Caitlin & Aj share their story – and a lot of laughs – with us!

Caitlin

Amazing! Thank you!

AJ

Thank you!

AJ

When did we actually connect? You [Caitlin] would know the date [laughs]….

Caitlin

Yeah, it was the start of February…

AJ

Yeah, early February.

AJ

Yeah, yeah.

Caitlin

We move quickly [laughs].

AJ

When you know, you know.

Caitlin

So, I lived in Newcastle in New South Wales when we connected, and AJ lived up here on the Gold Coast. I didn't even really have the app long enough to know if I’d set a radius or anything. I’d been up here for a holiday a few weeks prior, so maybe that’s why we popped up in each other’s matches. Basically, we just chatted and facetimed for like two weeks straight before we met.

AJ

Yeah, I think we were facetiming all hours of the night, every night. It was pretty insane.

AJ

So, we decided to meet halfway, after I think two weeks of talking. We met in Port Macquarie, so on neutral territory… though it wasn’t really neutral because-

Caitlin

I grew up in Port! [laughs]

AJ

She’s from Port Macquarie….so yeah, we met there. Which was a big drive for me and a little bit of a drive for you at the time.

AJ

Yeah, yeah, it was more me.

Caitlin

Yeah.

AJ

I took a half day on the Friday and drove down. We stayed the whole weekend and just from when we first me, I suppose we met in the afternoon and then went out for dinner and we both … [laughs]

Caitlin

[laughs]

AJ

After talking for weeks on facetime, we… I couldn’t even talk, and she couldn’t even talk. We just sat there, at the restaurant, laughing at each other, looking like fruit loops.

Caitlin

Yeah! Especially after two weeks of just hours of facetime every night. We got to meeting in person and just couldn’t…

AJ

We just couldn’t … I couldn’t string a sentence together. I just kept laughing. You [Caitlin] were pretty much the same.

Caitlin

[laughs]

AJ

[laughs]

Caitlin

AJ had a picture from a CrossFit event, with his 6 pack right there and I was like “okkkk”.

AJ

[laughs] I think I was more so interested because Caity had a photo of her floating in a pool in a bikini and then the next photo was her racing at a motor cross event. And I was just thinking “this can’t be right…surely someone who looks like her can’t race motor cross”. So then I messaged her and was like “I don’t think you're real” ….

AJ

Because you know how on some apps you get fake accounts…so I just said “please tell me you're real” [laughs]. Also, when I first started talking to her I didn't realise there was that distance either. I didn't even look at the radius, so I just thought she must be here [Queensland], because the picture was taken at Noosa. I was definitely curious to see if she was real…

AJ

I’m heavily into the CrossFit world. I’m a co-founder of a business that’s big in CrossFit. And you [Caitlin], you're kind of into a bit of everything…

Caitlin

Yeah, I’m a bit of a mixture. I obviously race motor cross and then I dance at Physical Culture. I’ve dabbled in bits of CrossFit and bootcamps and all of that kind of stuff. I guess the first weekend we met, you were training for an IRONMAN…

AJ

Yeah, actually, I’d forgot about that. I was training for an IRONMAN, and I had to bring –

Caitlin

Everything…

AJ

Everything down, yeah, because it was a big training weekend for me. It had been programmed in. And I wasn’t sure if it was going to rain, so I brought my indoor trainer and my bike and everything. It ended up bucketing down rain. I got up in the morning, and I got the indoor trainer set up and did my couple of hours riding while she was still asleep. [laughs].

AJ

And then once she was up, I had to duck off and do my run. I had to do a maybe 10km run. And it was like torrential rain. But yeah, that was crazy.

Caitlin

Then we had a few other meetups when you were still training. He would run and I would ride my push bike.

AJ

Oh that’s right! Yeah!

Caitlin

I'm not at the running level of a triathlon, so I would just ride my bike.

AJ

We sort of … I would fly down to Newcastle, or Caity would fly up on a Friday and then leave on a Sunday. Which sucked. But every weekend that I was down in Newcastle, she would ride her bike and I would run. Or we’d do the same up here.

Caitlin

We’re not on the same level of fitness, but we both love doing active things together anyway.

AJ

We’ve just started CrossFit together. My mate owns a place in Burleigh and we’ve got a whole gym here (at home) … like the air runner, the air bike, everything you need for CrossFit. We started training together at home when she moved in, but then we decided we needed to go and do classes. It’s just more fun. And we just have so much fun training together, it’s really cool.

Caitlin

In general, we’re pretty inseparable. We do everything together….

AJ

Yeah!

Caitlin

Other than when I got to Physie [Physical Culture] … that’s probably the only time we have apart. Or…

AJ

Or if I’ve got business stuff. She comes to all my footy games which is cool. I’ve got two daughters and we have them 50/50. Was it the first weekend you met the girls you came to…?

Caitlin

The triathlon?

AJ

A footy game?

Caitlin

No, it was the triathlon.

AJ

Oh, that’s right. So, the first time she met my daughters, she flew into Brisbane, I picked up her and I had a triathlon event on the Sunday on the Sunshine Coast. So, she flew up Friday, we drove to the Sunshine Coast with the girls. We went away…our first like weekend getaway...

Caitlin

Yeah, with the kids [laughs]

AJ

And I was competing in a full-length triathlon. It was really cool, actually. You had to go home on Sunday, and you had to drive because I was pretty cooked by the end [laughs].

Caitlin

So that was my first experience … well our first trip away with the kids, but also, I had them by myself for that time that he was doing the triathlon. That was a first. I don’t have kids, so I was like “oh, what do I do with them”.

AJ

The whole time I was running I was “I can’t see them!” but then when I met them at the finish line it was pretty awesome. It was a good feeling.

Caitlin

[laugh] I know! I was just thinking “don’t lose them!”

AJ

She’s been so supportive of my athletic stuff. She’s at all my footy games – I travel a fair bit with footy, so that can be really long days, and she manages the girls while I play. It just makes it super stress free and it’s so good to have a little cheer squad.

Caitlin

We have our adventure weekends…

AJ

Yeah, we do a lot of adventuring which is quite cool.

Caitlin

What was it… Tambourine…or the waterfall…

AJ

I can’t remember. But yeah, Tambourine Mountain. We go hiking a lot, that’s like our getaway. It’s good for me to break away from business life as well, and doing it actively, is really important.

Caitlin

Yeah, I don’t know that we call them ‘dates’, I guess, it’s just what we want to go and do…

AJ

It’s quality time. We’re both super aware of each other’s love languages. That was really important when we were facetiming. We learned a lot about each other. I suppose when you meet someone, in person, you don’t communicate as strongly as what you do over facetime. We were forced to really communicate and learn about each other and dig deep.

AJ

So, we learnt quite early on about each other’s love languages and ‘quality time’ is really important for me – it’s my number one – and it’s yours too actually. So, quality time for us is going on adventures and training. It’s like no one else exists to us as well, which is cool. We call it our little love bubble. When we go to the gym, there’s people there but I'm just not aware of them….

Caitlin

Yesterday, we were doing push presses and looking at each other. Like, we were facing each other…

AJ

Everyone else was facing one way and we were facing each other.

Caitlin

Everyone was like “aww, that’s so cute guys”. We were like “sorry… isn't this a couples class?” [laughs].

AJ

A friend had told me about the app, and I downloaded it a couple of times before I actually used it.

Caitlin

For me, it just came up in my social media algorithm… I can’t remember which one. I’d tried other apps, so thought I’d give it a go. Thought that I may as well try this one as well. I mean, I don’t have a six-pack, but I'm active!

AJ

For me, it was definitely the fitness aspect. I’d been on other apps and there is… I suppose that really fitness dedicated people are different to half-dedicated fitness people. There’s a lot of people who say they're into fitness and training but then you go on a date and they don’t understand how important it is to your mental health and just being ‘you’.

AJ

They seem to not enjoy that part… but with Caity…she was the first person I met on Fitafy, and it’s just been so easy. She’s super supportive of all my training and wants to be involved in it. Whereas in the past, people have been like “no, no chance” [laughs]. So that was really important to me.

Caitlin

I think for me, on other apps you can try and look to see if people are active, or what they're into, but you can’t really tell. So, if you're going to go for a walk or a run or do something with someone…they might not be interested. And you don’t want to be with someone who’s like “oh, you're going to the gym? Why would you want to do that? Why don’t you just stay at home and watch TV”…

AJ

Fitness oriented people … it’s a good habit, which then bleeds over into other parts of your life. We’re very similar. She’s actually the first person I’ve been so similar to. We have the same taste in furniture … we clean the house the same way … I think it’s related to that we’re both into the same fitness stuff.

Caitlin

Even the first weekend that we were together. When we went out and ordered at the restaurant…. We’d get the same food….

AJ

Coffees…

Caitlin

The same coffees… we were like “oh, this is weird” …

Caitlin

Yeah, like, people diet, or not diet, but are eating healthy because you train, so you don’t want to eat rubbish. We just happened to be really similar, which just made going out and doing things really easy. And now it makes it easy because we eat the same stuff! [laughs].

AJ

[laughs] We do love our snacks!

Caitlin

[laughs] We both love our treats!

Caitlin

Yeah, we support each other with what we want to do.

AJ

Oh it was so long ago. Though, there was something… I think it was the fact you couldn’t just swipe all the time on it. So, people couldn’t just swipe and then go and un-match. There’s a lot of thought that needs to go into it.

Caitlin

I really didn't spend a lot of time on it to be honest since we connected to quickly. I did like the way that the photos were spread it so it kind of makes you read everything. Whereas other apps, you can just click on the photos and not have to read anything…

Caitlin

Yeah!

AJ

Yeah, and it’s just been so easy. And the travelling sucked. The leaving was really hard.

Caitlin

The Sunday was always rough.

AJ

It was always either she had to go, or I had to go. It was really tough.

AJ

Yeah, we’d spoken about it before. I’ve been married before, but I’ve never felt the connection that I have with Caity. So, we’d spoken about it, just the fact that we were each other’s person, and we’d love to get married. And she’d just said “if you're going to propose to me, don’t do it in public” [laughs]. So, I was quite aware of that! And definitely tempted to do it! [laughs]

AJ

But I spoke to my best mate, who’s also a mentor and business partner and asked him “how early do you think is stupid to propose”, and he said “when you know, you know. Lock it in; she made a commitment to you by moving up here and she’s so good with the girls” …. The day I made the decision, I knew what kind of ring she’d like, and I knew her ring size.

AJ

It didn't take me long to find, and I just knew it, straight way. And then the day of the proposal, I was meant to play footy, but I wasn’t feeling well and decided to take the day off. Caity had booked in to get her hair done, and when I picked her up – I had the ring in my jacket –we went out to this nice restaurant and had our favourite food.

AJ

The weather was a bit miserable, but I wanted to propose down at the beach. But then I realised her nails weren’t done; they were chipped and not in great shape [laughs]. I still offered the walk on the beach still and she was like.

Caitlin

Noooo, it’s freezing, I want to go home! [laughs].

AJ

Which is when I kind of noticed the nails. So, I decided to take her to get her nails done….

Caitlin

Normally, we’d have been at football, so I wasn’t complaining that the day was about me! But when I was in there, he sends me this message “oh, pick like a baby pink or white…”. I told him I picked a baby pink anyway, because that’s what I do 50% of the time regardless…

AJ

I just didn't want her to come back with something bright and crazy…

Caitlin

Yeah, and then he has to wait another two weeks [laughs]

AJ

Exactly! So, I texted her “make sure you get this colour”. Luckily, she’d already decided on that colour. We were going to see my favourite music artist play in Currumbin after this as well…. So, she had no idea, just thinking we were going for a night out. Then I told her to go and pick a pair of earrings for the night, I’d buy whatever she wanted…

Caitlin

Meanwhile I'm like “Oh, great, okkkk” [laughs]

AJ

Yeah, and I'm trying to get her to subtly choose something that would go with the ring [laughs]. So, we got the earrings, and went home to change. I said that I had something else for her to wear…. And she’s thinking “oh he’s bought me lingerie; it better be the right size!” … that’s what you said! [laughs]

Caitlin

I know! [laughs]. We were in the car and I said “look, babe, if you’ve bought me lingerie, I'm not an extra small. What have you got” …. [laughs].

AJ

So, she was stressing about that [laughs]

Caitlin

Yes!

AJ

Yeah, so we got home, and she got dressed. I said I’d put her earrings on for her, and as I did, I was saying thank you for making the commitment of moving up here, and for all that she does for the girls…

Caitlin

I'm still oblivious, just like “ok, babe… that’s nice of you to say”

AJ

And then I said I’ve got something else for you to wear…

Caitlin

And then I said I’ve got something else for you to wear…

AJ

But I just said how she’d made the commitment to me, and now I wanted to make the commitment to her. And pulled out the ring…

Caitlin

It was very surreal.

Caitlin

I need a dress [laughs]. I’ve gone to a couple of stores, but I’ve got one this weekend that I'm super excited about. I haven’t found anything yet. Sometimes the dresses can take like six months or something to get. So, we figured I’ll get that sorted and then book everything else around that.

AJ

I need a dress [laughs]. I’ve gone to a couple of stores, but I’ve got one this weekend that I'm super excited about. I haven’t found anything yet. Sometimes the dresses can take like six months or something to get. So, we figured I’ll get that sorted and then book everything else around that.

Caitlin

It’ll be at The Valley Estate in Currumbin Waters.