Blast From the Past

 My friend Cristan sent me this photo the other night and Andy and I about died laughing. It was at her wedding 11 years ago where I was a bridesmaid with a specially tailored top to fit my 7.5 month pregnant belly. Andy looks like he's about 15, no wonder everyone thought I was older than him. We were giving them advice on their wedding video and by the look I'm giving Andy, I must not think much of his advice, ha! We'd been married for almost 10 months at this point so what did we know about marriage anyway?! I still feel like a newlywed sometimes when it comes to marriage with all that I don't know and all that I still need to learn.

 But this photo reminded me that I started telling our love story months ago and had never finished, so enjoy...

( And in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, part 1 to this story is HERE and part 2 to this story is HERE.)

After Thanksgiving night I didn't think much more about Andrew Collette. I was busy with work and school and I lived an hour away in Provo. I was dating lots of boys and just having fun. One night I came home from school and had some messages on the whiteboard that several people had called (hardly anyone had cellphones back then and my roommates and I shared a landline.... Weird!) One of those people was Andy. I didn't think much of it and left the message up so I could call him back later. A few days later there was another message from him. I figured I better not be rude so I called him back that night even though it was fairly late. I didn't get home from school until about 10:15 most nights but he answered on the second or third ring. He sounded happy to hear from me and he asked me out for the next Friday night. I agreed and we chatted for a few minutes and then I told him I had to go (because I actually had a little date right then with a guy in my ward to go get ice cream) and he told me he'd be in touch about our date. 

That Sunday I had a meeting with the Activities Committee (yup, I was on the committee. Awesome calling... not really though) and we were finishing up our planning of our Christmas activity to go up to Temple Square to see the lights. The activity would take place the next Friday. I suddenly realized that was my date with Andy and made a mental note to call him later and cancel. We finished up the details in the meeting and I went home to give Andy a call. He answered right away and I explained the situation to him and apologized that we would need to cancel. He told me he didn't want to cancel and that he would be perfectly happy coming along on my ward's activity with me. I was a little taken aback but I told him that if he was okay with that then that was fine with me. 

So the night came, the night of our first actual date. I met up with my ward (we were carpooling up) and I didn't take anyone with me because of my "date" but I drove up alone to my parents house where Andy was picking me up. I got there and waited a few minutes and then heard a knock on the door. When I opened it and saw Andy standing there all handsome and stuff I suddenly got a few butterflies in my tummy. He smiled and held his hand out to me and said, "Hey pretty lady... You ready to go look at some lights?"  Smoooooth, right? Haha. I kind of laughed and took his hand and he led me to his truck where he opened the door for me. We had an easy time making conversation. We liked the same music and we knew some of the same people from high school even though he is 3 years older than me. We made it to the temple and headed over to meet my group. We had hot chocolate and donuts and a little devotional and then split up to go walk around Temple Square. 

We walked and talked and laughed and had fun. At some point in the night his hand found mine and didn't let go. We sat at the reflecting pond and stared up at the beauty that is the Salt Lake Temple. I told him I was going to get married there someday and he said that he had the same plans.

We left when it got too cold and decided to grab a movie to go watch at his parents house. We went to Blockbuster (remember those?!) and grabbed Legally Blond (one of my favorites that he hasn't seen because it came out while he was on his mission) and went to watch it. We snuggled up on the couch and watched the movie. When it was over I asked him to tell me about his mission because I thought I might like to go on a mission in a few years (later Andy told me that he immediately had the thought of, "you won't be going on a mission" which made me chuckle.) He told me about it and I listened and then our conversation went into other things and we just talked and talked and talked so easily. This next part is slightly embarrassing because it shows what a HUGE flirt I was and if I ever see my daughters flirt the way I did back then I will slap them.

Anyway, Andy told me he was a wrestler in high school so I told him to show me some moves (gag). We got down on the floor and he was very professional about showing me exactly how I was supposed to try and pin him. I gave it my all but of course I didn't get far before I was pinned flat on my back and we were just sitting there giggling and staring at each other. All of the sudden Andy leaned down slowly and kissed me and I kissed back! I loved kissing him (ahem, still do too) but after a minute we got up and he took me home with the promise that he would be calling soon.

It was a memorable first date, and I still love thinking about it. 

This is taking way longer than I thought, and of course my lack of brevity doesn't help. Hopefully I can wrap it up in one more post. Until then, to be continued...