13 years ago

I was much younger than I am now.  And weighed a few pounds less.  The end.  

Oh, wait;

Today marks 13 years from my first date with my hubby.  And what a date it was.  

I was still a teenager.  He was a very innocent just-returned-home from his mission guy with a lot more hair than he has now.  

I corrupted the poor man that night.  

Although let's be honest, I truly don't think he minded.  

When I look back on that infamous first date, it makes me laugh.  The plan was to head up the canyon to his family cabin for dinner, but it was a kind of casual-ish date, so we made a couple of stops on the way.  That evening I met his mother, his little sister, his brother, I think I met a couple of his friends.  And his grandparents.  With whom we had dinner.  Which was kind of cute and strange all at the same time.  

We went hiking before dinner, which was a blast.  It also became something we did frequently while we were dating.  That night's hike wasn't much of a hike, more like a walk through the woods, but of course it gave me adequate time to embarrass myself.  

Gotta love that first date awkwardness.  

Actually, there really wasn't any awkwardness aside from me just being myself.  

We walked along chatting and getting to know one another.  We talked about the time I spent on a gymnastics team in Jr High and how I competed on the beam.  And then I proceeded to fall off the log I was climbing over and topple right on top of him.  

Nice.  

He still thinks I did it on purpose.  

Nope, just clumsy.  

Nothing like trying to sound cool promoting your physical prowess, and achieving a level of mortification that makes you want to climb the large tree next to you so you can hide.  Except for the fact that at that point I'd probably have fallen out of the tree.  Which he'd think I'd done on purpose so he could catch me again. 

I'm smooth like that.  

But hey, me falling on top of him resulted in hand-holding (ooOOoooOOoo!).  It may have just been out of pity and an attempt to help me not trip over my own feet again.  

Whatever.  It was nice.  

He wanted to kiss me while we stood at a point that overlooked the canyon, but he was a chicken, as well as an innocent fresh out of the mission field boy, and some other dude with a huge obnoxious dog came barreling up the trail in front of us.  Good times.  

We returned to the cabin for dinner with the Grandparents.  I proceeded to set a precedent for our relationship and ate more than he did.  I can still proudly out eat him any day of the week.  Big shocker to anyone who knows me I'm sure.  

I was nervous to spend a first date with his fam, especially when talk turned to politics.  Thankfully it was safe political ground for me so I jumped into the conversation.  Not 5 minutes later his Grandfather put his arm around me and said "Welcome to the family!", then promptly turned to Aaron and told him not to let me get away.  I miss Grandpa Ball.  Smart man he was!

We finished up the evening with a drive through the canyon under a very bright moon.  At the top of the canyon he stopped and just stared at me.  Slightly freakish that we both knew at that point that one day we'd be growing old together.  Not that either of us voiced that.  Just knew.  

He dropped me off at my car a short time later.  Still cracks me up that after he opened his car door for me (bonus points!), he leaned up against my car door and had the kahones to say "Go ahead-kiss me.  I know you want to!"   

I proceed to go for shock value and (**censored***still censored******yep, still******move on, nothing to see here****) behave like a lady and kiss him politely on the cheek.  Which did him in forever.  

I think I actually got grounded that night also, since I still lived at home and hadn't even told my parents I was going out and they had no idea where I was.  And I probably missed my curfew by a few minutes.  For the first and last time ever.  

Then 14 months later I made him marry me and give me lots of children and a dog.  

And we live happily ever after.

The end.