For those of you playing along at home...

No you're not crazy, I did retroactively post some posts about our 10th Anniversary. It's been a BUSY summer, and I haven't had the time to post on the days that I've wanted to. Here are links to the two posts:

A Memorable Memorial Day

I Will

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful woman in the world!




We love you very much!

- Jesse, Madalyn, Andrew, Elizabeth and Emily

I Will

As previously stated I’m a tenacious guy, I am also a bit of a romantic. Lisa and I had been dating a little over three months and we knew we wanted to get married. I know what you’re thinking (I’m thinking it too), “Man, three months, that’s quick!” In our defense, that’s not too uncommon around these parts. Also, in case any of my children think that three months is ok for them as well, they best keep thinking, probably for an additional nine to ten months. I wanted to make sure that Lisa got a ring she liked, so we visited a few of the local jewelers. We finally settled on a custom ring that was going to take about a week to make. During that time I thought long and hard about how I wanted to propose.

I always wanted my proposal to come as a surprise to my future wife. It’s kind of hard to surprise someone with something they helped pick out so I figured the best way to make it a surprise was to make the night appear ordinary. I got the ring midway through the second to last week of July and thought I should wait till the next week to actually propose. I figured a weeknight would be less conspicuous than a weekend. I’m not quite sure how Lisa found out that I had the ring but she was on alert that weekend, and I think kind of disappointed when it didn’t happen. The actual day was to be the coming Wednesday. The day of, wanting this to appear as a spur of the moment decision, I asked if she wanted to go to go out for dinner after work . I think that got her thinking that I was going to propose so when I went to go pick her up, she had her roommate snap this picture of us.

Ahh the days before digital cameras.


Lisa, the eternal prankster.

After we got in the car and she asked where we were going I suggested we should go to China Town in Provo, my friend worked there so we went there quite a bit. Unfortunately my friend wasn’t working there that night but we did have a delightful dinner with our usual Po Po Tray and the Tiny Spicy Chicken. After dinner we got our fortune cookies, serendipitously we both had the EXACT same fortunes. I figured it was a sign. When we got back into the car, I asked her what she wanted to do next, trying to throw the scent off. She said she didn’t have any preference, so I made a few suggestions, one of which was a nice scenic drive up the canyon. She said she didn’t care so I decided we should go up the canyon. We didn’t have any jackets or anything so we stopped off at our respective apartments to pick them up and headed up. On our way up I suggested we should go to Cascade Springs, again a place we’d been to quite a bit. She said that was fine but thought it might be closed because it was getting late. I promised her it would be fine so we kept going.

When we finally got there it was pretty late, I suggested we get out and take a stroll down by the springs. She didn’t want to go but I said I had a flashlight just in case, and that the moon was out and we probably wouldn’t even need it. She grudgingly agreed so we got out and I handed her the flashlight as I got our coats from out of the car. For those of you not familiar with Cascade Springs it is a park that is built on a series of springs and waterfalls with bridges and wooden paths. The parking lot to the springs is above the springs themselves and there is a wooden gazebo at the beginning of a paved path leading to the springs from the parking lot. As we entered the gazebo Lisa sais she thought she saw something in the center of it and flashed the light on it, there was a vase with one white rose (Lisa’s favorite) in it. She kind of stopped, slightly confused and I suggested we pick it up. I told her I thought we should follow the path down to the springs and as we did there was a rose every five to ten feet down the path. By this time I think she had caught on that this wasn’t an ordinary night. The trail led us across the wooden paths and up towards the far bank of one of the waterfalls, the path then curved towards the waterfall. We followed the roses till it led us to a bridge that crossed a waterfall. The bridge had white balloons tied on all four corners, in the center of the bridge was a small piece of white cloth with hurricane candle holder holding a huge white candle in it. There were rose petals sprinkled around the base of the hurricane and on the cloth along with a rolled up piece of paper, and a small box. I picked up both the paper and the box and read her the poem I wrote to her. I dropped to one knee and asked her to be my wife. She smiled and said yes, she kissed me and music started playing from the bushes near the entrance of the bridge. It was our song “I Will” by the Beatles (I had a remote control for the CD player in the bushes in my pocket). We went to the bushes and I pulled out the CD player, a cooler that had two goblets of her favorite ice cream, Chocolate Midnight Madness, along with two spoons, and a blanket. I laid out the blanket on the landing right before the bridge and we sat down and enjoyed the rest of the evening. It took awhile to plan this out and was only able to do so with the help of my cousin Sam, so for the 100^th time, thanks for your help that night Sam!

The last Wednesday of July this year we celebrated that night (thanks for watching the kids Laura!) Here we are leaving for our date.

Look how excited we are!

Since I ended up having to do another post last time just for the gift I gave Lisa to mark the occasion I thought I should just talk about it here. Before we got to the restaurant I surprised Lisa with these diamond earrings.

Apparently China Town is under new management. We asked to sit in the same booth we sat in that night. The food was still good but not the same.

When did the Po Po Tray start coming with Chicken Nuggets?

Alas, we didn't get the same fortune this time but we'd like to think they both came true.

As prepared as I thought I was for this evening I forgot to bring a flashlight! Unfortunately it was cloudy and there was no moon that night so we figured we should just take a photo at the top of the trail instead of trying to make it down there in the dark.

That night was easily one of the best nights of my life. Everyday since has been an amazing gift.

Memorable Memorial day

The days after our first date were amazing, we saw each other nearly everyday. When Memorial Day weekend came around we were invited by my friend Evan and his wife Teah to visit with his family at their cabin near Scofield reservoir. We thought that sounded like a lot of fun. At the time I was living with my friend Ammon, who just happens to be Evan's cousin so Ammon and I went along with Lisa and her friend Alyssa. The trip to the cabin was great, all the fun of a road trip without the insanely long distance to drive.

Lisa in front of the cabin

We spent our first day there four-wheeling and sight seeing with Evan's family.

Us sight seeing



Alyssa, Lisa and I

Evan's family had been there most of the week already so they left later that day and we had the cabin all to ourselves. We stayed up late playing games and hanging out.

Alyssa posing for a shot at the cabin.

That weekend we had planned to make a stop on the way home, it wasn't quite on the way home but it was important to us. I've been friends with Evan and Ammon since high school, after high school one of our friends passed away tragically. His name was Randy Crosby and he was buried in Panguitch, so we decided we should visit his grave. It was a very emotional experience for us all, and I appreciated Lisa being there for me.

Evan, Ammon and I

The trip home was quite a bit different from the trip in but we were all happy to have each other. The day after our trip I called Lisa up to hang out, and it occurred to me that even though we had spent the last three days together I missed her a lot, at times after spending that much time with people you just want a break, not so with us. Even after ten years, I still can't get enough Lisa time.

The Fortress of Solitude.....In Midway....with my Husband.......and my Sister?

If you haven't been up to Midway the past couple years, you should go! We've fallen in love their ice castles and so we came back for more this year. We went the first weekend of March. We scored a sweet deal on a room at the Homestead, so we decided to go sans kids. Because otherwise how would we play Dominion over and over, or take naps and watch movies and just hang out for two days and two nights?

And here I sit, coming up with strategies on how to annihilate Jesse.

Poor boy doesn't know what's about to hit him.


We visited the ice castles during the day this time. It was super bright and I forgot my sunglasses!






We also ate at Schneitters at Zermatt. It was pretty much the coolest ever. Seafood Buffet, dang it was sooooo good. It was so romantic and perfect all around for cuddling and ...wait....who is that???

Well lookie who's here! It's my sister!!! With me and my husband on our romantic weekend getaway? So completely random. She stalked us out up there and then crashed our table and demanded to know where the children were.

Just kidding, she was at a work retreat and they were eating dinner at the same restaurant. Jesse heard her laughing( it's true Laura!) and looked over and there she was. She came running up to me and scared me half to death.

To wrap it up, getting away with the roommate helps to remind you that he's not just your roommate. You married each other because we're fun and exciting, and DANG we are hilarious together!

Best. Trip. Ever.

First Date *update*

Both Lisa and her sister Cherilyn suggested that I tell you about the gift I got Lisa for our first date anniversary.



I purchased the necklace from The Vintage Pearl, it has both our names on it and our birthstones.

Tacos and Pool

I'm a pretty tenacious guy. If there is something that I want or something that's important I don't give up easily, regardless of how many times Lisa just didn't get that I liked her. I tried many things to let her know. As previously mentioned I did tease her quite a bit, and while I didn't stop there I did take to not just eating lunch in the Valley View room but also studying there. I know it sounds a tad stalkerish, but hey... it's all I could think of. During the times I was eating lunch/studying/stalking I started to notice Lisa having lunch frequently with certain people. One guy in particular. A tallish guy with dark brown hair, who liked to tease her and laugh. Being a tallish guy with light brown hair myself, who liked to tease her and laugh, I started to wonder if it was my hair.

I finally decided I was going to try and have lunch with her. It took a couple of days but I finally found her eating lunch by herself so I went and grabbed me a quick lunch and sat by her. After she got over her shock (always a good sign) she informed me that she only had a few minutes till her lunch was over. I figured she wouldn't lie to me and I had no idea how long she had been eating lunch. We chatted for those few minutes though. I brought up Mr. Dark Brown Hair and was pleased to find out that he was her cousin Brian. After that little lunch I think she realized I wasn't as big of a freak with light brown hair as she had thought.

A few weeks later I took my time getting my bag together after our Anthropology class had ended, so I could walk out of the room with her. I asked her what her next class was and she told me, it was Marriage (there's a class, who knew?) in the Gunther Trades building. Lisa was a Behavioral Science major and Anthropology and Marriage were required classes. I guess I'm a bit of a freak for taking Anthropology because I found it interesting. I told her that I too had a class in the Gunther Trades building (total lie!) and that I would walk with her. After a few jokes about a marriage class being taught in the trades building, I knew this would become a regular walk, that and the fact I had a class in the same building *wink*.

As previously stated, I found Anthropology to be a very fascinating topic. I found it helpful to attend the extra study session that was offered by one of the student teachers for the course. I had done so all semester and had as a result done very well in the class. I was never quite sure why the teacher told everyone that I always had the highest score on nearly every test, needless to say Lisa didn't let me live that down. Apparently, it was nerdy to do well in Anthropology, who needed to know about the mating habits and rituals of the natives of Papua New Guinea. Regardless... it didn't stop her from asking me for my study notes near the end of the semester. This was my chance, call me a chicken, but I hadn't gotten around to asking for her phone number yet... I told her if she gave me her number I could call her and give them to her. I know, lame excuse, but it worked. Later that week, after I had convinced myself it was finally the right time to actually ask her out, I called her and set up a time to meet her to give her my notes, and asked her if she wanted to go out that coming Friday. After many moments of silence over the phone (again, always a good sign) she said yes.

That Friday I picked her up at her apartment in Liberty Square, it was a bit cloudy and sprinkled a bit so we hurried to my car. When we got in I asked her what she felt like, Mexican or Chinese. She said Mexican, so I took her to one of my all time favorite restaurants Mi Ranchito on state street in Orem. When we were finally seated, and placed our orders, we started to talk about our families, music and movies. It was a great conversation, when our food had arrived the first thing we both did was remove the olives from our plates and put them on the plate with the salsa bowl. As luck would have it she also found olives to be disgusting. After dinner we went to a place called Ozz to play some pool. This also turned out well, Lisa was having a hard time playing so I HAD to give her some pointers, and help her with her follow through. After a few rounds of pool we decided it was time to go. We both didn't want to go home yet so we stopped by the North Park on the corner of 500 N and 500 W in Provo. We sat on a park bench for a good ten minutes talking. I had lived in a house just down the street from there so we talked about our families mostly. It started to rain and was getting cold so we got in the car and left. Still not wanting to go home we went to my house in Pleasant Grove. It was the perfect setting, I think it's well established by now, I am a bit of a freak and I did have a disco ball set up in my living room we turned it on, put on some music and just talked, some more. We talked for quite a long time, Lisa was getting tired and I think my brother Spencer, who was playing computer games in the other room was about finished so I took Lisa home.

To commemorate that date, this last Friday, the Friday before the last week of class before finals at UVU, I asked Lisa out (Special thanks to Lisa's sister Cherilyn for watching our kids!) We had a great time. I had spoken with the manager of Mi Ranchito and he reserved the same table we had 10 years ago.




Our table, table 24.

Luckily, The Ozz is still around. So after dinner we stopped by there.



I don't quite recall who won the few games we played 10 years ago, I do know that apparently Lisa has been practicing, because she won all three of the games we played.


The Pool Shark in action!


Me trying to keep positive after having my behind handed to me.

Alas, the bench at the park we sat in 10 years ago is no longer there, so this one had to do.



It was a very similar night, cloudy, kind of drizzly. I don't remember the crazy drunk guy in the kilt spinning in circles on top of the playground 10 years ago, but maybe my memory is failing me.



Thankfully, this time I got to take Lisa home and keep her with me! Unfortunately, I did get rid of the old disco ball, you have to grow up sometime, although I think I nearly talked Lisa into letting me get another one, you know for sentimental reasons.