karina loves spending time in the summer relaxing at lakes and rivers while boating and swimming.
Career ~ Full-time professional student. Karina graduated from the University of Washington in December of 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She is currently attending the University of Puget Sound for her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. During the past few college years, Karina has had a lot of fun nannying in Seattle.
Favorite things to do ~ Travel, watch movies, swim (pool/lake), cook and bake, and play volleyball.
Favorite thing about Jason ~ He always waits until she starts falling asleep to chat.
Email Karina ~
About Jason
Age ~ 29
Life Story ~ Jason was born in Pasadena, California to his parents Saundra and Joe Rudmann. He attended Chaparral Elementary School, and in 1989 his family moved from Rancho Cucamonga to Spokane. He continued his schooling at Ponderosa Elementary School, Horizon Jr. High, and graduated from University High School in 1997. Jason was involved in various sports including: soccer, basketball, golf, skateboarding and snowboarding. However, baseball was his favorite. He played on the Spokane All Star team. In high school, Jason took a radio/TV course, which led him to pursue a degree in film. While growing up, he remembers days spent on the California coast swimming and playing in the ocean, riding his bike, and trying to stay out of trouble. Jason loves spending time in the summer barbecuing, swimming and taking pictures.
Career ~ After graduating from Eastern Washington University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Electronic Media and Film, Jason continued serving at Longhorn Barbecue until Karina convinced him to pursue a career in media. In 2004, he moved to Seattle, where graphic design jobs where more abundant. Jason finally became a true 9-5er. Since then, he has worked as a Lead Designer for Sesame Communications™ and is currently a UX Design (User Experience Designer) at Corbis®.
Favorite things to do ~ Watch movies, design, take photos, read, run, swim (ocean), and cook.
Favorite thing about Karina ~ Without her, he would be lost—literally and figuratively!
Email Jason ~
How we met…
Karina and Jason met while working at the Longhorn Barbecue restaurant in Spokane. They worked together over three years, but Karina mostly worked on school breaks. They found out, through mutual friends, that they were interested in each other. However, Karina was about to begin school at the UW and consequently moved to Seattle.
After her first year, she returned to Spokane and Longhorn for the summer. Jason finally made his move, albeit at the end of that summer—one week before Karina had to return to UW. They became exclusive and after the first year of a long distance relationship, Jason moved to Seattle to be closer to Karina.
They currently live in Kent, Washington and have been dating five years!
The Engagement
Anyone that knows Karina well enough can tell you that she is not easy to deceive because she is very inquisitive and dislikes surprises. Jason is a creative person, but knew that she would immediately know if something seemed out of the ordinary. So, he decided that they could go to Las Vegas and let the excitement of the town make the proposal one to remember.
Not being familiar with Vegas, his ideal plan was to propose in front of the Bellagio near midnight when the fountains were performing. Due to traffic, however, it took an hour to get from downtown back to the strip (4 miles). Consequently, they arrived just after the last show, but Jason realized that this was his only opportunity and convinced Karina to take a stroll around the pond. After they were alone, Jason took a shot and got down on one knee to propose at 1:10am. Fortunately, a drunk civilian was kind enough to take blurry photos of the engagement immediately after the word "Yes!" came out of Karina's mouth. This is one time that what happened in Vegas did not stay is Vegas!
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registry
photos
Here are some random photos of the two us from our initial infatuation to the present.
View more photos of us at flickr.