Our Engagement Story!!!

Kyle and I became engaged on the beautiful day of February 23rd, 2007. It was absolutely the perfect day and my amazing husband put alot of thought, effort, and time into making it the PERFECT day!!! While we were dating, I had mentioned a few things that I would like to have take place in my future engagement and Kyle implemented everything I could have asked for. I hate to admit it, but I kind of had an idea that our engagement was going to take place this day, but it still was a day I will treasure forever and I will never forget.

The day started out as normal with me going to work at Tri-City as a Medical Assistant.   About 2 hours into work, I was told that I had someone waiting for me at the front desk. When I went to the front desk, my husband's best friend, Derek, was standing there with a vase of 4 dozen long stem red roses (pictures below) and an envelope. Inside the envelope it contained a piece of paper titled "The Hunt for True Love & Eternal Joy." The clue had of us on it, with specific instructions.   At the bottom of the paper it gave me the first clue. 

First Clue: Go to the Place of our First Kiss

After working until around 2:30ish, I headed out to my car to find it decorated.   It had little sayings written on all the windows such as "You are my Sunshine" and "I Love You" along with the inside was filled with balloons. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of my car to share.

I was then off to my first destination, which was my parent's house, the place of our first kiss. When I got home, I went down to my room and found rose pedals on the ground, another 2 dozen pink long stem roses, pictures of the Salt Lake temple around my room, candy on the wall spelling "I LOVE YOU", and an envelope containing the second clue. 

Second Clue: Go to the place where we first said "I Love You" to each other.

I then headed to Kyle's apartment which was the place that we first said "I Love You" to each other. Upon arriving at Kyle's apartment, I went inside to find one of his roommates that had a teddy bear for me along with the third clue. 

Third Clue: Go to the place of our very first date.

I then got back in my car and headed to the place of our first date which was T.G.I. Fridays.  When I arrived at the restaurant I headed inside to find another one of Kyle's roommates that had a CD for me and the very last clue. 

Last Clue: Go to the place where I held you in his arms and talked about Joseph Smith.

 I then headed back to my car and put the CD in to play.  This CD was no ordinary CD, but was full of several different love songs that Kyle and I had created memories too while we were dating.  I then started my drive up to the Salt Lake City Temple, which was a little bit of a challenge considering it was snowing, but luckily I was able to get there safely.

Once I arrived in Salt Lake City (SLC), I then headed to the reflection pond that is in front of the temple.  Luckily it had just stopped snowing, but it was still very cold outside. As I approached the reflection pond, Kyle started walking towards me.  We meant in the middle of the reflection pond and he embraced me with a huge hug, a kiss, and then twirled me around.  I honestly thought he was going to propose right there, but after a quick kiss and "I Love You," he grabbed my hands and said "Let's Go."

We then went into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and then one of the visitor buildings and walked around for a little bit.  We then went outside after about 10 minutes and went around the corner to find a horse and carriage waiting to take us for a ride.  I was so excited, because ever since I was a little girl, I had always wanted to take a carriage ride around Temple Square.  We then hopped into the carriage and cuddled underneath a blanket.  It was absolutely beautiful, because it had just finished snowing 2-3 inches and everything was in covered in fresh white snow.  It truly was a moment that was indescribable. 

Our carriage ride went all around temple square and then headed up to an area call Memory Grove.  I had never been up to Memory Grove, but it was absolutely beautiful.  The carriage ride then stopped and Kyle asked me to come with him for a minute. We got out of the carriage and walked a short distance to a bridge.  Kyle then got down on one knee, told me he loved me, and then asked me to marry him.  It was so romantic and with tears in my eyes I replied "YES." He then placed a ring on my finger, wiped away my tears, and then kissed me.  We walked back to the carriage and rode back to temple square.   

I thought the night was over, but then Kyle had another surprise for me.  We then headed over to Macaroni Grill to have dinner. Waiting at the restaurant was my family along with his family.  It was so neat to be able to announce to both families that we were engaged and show off my beautiful ring.  We then spent the evening laughing, eating, and creating memories. In fact we even had a love song sang to us in Italian.  It truly was the perfect day and the perfect engagment story.

1st Time Saying "I LOVE YOU"

Sometime in mid-November, Kyle and I were sitting outside his apartment in my car. I needed to get home, but neither of us wanted to separate. After a final goodbye kiss, Kyle said "Love ya" just before he got out of the car.  I was caught so off guard that I said "What did you just say?" After a few seconds of silence, Kyle then calmly said "I Love You." I then told me that "I Love You, but to make sure you truly mean it." Since that time, I can honestly say that Kyle and I say "I Love You" at least once (often several times) every single day.

Our First Kiss

Our first kiss took place just outside the walls of my parent's home on October 20, 2006. I actually had to make the first move, since my husband was to shy and would not make the first move, which is probably why our first kiss took a little bit longer to take place.

Valentine's Day 2007

This is one of my favorite memories when Kyle and I were dating. Unfortunately, I do not remember all the details, but I do remembering making up an excuse that I would not even be able to see Kyle until around 8 or 9 P.M on Valentine's Night 2007. The night before Valentine's Day, I stayed up late making a candy poster (refer to picture below) and cutting out lots and lots of paper hearts.

On Valentine's Day, I knew that Kyle would be a class in the morning. After Kyle had left for school, I went up to his apartment and started the decorating. I put up streamers all around his bed, taped hearts all over the ceiling and walls, put candy and hearts all over the floor, and put the candy poster and a teddy bear on his bed. Decorating everything actually took longer than I had thought it would, so I ended up talking one his roommates into helping me blow up some balloons. Kyle then came home a little early from school and actually caught me in the act (luckily I had just finished). It was awesome and I still to this day remember the surprised look on his face. I have posted pictures and even a video of this special day, so enjoy!!!!

Dating, Dating, and More Dating

I sadly do not remember the details or even what we did for our 3rd date. I do however know that we did a lot of fun activities. Some of the activities that we did while dating include the following: going mini-golfing, going to movies, going to the Jospeh Smith movie, going out to dinner, going to temple square, decorating a gingerbread house, hanging out at Kyle's apartment, hanging out at my parent's house, attending a marriage prep class(every Thurs. night), and sadly at times even doing homework.

While Kyle and I were dating, we were both in school. I was also working full time, so life was defiantly busy. Sadly I do not have a ton of pictures from when we were dating, but here are a few that I could find.

Hanging out at my parent's house

Temple Square

Doing Homework Together

Haning out at his parent's house.

Decorating a gingerbread house

Disneyland

Disneyland

Kyle and I dated from October 3rd, 2006 until February 23rd, 2007 when we became engaged (that story is coming). While we were dating our relationship defiantly had its ups and downs. There was even a time that I broke it off, because I needed some space, but then after only 3 days, I decided that I no longer needed a break. Something kind of interesting was that Kyle and I had more fights, arguments, and disagreements while we were dating and engaged than we have ever had being married. I am honestly surprised that we actually got married, but I am sure glad that we did becasue I love being married to my best friend.

Our Second Date

For our second date, Kyle and I went to the Battle of the Bands down at BYU. When he came and picked me up, I was impressed because the car he was driving was a fully decked out Toyota Camry. I commented on how nice the car was and asked if it was his? He hesitated a little, but then stated that it was actually his Dad's car and that his parents had his car. I was impressed that he did not lie about it to try and impressed me, because honesty was a quality that I really wanted in my husband.

We then drove down to BYU. We got there a little bit early and while we were waiting for the concert to start, we somehow got on the subject of observing and analyzing people. I explained that it is really interesting to just sit and watch people, not judge people, but just watch others around you. I explained that you can really tell a lot about a person within a minute or two by just watching their body language and how they interact with their surroundings.

The concert then started, so we headed into the gym. There were a few really good bands, but most of the bands were just okay. During the concert, Kyle put his arm around me. Naturally, I put my arm around him, but after a minute or two I pulled away. I was not quite sure I was ready to head down the relationship road, since I had just ended a relationship a mouth before we started dating.


After the concert, we headed to IHOP to get something to eat. On the way over to the restaurant, Kyle asked "What have you observed about me, since you love to analyze people?" I then named several different traits, characteristics, and things that I had noticed about Kyle. It was awesome, because everything I stated was absolutely correct and spot on. It was during this conversation and at dinner that I realized that Kyle was already falling in love with me. I then made it interesting and turned the tables and asked him "So what have you observed or analyzed about me?" He had no idea what to say and anything he did say was pretty much wrong. It was during this conversation that I learned that he thought I was going to be a stuck up, spoiled, and snooty girl, because I lived in Alpine. I defiantly proved him wrong.

After dinner we then went back to his apartment. He then pulled out his guitar and played me a song. I even got him to sing to me, which he has not really done since that night, but I guess once is better than never. In fact, I am still waiting for the song he is supposedly writing for me that I was supposed to hear on our wedding night, but that is a whole another story.

Our First Date

Before I get into the details of our first date, my husband would totally kill me if I do not share the events that took place before our first date. So, before our first date, Kyle did call me and ask me if I wanted to go to Saturday morning General Conference session with him. Honestly, I thought that it was a little weird that he was even calling me, because he already had a girlfriend, not to mention I did not even give him my cell phone number. I told him that I was already going to that session with some other people and that I would not be able to go with him, which was the truth. I did invite him to come with me in the group of people I was going with, but after I found out that the guy that had asked me had actually asked me on date, Kyle decided to go with another girl.


A couple days later, I got a phone call around 3 or 4 PM asking if I wanted to go on a date later that night. The ironic thing was, I had already turned down two other dates for that night, but for some reason I felt a strong feeling to go on this date. However, before I told him "yes, I will go on the date" I made sure that he knew I do not date guys that already have a girlfriend. He reassured me that he did not have girlfriend and was not even dating anybody seriously.


Honestly, to this day I am not exactly sure why I told him yes, especially since I was trying to get my CNA certification in 2 weeks and I had classes Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM in Salt Lake City. An interesting side note, it was not until after we had been dating for a couple months that I found out that two of Kyle's roommates had to actually wrestle him to the floor and put him in a head lock, before he actually called me to ask me out for our first date.


Now that all those details are out of the way, I can now talk about our first date. Our first date took place on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006. It was a group date with 3 other couples. Kyle came and picked me up from my parent's house around 6:30 PM. He came in and met both my parents and then we were on our way. We carpooled with his roommate and another girl that I actually went to high school with. The car ride was very interesting, because Kyle and I were both crammed in the backseat of a little two door car and the music was so load, that there was absolutely no way to talk. So to help break up some of the awkwardness of a first date, I decided to make the best of the situation by moving/dancing to the music. I tried to get Kyle to join in on the fun, but instead he just smiled and watched, however we did share a few good laughs on the way down to the restaurant.


For dinner, we went to TGI Friday’s in Provo Utah. We met two other couple at the restaurant. We then were seated and while waiting for our dinner to arrive, we somehow ended up with cherries and everyone was trying to tie a knot in the cherry stem in their mouth. It was quite entertaining, but I was never able to actually get a knot in any of the cherry stems I tried. Kyle on the other hand was successful on his 2nd or 3rd attempt.

The conversion then switched to recent movies that were out in the theaters. Kyle's actual roommate, mission buddy, and really good friend, Darrren Cook, then bought up the movie Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and how awesome of a movie it was. I do not know how many of you have seen this movie, but unfortunately I was dragged to this movie on a date. To this day, I am still mad at myself for not walking out that movie, because it was seriously one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  Anyways, Darren kept going on and on about how awesome this movie was and making jokes about.  It was not long until I had heard enough and I started a pretty good debate with his roommate about how horrible this movie truly was and how it totally goes against the standards of the LDS church.  I even surprised myself, because I actually was able to win the debate and made Darren speechless several times.  Normally, especially on a first date, I am quite shy and keep my opinions to myself, but for some reason, I went into extreme defense mode and stood my ground.  This debate truly started a war with Darren that continued the entire time that my husband and I were dating. 

After eating dinner, I needed to head home to meet my curfew and I had class at 8 AM up in Salt Lake City.  Darren was still mad about losing the debate and kept making comments about how I was not allowed in his car.  In fact he even pulled over on the way home and threatened to throw me out.  It was awesome, because even though it was our first date, Kyle stood up for me against his friend (which is the main reason I choose to go on a second date.)  The extremely load music continued the entire way home, not to mention reckless driving at times. Scary!!



Once we arrived back at my parent’s house, Kyle walked me up to the door.  We gave each other a hug and then I went inside. It was honestly, one of the most awkward dates that I had been on in a while.  I was actually glad it was over, because I felt totally embarrassed about the debate that had taken place.  I truly thought that I had completely ruined the night, but it was only a couple days later that my phone rang and Kyle asked me out on another date.