I Haven't Been Tagged...

but I'm doing this anyway. I finally started a scrapbook for the Bean (I say that like he's an 18 year old teenager instead of an 18 week old fetus) and I decided to start it with a couple pages on how Aaron and I ended up together before moving on to the pregnancy pages, so it has kind of been on my mind and I've been meaning to blog about it anyway.

Where did you and your husband meet?

We met in the Lehi 4th singles ward. He was working on his master's degree at ASU and I was home for the summer from BYU between my sophomore and junior years. I usually went to church with Raquel, but she was out of town that week so I braved it alone. Aaron and his roommate sat next to me in sacrament meeting. I actually knew his name because he was the temple prep teacher and his name was in the program each week, but I had never seen him before. I wish I could remember my initial impression, but it's a little fuzzy. We had a short conversation before the meeting started, nothing earth shattering. But as I sat next to him I totally had this little voice in my head saying, "You're going to marry him!" And I thought it was totally crazy.

After sacrament meeting he asked for my e-mail address. As I gave it to him I thought, "I'll never hear from THAT guy again!"

What was the first thing you said to your husband?

Probably, "No, go ahead" in response to "Is anyone sitting here?"

Where was your first date?

Sticky question. We disagree about the amount of "dating" we actually did. Aaron was more of a hanger-outer than a dater. At 25 years old he was already a little jaded about spending money on other people's future wives. We first hung out the Wednesday after we met. Me, him, and his roommate met at the driving range on McKellips and 32nd street and hit a bucket of balls together. I had never swung a golf club aside from going miniature golfing before, so I had my dad show me how to do it before I left. I still sucked.

This picture was actually taken about a year later, but it's the same driving range and he was wearing the same outfit, so it works.

Probably our first "real" date though, was the next weekend when Aaron made me dinner at his house and we watched Casablanca together. He's got a couple recipes that he makes from scratch that are just phenomenal, and chicken fettucini alfredo is one of them. I think that date really won me over...I'll do just about anything for alfredo sauce and I'm a sucker for old movies. I thought I had found the perfect man that night. That's the only old movie we've ever watched together. Figures.

Where was your first kiss?

Aaron's friend, Jenna, came to visit him from southern Cali about 2 weeks after we met. That Saturday they invited me to go float down the Salt River with them and a group of Aaron's roommates and other people from the ward. Bumping along down the road in the bus with our tubes was when we first held hands. I have a vivid memory of sweating like mad, my legs jammed between two piles of tubes, and reeking of sunscreen as he reached for my hand. It was actually kind of perfect.

The river was a lot of fun, but I got sunburned pretty badly. We went back to Aaron's house after the river and as the evening went on I just got more miserable as my burn developed. Finally, one of Aaron's roommates mentioned that there was an aloe plant growing in the backyard and maybe that might make me feel better.

So Aaron led me to the back patio. It was monsoon season and the clouds had rolled in. There was thunder and lightning off in the distance and it had started to sprinkle a bit. He broke off and opened up a piece of aloe plant and I got an all over aloe rub down from my future husband (it was awesome). By the time he finished with my calves, the rain was really coming down and the lightning was getting pretty spectacular. He stood up and gave me a (very gentle) hug. And then he kissed me.

After meeting me, Jenna started praying for Aaron and me to get married. Let that be a lesson to you about the Lord answering prayers!

Jenna and (a creepy looking) Aaron. We love her.

How long did you date?

Well...we sort of skipped that part. We went from hanging out to engaged very quickly. It wasn't long after that first kiss in the rain that we were talking marriage.

Did you have a long or short engagement?

Short-ish. But I'm not exactly sure when we got engaged. We met July 10, we had pretty much decided to get married by around July 30th. He asked my dad's permission on August 4 and he gave me my ring and formally asked me a few weeks later (I don't remember the date, how sad!) and we got married December 21st. We'll just say 5-ish months.

If you're reading that thinking "OMG were they INSANE?" The answer is yes. And also, pressed for time. I was supposed to go back to BYU within a few weeks and we knew we had to make a decision about what we wanted and we had to make it quick. So we did and never looked back.

Our engagement picture

Where did you get engaged?

Kind of difficult to answer. Actually, no it isn't. At my parents' new house. We started talking about marriage on the porch off of the game room, he asked my dad in the kitchen, and he gave me the scrapbook with my ring on the back patio. In my head those were all different locations...but they're not. It's a good house.

Isn't it gorgeous? I picked it out :)

Where were you married?

The Mesa, AZ temple with a reception in my parents' backyard.


How did the reception go?

Awesome! We thought the best part of the day would be the whole "getting married" thing, but really, the best part was all the friends and family we got to see and hang out with that day. We didn't want to leave at the end of the night! There were still so many people left I wanted to talk to and Aaron was having a blast seeing his friends and family who had come from other states. The reception itself was gorgeous, and we had so much fun. As we drove away we kept saying, "I don't think today could have BEEN any better!"

We had another reception at Aaron's parents' house on Oahu a week or so later. That one was also a lot of fun and I really enjoyed getting to meet all of Aaron's friends and the people he had grown up around. The food in particular was fantastic (if you ever have the chance to drink fresh lilikoi juice, DO IT). My dad parked himself in front of the sushi chef and only moved to refill his juice.

At our Hawaii reception with some of Aaron's friends

How was the honeymoon?

Also awesome. We spent a week in Rocky Point, Mexico recovering at the Sonoran Spa. We went for lots of walks on the beach, spent some quality time in the jacuzzi, and got massages at the spa. Then we stayed at this really cute bed and breakfast on Oahu for a week for the reception there. We had a great time in both places and really enjoyed all the sleep we were finally able to get. If both sets of parents didn't read this blog I'd tell you about an awkward incident with a Mexican cleaning lady, but I know my dad in particular doesn't want to hear about it, so just ask me later if you want the story.

At the downtown fish market in Rocky Point.

For more pictures (and a great soundtrack!) you can see our wedding slideshow here.

So there you have it, the story of us. Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to go smooch my wonderful husband.