About James

James is originally from Idaho Falls, ID.  He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He has a PhD in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis.  James Butikofer lives in Fredericksburg, VA and commutes to downtown DC for his job at the Department of Labor where he works as an Economist. James enjoys reading, hiking, dutchoven cooking, and spending time with his children.  James has five children, ranging from 3 to 12.  Joseph, Jonas, Hyrum, Jenna, and Joy live in Fredericksburg with their mother.

James loves that Carrie is organized, full of faith, and charitable.  People that know Carrie tell him how kind, caring, and incredible she is and he agrees!  He appreciates Carrie’s willingness and desire to be not only a part of his life, but the lives of his children.  To sum it up, Carrie is wonderful!

About Carrie

Carrie lived in California, Nevada, England, Idaho, Turkey, New Mexico, Germany and graduated high school in Las Vegas.  She then attended BYU and served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to Austria.   Carrie lives in Alexandria, VA and has worked at the US Census Bureau as a statistician and program manager since she moved to the DC area in 1998.

Carrie loves music, and has often participated in church choirs and other music groups.  Carrie enjoys spending time with friends and hosting celebrations or game nights.  She enjoys hiking and the outdoors,  dabbles in quilting, cooking, and other crafts.  She loves to explore.  Visiting lighthouses is probably her most well-known hobby.  Carrie has visited over half of the approximately 750 lighthouses in the United States.  She finds it fun to plan and research her trips, in addition to actually traveling along the water and visiting so much of beautiful rural America.

Carrie is very happy to have found James and loves that he is humble and prayerful and faithful and handsome.  She appreciates that James plans and is so helpful.  She is grateful that James is so devoted to his children, and also doesn't mind that James is so supportive and committed to her!

Our Story - by Carrie

James and I met June 4 at a singles hike.  We even have a picture from that day!  James was the only person I hadn’t met previously.   We went on an orienteering hike, and then another hike to a waterfall.  Some of the group conversation revolved around relationships, and I was happy that James seemed to have healthy/optimistic attitudes about dating.  I found out that he was recently divorced with five children.  One of my friends on the hike asked me if I was interested in him, and I had to admit that I was.  He seemed really nice, mild mannered, interested in hiking and not bad looking. 

We ran into each other again in July at the DC Singles Conference and talked some more, but I was dating someone else at the time.  Just before the Labor Day weekend my sister sent me a note that her family would be praying and fasting for me that weekend.  I had been thinking about James and how I would like to get to know him better.  I decided to visit the Potomac ward where James attended church to see if I could run into him.  It was a successful visit, and I had a hard time focusing on the rest of church.  Having exchanged contact information, I then proceeded to invite James over for a game night and was happy that he could make it.  James and I proceeded to date, and were exclusive by October.  We have had fun visiting lighthouses, dancing, dressing up for Halloween, cooking together and more.  It’s nice that we have so much in common and it’s good to do fun things together, but it’s the gospel discussions, sharing of hopes and fears, and other deep discussions that really helped our relationship grow.  We were both amazed by the impressions that came, the confidence that grew, how quickly concerns were resolved, and the similarities in some of our life experience and attitudes.  It was November before I met his kids, and December 24th we were engaged.  While our relationship may have moved fast by many standards, we both felt the spirit confirm pretty early that our relationship was a really good thing.  So, I’m a fan of small group activities, a lot of prayer, a little initiative, and of course faith and patience in the Lord’s timing!

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Future Plans

After they are married, James will be moving into Carrie's townhouse.

Carrie and James Butikofer
2904 E Side Dr
Alexandria, Va 22306

Photos

June 4, 2011 - Our First Meeting

October 9, 2011 - Havre De Grace, MD boat trip

October 11, 2011 - Craighill Channel Lighthouse, Baltimore, MD

October 20, 2011 - United States Capitol

November 5, 2011 - Making Pumpkin Rolls

November 5, 2011 - Ms. Wonderful and her Smart Cookie

November 11, 2011 - At the battlefields in Fredericksburg, VA

December 9, 2011 - Lights at the Washington DC Temple

December 27, 2011 - On the Beach in San Diego

December 28, 2011 - At the Mormon Battalion

More Photos

January 15, 2012 - Dutch Oven Birthday Dinner

February 18, 2012 - USS North Carolina

February 20, 2012 - Oak Island Lighthouse, NC

March 17, 2012 - National Arboretum, DC