Love at first sight….now that’s a joke! Kyle actually served his mission in my home ward in Michigan and so I suppose that is where we first met and laid eyes on each other. Let me tell you, there were definitely no sparks, no angles singing, and no still small voice. If I had to describe to you in four words what “my love at first sight” was in my head those words would be quiet, awkward, bad haircut, but I remember he did have a cool CTR ring. Then he was gone, but who cared? I finished high school, graduated, and made it into Brigham Young University Idaho by some sort of miracle, packed up my stuff and moved out to the land of potatoes.
So I get to Sexy Rexy and reunite with some friends from back home (Melanie and Holly) and we end up making friends with the cool return missionary who served in our ward and came out to Idaho for school (Josh). As it turned out, Josh and Kyle were pretty good pals in the mission. It was fall semester 2008 and I was out partying, celebrating a friends birthday when I get an urgent phone call from Josh, telling me that I had to come home right away because he had a surprise for me. A surprise? What? Okay, so I rush home and what was my surprise? Elder Gillesepie popping out of the forbidden hallway! Well, I was surprised and I gave him a hug…super awkward moment and then they had to leave because it was curfew. Well Samantha was also visiting that weekend, so the next day a bunch of us were going to a bonfire at the dunes and we decided to kidnap Josh and Kyle and make them come with us. Josh rode up with us, but Kyle went with Damon and met us there. We forgot firewood and all the other necessities to build a bonfire, so we crashed someone else’s and made ourselves at home. I tried flirting with Damon a little and asked him to play us a song on his guitar, but he said no and walked away. Failure. So Sam and I start interrogating Kyle about this girl he was actually here to see. He told us the story, very slowly opening up enough to carry on a conversation, and he hadn’t seen her yet and her name was Becky, that’s all I remember. Then he was gone, but again, who cared? I went on to date a couple guys, who nothing ever happened with, had a few crushes, had a ton of fun with my roommates, and of course I studied really hard and got bomb grades my first semester of college! Haha.
It was winter semester and we had recruited another return missionary from Michigan into our group (Kade). We were all at the train yard taking a photo shoot when Kade gets a call from Kyle, who was puking his guts out. Ohhhh poor Kyle….suck it up. So Kade went to take care of him. A couple days later, everyone was at Kade’s watching a football game and since it was snowing I made Kade come pick me up and Kyle tagged along. The first time I remember actually hanging out with Kyle was at a dinner party at Melanie’s place and I remember Kyle telling me about how he had a date with Becky next weekend or something.
Well the next weekend we were having a bring your own mango party, where everyone brings a mango and we made mango smoothies, mango salsa, and sweet mango rice. Mmmm. He came later, after his date and he was bummed. We all tried cheering him up and it seemed to help a little. Then it was Kade’s 21st birthday…so we threw him a party at Melanie’s and we played beer pong with cream soda and had champagne classes with punch and I think Troy (Michigan missionary) dumped out Smirnoff bottles and filled them with sprite. Then there were a series of photo shoots that we made Kyle come to because we needed more boys besides Kade and Shaun (Holly’s mission friend). Then Kyle starts coming over EVERYDAY! What the heck? Holly, and everyone else for that matter, were like Lisa, I think he likes you. Ew. I hoped not…I still wasn’t even attracted to him in “that way”. I was, however, intrigued by him. Then he asked me if I wanted to go snowboarding with him and some of his friends. Um, yeah, okay. So awkward, everyone was married and knew each other and I hadn’t been snowboarding in about two years! It turned out to be a lot of fun though and I think that’s when I started to consider the idea that I could like this guy. We went snowboarding together twice more and that third time is when we “held hands” for the first time on top of the mountain, wearing gloves, kind of just lying there resting.
I think the first time we really realized that we had a mutual attraction was the day we went to Green Canyon Hot Springs and he held my hand on the drive up. Then he told me he needed to talk to me about something and was afraid he was going to tell that he was gay or that he had a child or something, and he asked me if I was going to the super bowl party with everyone. I said I might and I wasn’t going to. But, for probably the last 45 minutes of it I went and avoided Kyle like he had the plague. Finally he managed to get me alone and there in the computer room of the Rockland lounge asked me if I would be his girlfriend. I smile and told him I would think about it and pointed out that he hadn’t even asked me on a date yet. “How does Tuesday sound?” he asked. Sounded good to me, but I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to date him. I was freaking out a little. So I thought about it and figured why not and I called him and left him some sort of voicemail that the only thing he could understand was “yes”. Tuesday (February 3rd) was our first date, and I told Holly that if he took me to a movie that it wasn’t going to work, all I want, I told her, was to make a snowman and play in the snow, that would be the perfect first date. Well, it was the most perfect first date. We couldn’t make a snowman, the snow wouldn’t allow it, we made snow angels instead and then he took me to the cupcake café.
My pants were soaking wet and falling off by this time. After our cupcakes, we watched The Secret Life of Bees in the backseat of his car. It was FREEZING! My nose was so cold so I got the brilliant idea to put my freezing cold nose on his nice warm cheek. After I did this a couple times he turned slow, lifted my chin a little and oh how perfect that kiss was! So slow and warm and gentle and sweet, perfect. It was the day after that kiss that this feeling came into focus. I remember his slow, steady heart beat as I snuggled up close to him and put my head on his chest and he put his arm around me. It was a perfect moment and completely effortless. That’s when I fell in love with him, that night, February 4th, 2009, so comfortable on that awkward tiny couch. I loved him then, in the most simple, effortless way and I love him now, still effortless, but slightly more complicated. That day I left with my aunt to California and I didn’t know how long I would be gone. It was two weeks before I saw him again…he was very happy to see me and that same day we left for the Valentines Day weekend with our group of friends to Shaun’s Grandparents ranch in Soda Springs. On the morning of Valentines Day we got up early and fed the cows and played games and just hung out all weekend. March 17th we bought our “love couch”
and March 26th was my birthday and I went on a date with Melanie and Sam in Idaho Falls to Olive Garden and when we got back I went into my room and there were balloons filling up my entire room and he was hiding in the middle of them! Then we had a dance party in my room and it was fantastic! It was the best birthday celebration ever! The Saturday after my birthday Holly, Josh, Kade, Chelsea, Kyle, and I all went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and then to the Holi Krishna Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork where you throw up colorful chalk in the air to symbolize throwing away your worries.
Next thing I knew I was sitting in an airport all alone waiting to go home for spring break, it was April fools, and it was this moment I realized I could marry Kyle. April 23 Kyle drove me out to the haunted swings and we watched the sunset and as he held me in his arms he told me that he loved me! I smiled and said I already knew. A few days later on the 26th while we laid in the grass in Porter Park I told him that I loved him too. Now, Kyle’s birthday is May 11th and for his birthday I got him a hammock, but I couldn’t wait for his birthday to give it to him, I was too excited, so on May 9th I gave him the hammock and we headed over to Porter park to try it out. It was perfect. We spent a lot of time that summer in that hammock. One night, May 19th, while we were lying in the hammock, talking about our dreams and aspirations and what we wanted in life Kyle told me that he wanted to marry me. I was so happy that I could hardly contain myself!
Then we started our journey on our summer road trip. Washington where we went rock jumping and played in the river to Tennessee where we celebrated my moms birthday and went kayaking and hiking to Michigan for my sisters wedding and played at Warren Dunes State Park and Kyle swam in Lake Michigan to Omaha, Nebraska where we spent Labor Day with Kyle’s sister’s family the back to Rexburg for my first day of school to Utah for my sister’s birthday/open house and back to Rexburg, then Kyle was off to Washington for six months until spring. I went up to visit him the end of September and again in the middle of October and on the 16th he took me ring shopping! Then we went on a date to Q'doba and then went and picked out pumpkins to carve later that night after we got home from an Elder Bednar fireside. Then I went home and that was last time I would be driving up to Spokane to see him since the mountain passes started to freeze and my car wouldn’t survive most likely.
October 29th Kyle was coming down for a visit. I knew he was coming around 8-9 p.m. so I was trying to get some homework done before he got here, which I wasn’t actually getting anything done. Then my roommates, Cara and Yesenia, decided that I needed a break from the homework I wasn’t doing and convinced me to go with them to Porter Park and play in the leaves. So I said okay. We get to Porter Park and I find these cool purple leaves and decide to take some pictures of them when all of a sudden these big hands cover my eyes and my heart stopped. It couldn’t be Kyle, he had to work today, he wasn’t going to be here until 8 o’clock, it was five, but if it isn’t Kyle I’ll just die. I dropped to the ground in attempt to discover who the hands belonged to, but they were good, so I said “if this isn’t Kyle I’m probably going to cry!” and then I started to cry. It was Kyle, I was so excited and so happy that I couldn’t stop hugging him. It was perfect. Then we played in the leaves and swung on the swings for a bit before returning to my warm apartment.
Him and I and my roommates watched The Best Two Years and after it was finished he asked me if I wanted to go on a walk. I wanted to go walk through Porter Park so that’s where I headed. We were walking around when I wanted to revisit our hammock spot, which is where he told me he wanted to marry me also. We just stayed there for awhile talking about our lives and reminiscing and then he told me how much he loved me and he kissed me. Then I decided to take him over to the place where I told him I loved him, it took him awhile to remember, but he did after I “jogged” his memory a bit. Then I took him over to the trees where he told me he wanted five kids and we were just talking and holding hands when he took off sprinting across the open field and he had my hand and I wanted to keep my hand to I had to run with him. He stopped and asked me if I knew what happened in that spot and after I caught my breath I realized where he wanted to be but was in the wrong spot so we went to where he took me on our first date, where we made snow angels and we talked about how Porter Park is our special park and talked about our first date and he told me loved me and got on one knee and asked me to marry him!
I looked at him then at the box then at him and asked, “is this a joke?” and after he assured me that it was not I said yes. And gave him a big hug and cried a tiny bit. He took me over to a park lamp and put the ring on my finger and I kept it our little secret for that one night just to soak it all in and enjoy the moment. It was perfect. I am so to finally get to marry Kyle on March 13th! I love him so much and I can't wait to be a poor, awkward, married student with him. It will be a grand adventure!
Kyle's Story:
When I got back from my mission I was interested in this girl named Becky that I had gone on a couple of dates with before I left and the girl that I wrote to while I was on my mission. I was really interested in pursuing a relationship with her. After I was back for about a month I took a trip down to Rexburg with my friend Damon to visit with friends and mainly to see Becky.
Over the next two months we didn’t really go out on that many more dates, but we saw each other every single day until spring break. I would just like to throw in here real quick that I am such a wonderful boyfriend and I threw her with the help of her friends a fantastic surprise birthday party. I am so awesome.
If we fast forward to the month of April, a very interesting event happened. After we got back from spring break, I realized then, at that moment, that I loved Lisa. This was very strange for me because I have never felt this way about a girl before. I wanted to tell her so badly, but I was scared for so many reasons. I wasn’t sure what this would do to our relationship and I didn’t know if I was ready to say it. I tried to tell her on a couple occasions and I am pretty sure that she knew what I wanted to say. On the 23rd of April, we went out driving and found this little patch of grass with an old swing set nearby. We watched the sun go down and then we snuggled up to each other. This was where I told Lisa that I loved her. I was so happy to have said it and guess what?.....I had to wait for her to tell me she loved me back. She just loves to keep me waiting. I loved her then and even more so now.
Kyle's Story:
When I got back from my mission I was interested in this girl named Becky that I had gone on a couple of dates with before I left and the girl that I wrote to while I was on my mission. I was really interested in pursuing a relationship with her. After I was back for about a month I took a trip down to Rexburg with my friend Damon to visit with friends and mainly to see Becky.
While down there I had a great weekend and was able spend some time with her and get to know her better. Right after I got there I saw Becky for a few hours and then I had to get to where I was staying because curfew was coming up and I needed to get situated and find where I was sleeping. So I got to Josh’s place and we dropped off my stuff and he says to me that we need to go somewhere real quick. I had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. We went across the street and he told me on the way that we were going to see Lisa this girl that was in one of our areas where we both served on my mission. I knew exactly who he was talking about (who could forget the girl with really crazy and big hair). We get there and she is not there, Josh calls her and tells her that she needs to come home right now he has something important to show her. So she started to come home and they all told me that I needed to hide. I had no idea what was really going on but I hid. She comes home and the tell me to step out. So naturally I did and she was really excited and gave me a hug. She then called to other girls that were from her home ward who were out in the car and they came in and gave me hugs as well. I didn’t really think much about it other than the fact that I thought Lisa was really pretty and had an amazing smile.
Well the second night I was down there I spent the night hanging out with Some of Damon’s friends and then I went to a bonfire with Josh, Lisa, and the other two girls who were Sam and Melanie. At this bonfire Lisa and Sam started to ask questions and were very interested in my relationship with Becky. So we had a good time at the bonfire and on the way home that night Lisa was still interested in talking to me, and was still perplexed by me, possibly because I was a missionary in her homeward. I had a good weekend in all aspects down in Rexburg and was looking forward to going down there to school.
I started school down there in January and was very excited to be down there and to see Becky and to pursue a relationship with her. The first night I was down there I went and hung out with Becky and her roommates. It was fun and I was just excited to be down at school. I woke up in the middle of the night and on my very first night I just started to throw up. I couldn’t believe it that I got sick on my first night there. I spent all of that night and all of the morning throwing up. It was disgusting. That afternoon after I was done throwing up, I called my friend and last mission companion Kade Tolman and I asked him if he could come over and give me a blessing. I found out later that he was hanging out with Lisa when I called and they were doing a photo shoot at that time.
That first weekend I had a date with Becky. It didn’t really go like I wanted it to, but I was trying to make the best of it. While on the date I noticed that things weren’t like they were before. We didn’t seem to click as well as we did before and it felt almost like I was trying to force a relationship rather than let one develop. So after that date I no longer pursued Becky and I was a little disappointed because that was one of the reasons I came down to school, obviously the main reason was to get an education and to provide for my family.
After the date I went over to Lisa’s apartment because they were having a little mango party. I don’t remember how, but all of my friends knew I had a date with Becky and so they told some of the people at the party. Shortly after I got there Lisa started to ask me questions, but this time it was about my date with Becky and other stuff like that. I thought it was a little interesting. At this moment I was a little sad because of how things went with Becky but I thought hey, Lisa is really cute and I wonder if there could be anything between us.
Over the next couple of weeks I started to hang out with Lisa and her roommate Holly almost every single day. Over that period of time I grew to really like Lisa and I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what and I was a little scared that if we started dating and it didn’t work out that it could ruin some of our friendships. I decided that I was going to do what I have always done with girls and that was to hold her hand. I finally got up enough courage to grab her hand while we were watching twilight. Kind of a lame place to do it while watching a movie, but it was almost like a recurring thing with me. We held hands for a couple of weeks and I thought things were going pretty good, but I really didn’t know what our relationship was.
Kade and his friend Troy were having a super bowl party in their apartments lounge. So I went and Lisa was just going to stay home. About halfway through it, Lisa shows up and I was pretty excited about that. During the football game though, I felt like things were not that great between us and I thought that Lisa did not like me anymore. So I asked if we could talk and we went off into the computer room. I was so nervous, seeing as I have never really done anything like this before. I basically asked her what we were. If we were boyfriend/girlfriend or if she even wanted to date me anymore. She didn’t give me an answer then, but as you all can guess it was a yes. So, I asked her out and we went on our first date that Tuesday.
For our first date we went and tried to make a snowman, but the snow was terrible and that didn’t work out very well. We ended up just making some snow angels and then we took some pictures, went and got some cupcakes, and then watched a movie. We went to some park and watched the Secret Life of Bees. All I wanted to do was to just cuddle up and watch the movie with her, but her nose was cold so she kept putting it on my cheek to warm it up. This to me was a clue, even if she wasn’t thinking it was. So one of those times she put her nose on my cheek I just turned my head and that was when we had our first kiss. So, naturally two days after that, she goes out of town with her Aunt for a couple of weeks.
Over the next two months we didn’t really go out on that many more dates, but we saw each other every single day until spring break. I would just like to throw in here real quick that I am such a wonderful boyfriend and I threw her with the help of her friends a fantastic surprise birthday party. I am so awesome.If we fast forward to the month of April, a very interesting event happened. After we got back from spring break, I realized then, at that moment, that I loved Lisa. This was very strange for me because I have never felt this way about a girl before. I wanted to tell her so badly, but I was scared for so many reasons. I wasn’t sure what this would do to our relationship and I didn’t know if I was ready to say it. I tried to tell her on a couple occasions and I am pretty sure that she knew what I wanted to say. On the 23rd of April, we went out driving and found this little patch of grass with an old swing set nearby. We watched the sun go down and then we snuggled up to each other. This was where I told Lisa that I loved her. I was so happy to have said it and guess what?.....I had to wait for her to tell me she loved me back. She just loves to keep me waiting. I loved her then and even more so now.
For my birthday she got me one of the best birthday presents ever. She got me a hammock and oh how I love my hammock. So, we naturally took to going to the park and laying in it and reading scriptures in it and loving spending time in it with each other. At this point we were totally in love with each other. On May 19th I told the love of my life that I wanted to marry her.
I knew then that I was going to marry Lisa, I just wasn’t exactly sure when. We didn’t like the thought of having to say goodbye to each other over the summer, so we decided to spend 7 weeks together driving to Washington, spend a couple weeks with my family, drive to Tennessee and visit Lisa’s mom and then up to Michigan to visit Lisa’s dad and also to be there for Brittany’s wedding.
I knew then that I was going to marry Lisa, I just wasn’t exactly sure when. We didn’t like the thought of having to say goodbye to each other over the summer, so we decided to spend 7 weeks together driving to Washington, spend a couple weeks with my family, drive to Tennessee and visit Lisa’s mom and then up to Michigan to visit Lisa’s dad and also to be there for Brittany’s wedding.
At the wedding I had a lot of fun and Lisa looked amazing in her dress and I knew that I wanted to marry her so very badly that I was not sure how much longer I could go without marrying her.
But because of my lack of doing well in school I got kicked out and I wasn’t allowed to come back until the spring semester of 2010. So Lisa and I were going to be separated for who knows how long and we would not be able to see each other every day like we had up to that point.
But because of my lack of doing well in school I got kicked out and I wasn’t allowed to come back until the spring semester of 2010. So Lisa and I were going to be separated for who knows how long and we would not be able to see each other every day like we had up to that point.
Well, I went up to Washington to live with my parents and Lisa stayed down at school. she came up once or twice to visit and I was so happy every time she did. The second time she came up I was already planning and had a pretty good idea of when I wanted to propose to her. So when she came up, I took her to a jewelry store and we went and tried on rings and picked out a ring that she liked. Well, little did she know that I was going to be getting this ring soon and putting it to good use. About 2 or 3 weeks after she came up I was going down there for the Halloween weekend and so I went to the jewelers the week before and picked up the ring. I was so excited and wanted to tell everyone, but Lisa was going to be the first to know and so I kept it a secret.
Lisa thought I was going to be down there late Thursday night but I didn’t have to work that morning so I got down there around 4 o’clock some time. I went and picked up Lisa a rose and then went over to her apartment. I got her roommates to get her out of the apartment and then I went and put a rose on her bed. I then proceeded to follow them as they walked over to a park and was very sneaky about it. I watched them and I was so very happy to see Lisa that I almost yelled out to her just so we could see each other, but I waited because I still wanted to surprise her.
snuck up behind her and I put my hands over her face. There wasn’t really a reaction at all at first, then she tried to get me to take my hands off her face. She said that if this wasn’t Kyle that she was going to cry. I took my hands off and when she opened her eyes and saw me, she started to cry anyway. About the next ten minutes we spent hugging each other. It was so great to be able to be back in Rexburg and to be with Lisa there.
snuck up behind her and I put my hands over her face. There wasn’t really a reaction at all at first, then she tried to get me to take my hands off her face. She said that if this wasn’t Kyle that she was going to cry. I took my hands off and when she opened her eyes and saw me, she started to cry anyway. About the next ten minutes we spent hugging each other. It was so great to be able to be back in Rexburg and to be with Lisa there.
Later that night after watching a movie with her roommates I asked her if she wanted to go on a walk. She readily agreed to that and so we took off. We started walking and we went to where we would set up my hammock and we started to talk about all the time we spent there and how that was where I told her that I wanted to marry her. Then we kept on walking and talking and went to this other spot in the park. She asked me if I remember this spot and I didn’t really remember it. After a while and with her help of jogging my memory I remembered that this was the spot where she told me that she loved me for the first time. I loved that moment and am going to try and always remember it. We continued our walk and went to another spot where she asked me if I remembered this spot. I said yep, this was the spot where I told her I wanted to have 5 kids. At that point I knew what I was going to do.
I grabbed her hand and I took off running across the park. She didn’t know where I was going, but she followed anyway. I stopped at the far side of the park and asked her if she remembered this spot. You see, this is where we went on our first date and is where we made snow angels in the snow. She didn’t remember and so it was my turn to remind her about this spot. When she did we started to talk about our first date and other things relating to when we started dating. At that point I knew that it was now or never and so I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. I was so nervous and excited and the first words out of her mouth were, “Is this a Joke?!” I was a little shocked because I was not expecting that to be her answer to my question. After she knew it was not a joke, she said yes of course and so we were engaged.
This is what happened and these last 9 ½ months have been some of the best months of my life. I love you so much, Lisa and I think that you are such an amazing person and I am just so glad that I get to be married to you. I look forward to the day where we will be sealed to each other for time and eternity and will not have to leave each other’s arms for very long. I love you with all of my heart and look forward to seeing your face next to mine in our wedding pictures.
