Marriage, that blessed arrangement...a dream within a dream...

I should be writing my huge capstone paper that is due on Monday, but for some reason I have no motivation to do it today. I know that a lot of you are a little shocked and caught off guard by the fact that I am getting married.

If you refer to my last post you may get a sense that something was going on, but I was trying really hard not to say anything. I'm not sure what you want to know about this adventure I've been on. Some of you may know about the beginning, middle and end already, but for those of you who may not I'll just tell you everything. This maybe a long post so I won't be offended if you don't read the whole thing.

2009 (The Beginning)

David and I met in the summer of 2009 playing ultimate Frisbee. I was dating someone else at the time so I didn't know him too well. I heard him telling someone about playing volleyball with his ward and asked him about the details. I ended up going that week with my boyfriend to play. We broke up soon after that. With this new freedom of sorts, I decided to have fun. I am a naturally flirty person and David had no problem playing along. I hadn't given him my undivided attention at this point, but we both enjoyed the banter.

About three weeks after I had become single, I was talking to David after Frisbee. We were just sitting at the park, long after everyone else had left, talking about everything you could think of. Those are the best kinds of conversations. Soon we both got hungry. David asked if I liked Salmon. I said I did and he offered to make me lunch. So we both went home and cleaned up. He thought I got all dolled up for him, but really that is just what I look like when I go out of my house. We had a great time and just talked forever.

His ward was going down to Moab for a river trip and he asked if I wanted to come. I was a little wary, but I loved Moab and after some convincing I decided it would be fun. The trip was a lot of fun. After we got back, we had a BBQ with some of his friends. After they left, we started a movie "Horton Hears A Who." I had never seen it and we just laughed and laughed. We pretty much started dating at this point.

Then he convinced me to come to Oregon with him. He had a group of friend that was headed up to his parents house to pick berries. I told him I had to work, but he said I needed to live a little. I said I would go. Turns out everyone had bailed on him and it ended up just being us. We spent the entire eight hour drive talking.

So I just decided that this point will be so long if I keep giving you all the details. So I'm going to shorten it a little and get to what you really want. David and I dated for about two months. We went on another road trip to Oregon and Montana later. I fell in love with his family. They were such good people and had a lot of fun together. After a couple of incidents, hard times, situations I don't know what to call it, I decided that we shouldn't date anymore. David had a hard time with this but understood that I had to do what I thought was best for me.

I distanced myself from him, but still saw him around. I ended up moving back to Idaho at the end of that year to go back to school. We really didn't keep in touch until that summer.

2010 (The middle)

Summer of 2010, David sent me a facebook message. A group of his friends was headed down to Goblin Valley and he wondered if I needed to go on an adventure. He knows that I have a hard time saying no to a great adventure. I was just finishing up a summer job and decided it would be fun. I was unsure how to act. But decided that we were just friends so it would be fine. We caught up on family affairs on the way down and cleared up some wonderings we both had had. Overall it was a good experience.

Christopher needed some help painting his house so I said I would stay to help him. This meant that David and I had more time to play. I also had a lot of other friends I hung out with. I really needed a good friend at this transition point and David was proving to me that he could handle that. Although I could still sense that he had feelings for me. I went home for the 4th of July to visit a friend. Then I came back down to Utah to head out on another trip. David's family was going up to Glacier National Park in Montana and I had been invited.

Like I said earlier, I loved David's family and missed them. So I figured it would be a fun trip. That country was amazing. Our friendship continued to grow, but I still didn't feel like I could date him again. (even though that was pretty much what we were doing) Later that summer I went white water rafting up near Jackson Hole with a group of his friends. It was an interesting trip. He came to pick me up and had a couple girls with him. On of which he had dated before me. She was giving me a pretty strong vibe that she would have all of his attention. I was just excited to be up in nature and wasn't going to waste my energy fighting for David's attention. Over the next couple of days, I would have to admit I was a little jealous. No matter how much I didn't want to admit it, I wanted David to pay attention to me. He was totally oblivious that anything was happening.

We stayed in touch for a while, but then my graduate program started and life got crazy. He had told me earlier that he might be getting a new job that took him out of Salt Lake. Well he did. I saw on facebook one day that he had moved to Oregon. I was a little upset that he hadn't told me himself, but who was I to demand he keep me updated of his life. I talked to him a little about it, but then school took over again, or maybe it was the guy I started dating (that could have been distracting).

2011 (New Beginning)

After school had started up again this year, I kept thinking about David and what he was up too. I hadn't talked to him in a while. One day he text me and said he was thinking about me and just wanted to see how I was doing. I ended up calling him and we talked for about two hours. It was so good to have a good conversation with someone. I hadn't made a ton of close friends in Pocatello and it was good to know I still had great friends in other places.

He asked me when my next break was because we needed to play. I said not until August, but then remembered that ISU gets a spring break. He said that I should come play in Oregon with him for that week. I wasn't sure about the whole thing, but said I would think about it. As school continued to get crazier, I knew I was going to need a break. I text him and said that if he found me a plane ticket I would come. It didn't take him too long to get that task done.

As I told people I was going to Oregon for spring break, I got some sceptical looks. I told them I was just going to play. Nothing was going to happen. I was dating a couple guys in Pocatello, so I wasn't really worried about it. After the ticket talk, we kept in touch. Just a text here or there. Sometimes we would be joking about something and then it would turn into a serious conversation.

I was still casually dating a guy in my ward. I thought about what would happen to my friendship with David if I married someone else. There is no way we could adventure anymore. Then I thought if he got married and I got married then we could bring our spouses and still adventure. (that was a dumb thought) Realistically if I married anyone but him our adventures would end. As I thought more about it I started to see how much that bothered me. But still didn't really say anything to him.

I told him later I wanted to go to the Portland temple while I was there and asked if he wanted to go. He declined and I respected him wishes. Then I got a friend to go with me and asked if he wanted to get some friends and come with us. He declined again this time with a longer explanation. He said a lot of things that made me start thinking really hard. Very distracting right in the middle of mid-terms.

As we talked back and forth, I decided I needed to start praying about the whole thing. I needed to know where I stood with him before I went off to Oregon for a week. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like I needed to give him another chance. He had been so good about being my friend when I needed him too, but had I ever been what he needed me to be?

A week before I went to Oregon I was at a fireside. C. Scott Grow was speaking to us. As his talk began he told us the prophet was worried about the YSA not getting married. That was his biggest concern right now. As he talked about the temple and covenants you make. Being sealed to your family for ever, I got the most overwhelming feeling I've had only a few other times in my life.

David and I decided to started dating again about a week before I went to see him. If you read my last post you can read about all the adventures we went on. What you won't see is all of the talks we had. The interactions with his family. The peace that I felt about it. We talked about getting married. (We had already joked about this last summer, so it wasn't too weird.) We kept it all to ourselves, but his parents could see something was going on. Our dads have wanted us to get married for some time now. His had even threatened to call my dad and set up an arranged marriage. I didn't think we needed too much help at this point.

We both knew this was going to be hard. I still have two years left to finish my Physical Therapy degree. That would keep me in Idaho. The likely hood of him finding a job in Pocatello is not that great, but the thought of dating for two more years or being engaged for two years with him 10 hours away didn't sound appealing to either of us.

As for the proposal story all of you are waiting to hear, it isn't really what you are expecting. I wanted to pull an April Fool's day joke so I asked David the night before if he would marry me. He said yes. Figuring that would be a lame way to get engaged I told him that I took it back and I would be patient.

A week later I asked him if he would marry me on August 12th. He said yes he would. A this point we were engaged, except that I didn't know it. I just wanted to tell the whole world about it, but couldn't. So I slowly informed my immediate family that I was going to get married. Then last Sunday I called David and told him that I really needed us to be engaged so could start planning my wedding. I was running out of time. I told him he could still be romantic later when he gave me my ring. So don't fret he is planning something that I will let you know about after it happens.

So that is the story. If you feel like I left something out ask me about it. We are getting married August 12, 2011 in the Logan temple. The ride is going to be crazy, but we have always loved to adventure together. With the lord at the wheel everything will work out how it is supposed to.

Spring Break 2011

So this is one of the few times in my life when I have taken advantage of Spring Break. When I went to BYU-Idaho, we didn't get a spring break because winter semester was so short. This year I really needed one. While my time could have been used working on several projects I have due in about two weeks, I needed time away from school. 20 credits this semester is overwhelming at times and I decided to give myself a little pick me up.

I had been talking to a friend of mine, some of you have met, David Wilson. He had moved to Salem, Oregon the end of last year and was trying to convince me to come visit Oregon. I told him that I didn't have time for that. Like most of the adventures I have gone on with him, I gave all sorts of excuses why it wouldn't work and in the end gave in. After a particularly exhausting day at school, I text him and said if he found me a flight I would come. The rest is history.

At the time I didn't know the dates of a musical my parents were participating in. It was the weekend of Spring Break and I would be flying out on Saturday. So I went to the musical Thursday and drove down to Utah Friday after class. This was the last day of my three weeks of mid-terms. I had taken 13 tests and was excited to leave it all behind. Turns out my siblings all planned on going to the musical Saturday night (Christopher's birthday). So I missed a thrown together family reunion. But I got to play on the Oregon coast that night so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

David had been so excited to see me that he scheduled my flight for 9:00 a.m. This meant that I needed to be at the airport by 7:00 a.m. With all my family being in Idaho for the musical, my grandfather kindly agreed to take me to the airport. While I waited for my flight I studied neuro anatomy at the airport. I finally boarded my flight and started for Portland. I have noticed in the past couple of years that I get really motion sick. That is why I fall asleep so fast on car rides. So to distract myself from the motion of flying through the air I listened to a neurology lecture. The stewardess noticed my lab manual on my lap and told me we needed my people in the world that were interested in the brain. I wanted to tell her that it was a required interest, but opted not to.

My flight got into Portland about ten minutes early. Normally I would be excited, but I had told my friend to pick me up at 10:30 a.m. When I had looked at my flight information the night before I was actually supposed to get in at 10:10 a.m. I was trying to figure out what I would do at the airport for 30 minutes, but when I text her they were almost to the airport. By the time I picked up my bags, they had only driven around the circle once and pulled up right in front of me. We went and did a session at the Portland Temple. I figured I should go while I was there because I didn't know if I would get another chance. It was such a beautiful experience.

Portland Temple


After the temple, David picked me up and we drove to the coast to meet up with his parents. The were excited I was coming to visit and wanted to see me. The drive was spectacular. It was so green everywhere. Spring is mostly brown in Idaho. When we got there his parents were already down on the beach, so we went and met up with them. It was a pretty nice night. We looked for agates on the beach and threw a Frisbee around.



Then it was dinner time. We had some of the best clam chowder. I should mention that I had gotten braces on at the beginning of the week. That made eating an interesting experience. The food was great though and the company was better.

The next day we went to church at a local ward. They were all very friendly and I ended up playing the piano in relief society. I guess that was to make up for not playing to organ in my own ward. We ate a light lunch and then headed to the light house. We got to climb up to the top and they told us about the specific sequence that light house had for the light, so sailors would know where they were.

Inside of Light House


Light house


There were some stairs going down to a cobblestone beach. Due to the tsunami and winter storms, there was a lot of debris washed up on the shore.

Sea Urchin


Star fish on the beach


David and I on the Oregon coast


We had dinner in Newport.

Bridge in Newport, Oregon


After dinner, we went to Agate beach. The funny thing was there weren't that many agates to be found. I don't know if we even saw one.

Beach


The next day we went back to the light house and did a little hiking.



Then we went to another part the park and hopped around on the rocks. There were some seals just lounging around in this pool.

Seals


Then we went to the aquarium in Newport. It was pretty cool to see all the animals up close and personal, but I don't know if I would pay to go again. It was a little pricey.

Sea Anemone


Sea horse


We stopped at another beach before dinner. This one had a ton of agates that we picked up. I figure that the locals just named the other beach Agate beach to throw off the tourists, so they could keep the agates to themselves. We went over to some tidal pools and I got to stick my finger in an anemone. That felt so weird. I don't even know how to describe it. (sorry if all of these events aren't in the right order. We did so many things that it is hard to keep it all straight.)

Then we had dinner in Newport. We had crab. This was the first time I've eaten whole crab. It was kind of like doing a dissection. I know that it is nerdy to inspect the anatomy of your food, but the whole process was so fascinating. Plus the crab was good.

That night we drove to Central Oregon to visit David's sister. We woke up the next day and had a great breakfast and then headed out for a hike. The weather this day was perfect. By the end of the hike I had even taken my hoody off, which is saying a lot for me.

Central Oregon


David's parents had to go home that night, but we stayed to play with the family a little longer. We played basketball with Leah and Mitch and their three kids still at home. We played girls against guys. It was pretty even. Later David kept kicking my trash at ping-pong. Although I am getting better. Then we played Settlers. I didn't know all the rules, otherwise I would have won, but it was a lot of fun.

The next day David and I headed for Pendleton, Oregon. We stopped and hiked on our way. We saw this sign for the land we went hiking on. We thought David's dad might like it so we sent him a picture.



Then we drove the rest of the way to Pendleton. The next morning we went hiking out in the hills. We didn't get a chance to go explore this the last time I was there. It was such amazing country. We got all dressed up in camouflage, so we could be sneaky. It was fun to see where David got to adventure when he was growing up. Although I was a little jealous.

David's play ground Pendleton, Oregon


We saw over a 150 elk, white tail deer, and mule deer on our hike. I was getting really good at spotting them by the end. There were a couple herds I pointed out that David was pretty impressed by.

As we were hiking we found some antler sheds. As couple were from mule deer and the others were white tails. We didn't find any recent sheds. You had to pay close attention to spot them in the trees and grass. Some of them that we found were hidden pretty well.

Deer sheds


We were out hiking around from about 11:30 a.m. to almost 6:00 p.m. We hiked in and out of quite a few draws. Sometimes I would look back at what we had just hiked down and was amazed. Then I remembered that at some point we would be hiking back up something just as steep. It was a good work out for sure. It was great to get out in nature after being stuck in school for so long.

The next day was pretty lazy. We laid around for most of the day. I read a book and we listened to David's dad read some books later. Then we watched a movie. Overall I ate some great food and saw some gorgeous country. The company was good and I got a break from school.

David drove me back to Portland the next morning. My plane was delayed and I got into Salt Lake City about an hour late. Then I went and had dinner with a good friend. I stayed in SLC and went to church with Christopher and Laura the next day. Then it was back to Pocatello. I didn't want to come back to school, but it was time. Now I just have to make up for the week of play. It was completely worth it though.