I first noticed Kristin when she came to Church but I didn't actually talk to her until a week later.  There was something about her that made me think, "I'd like to get to know her."  Kristin went to Family Home Evening with my group and that is when I first spoke to her.  I was a little shy and didn't want to ask for her phone number directly.  Like any timid boy, I asked her roommates, who were with her, what their number was.  I was trying to be friendly, but I really just wanted to talk with Kristin.

Over the next couple of weeks, I got to know Kristin a little bit and thought I'd ask her out on a date.  Usually this is a simple task but Kristin proved to be very popular.  I don't remember the day of the week but I think it was Sunday.  I asked Kristin on a date for the upcoming Friday.  No deal, she had a date.  No problem, I asked for Saturday.  Again, she had a date.  I figured it was my fault since I didn't ask soon enough.  So, I asked her for the following Friday or Saturday.  Again, she was not available because she already had a date.  I was thinking, "Maybe she doesn't want to go out with me."  So, I asked her for the following Friday or Saturday.  This is 3 weeks out.  Luckily I was able to schedule a date with her, but it was a day-time date.

So here I am, three weeks out, trying to plan a date.  I didn't know what I wanted to do and I'm really bad at planning dates.  One week passes.  Two weeks pass.  Still no plans.  So, I ask two of my friends to help me plan my date.  We finally decided on a photo scavenger hut.  My friends made up a list of things/places where we had to have our picture taken.  It was part of the date.  There was a list of 26 things to do, listed in order from A to Z.  It was perfect for a roll of film.   But this was only part of the date.  The date would include a photo scavenger hunt in downtown Salt Lake City, lunch while we waited for the film to be developed, and then a little scrap booking to save the memories.

In order to prepare for the date, I went to the scrapbook store and I felt very out of place.  I picked out 26 different sheets of paper, some ribbon, and some glossy paper for a cover.  I then went over to a printing store to have them cut and score the paper, and to drill holes for the ribbon.  It was some difficult work and I still don't understand scrap booking.

Well, it's now time for the date.  I pick Kristin up around 8:30am and we head to the Trax station.  We take the train all the wait to downtown and this gave us a chance to talk.  It's also the first time I put my arm around Kristin (planned), granted it was only for a picture.  Kristin was a little nervous as she has had some unpleasant experiences with guys in the past.  I share with Kristin our plan for the day and we start hitting all of the hot spots.  Next thing you know it's 1pm and we aren't even three-quarters done with our list.  We finish things up as quickly as we can and then drop the film off for development.  We then walked to California Pizza Kitchens for lunch and it was some delicious food.  Afterward, we picked up our film and headed home.  By this time, it was about 3pm and we got home around 3:30pm or so. 

The pictures turned out cute but I was a little worried because this date lasted longer than I planned.  I thought all of this would take 4 hours and we would be done by noon.  Now, we're going to finish up around 4pm.  That's an 8 hour date and I know most girls don't like dates this long.  We get to her place and start creating our photo album.  I keep apologizing to her for how long our date is.  She seemed to be fine with it.  We finished up around 5pm and I was getting ready to leave.  As I got up, the door bell rang and there was another guy at the door.  It turns out that Kristin had another date lined up for that evening.  That was a little sad for me, but on the bright side, I just got to spend 8 hours with her.  The person taking her out next was one of my friends at Church.  Seems we all have good taste.

So, the moral of this story, plan your date way in advance.

Pictures from our photo album that we created on our first date can be seen by clicking here.

I had come down to Draper, Utah to complete my student teaching before graduating. I lived in an apartment with 5 other girls. We went to our new singles ward at church. I was not very excited at the idea of being in a singles ward. I did not plan on dating or meeting anyone. I was not really interested in boys and decided that I needed to focus my attention on graduating and getting a job. 

My roommates and I went to our first Church meeting and none of us were very impressed with the prospects in our ward. My roommates kept complaining, during the next few weeks, that no one was friendly or interested in them. I got tired of it and invited some boys from the ward to our apartment for dinner. Steve was one that I had invited. He later told me that he thought he was the only one invited and was bummed to see so many other boys there.

Steve began to come by and visit more. We all knew he was there for one of us, but we didn’t know who. We thought he was way too serious of a person.

Despite my decision to not date, I ended up going out with some boys from the ward. It turns out Steve was very interested in dating me! He finally got me to go out with him. Our first date was one of the best dates I’ve ever been on! We spent a whole day together. Steve kept checking his PDA constantly during the date. He was so worried because the date was lasting a lot longer then he had planned. Mostly, I thought it was funny. I was impressed with how much time he had put into the date. He really put in the time and effort. AND he was not as serious as we all thought. That was when my opinion of him began to change.

The only problem was that I was dating someone else who wanted to date more seriously. I was still thinking about this relationship. I didn’t want to lead Steve on and so I kept my distance.  I didn’t tell my roomies that my opinion of him had begun to change, either.

By the time I decided that this other relationship wasn’t working for me, I was getting ready to finish up my student teaching, graduate, and had this glorious vision of teaching on the west coast. I figured there was no point in trying to start something with Steve because I wasn’t going to be living there much longer.

He asked my roommate if he should give up on me. She said that he should. ( I was kind of upset that she had said that, but she no way of knowing that I did like him,) She told me that Steve was going to come and talk to me that night. Coincidentally, I had just ended the other relationship that night. I was not prepared to have such a conversation with Steve, I would have probably told him that he should move on. He came over, but he didn’t say anything about it, to my great relief.

My plans to move to the west coast and get a job right away, as I had envisioned, were thwarted by the process of  getting my teaching license, so I ended up getting a temporary job as an aide in Provo, Utah. Steve helped me move my things down there.  We exchanged phone numbers, though I didn’t think anything would come of it. Over Christmas, he e-mailed me and said that I should call him up when I got back to Provo. When I arrived at my apartment and gotten settled I didn’t know anyone, so I called him. He drove straight down. And he drove the 30 min. to see me every day there after! I was impressed with his great effort to spend so much time with me. It was then that I began to understand what a wonderful guy he really was! We spent as much time together as possible. And the rest, as they say…. is history!