Our Story...

It's been almost 16 years since Our Story began. Cole and I were introduced our junior year of high school. He was casually dating one of my friends, and I had a boyfriend. Then, when one of my closest friends wanted to date him, I told her not to, because at the time, he was kind of a scary guy. (He really was, I promise Jude! :))

Fast forward to our senior year. I no longer had a boyfriend, and had been hurt by a different boy who I had greatly respected and trusted. I had spent half my sophmore and junior years with a boyfriend, who was a good boy and very nice. Our relationship had run its course, however, and in the mean time my group of friends from early high school had fractured. Another group of girls I was friendly with "took me in", so to speak, but I was still a little lonely. Cole and I had AP Psychology together. He was visibly different than the scary guy he had been just the previous spring. I later found out that he had exited the bad stuff he was into, and had been praying for the Lord to send him someone to help him along. We became friendly. I developed a raging crush on him, helped along by the fact that one of his good friends and one of my good friends were a couple. They pushed us together. However, I had been hurt and betrayed over the summer, and I wasn't in any hurry to jump into another serious relationship. Cole was very patient, however, and came to my defense when [jerky, betraying, boy] was even more cruel. I started to fall hard for him. He was my friend first, but I could TALK to him...when we finally got around to actually going on a date (November of 1993), I knew on our first date that I was going to marry him. That he was my soulmate. We dated through high school, I went to Weber State, and he got a good job with good insurance so we could get married. On August 10, 1995, we married in the Bountiful Temple. We were 19 years old, which for some would be very young, but we had both always been old for our age. I have NEVER, NEVER, NEVER had one moment of regret that we married young. We have had our ups and downs, as all couples do, but we are a perfect match, and I am blessed to have him as my partner in everthing. Love you, babe!

So, it's our 14th Anniversary tomorrow. I decided we would take a little trip. We have both always been into music and plays...in fact, one of the first conversations I remember having with Cole, in our psychology class, was about the fact that I was going to Cats when it came to Capitol Theater. My grandparents had 4 tickets, and were taking my mom and me with them. He was envious, and we talked at length that day about the play, other plays, etc. Last summer, my mom and I had tickets to 2 plays at the Utah Opera Festival (again, courtesy of my grandparents...they are the best!) We had a great time, but it made me want to take my husband with me. I bought tickets back in March for Camelot and for Carmen. We've been really excited....

So, Thursday after Cole got home we set off. It was windy and the air was icky dirty, but it did make the sun look all cool and red/orangy

From Our Anniversary 2009

We drove up Sardine Canyon, and Cole was in a picture mood, so we got plenty of scenery pictures...

From Our Anniversary 2009

It's too bad this isn't the prettiest time of year, I love Sardine canyon but especially in the spring and fall...
We arrived in Logan, checked into our hotel, and then headed over to the Ellen Eccles Theater for the performance of Camelot. We had great seats, first row Mezzanine, right in the center.

From Our Anniversary 2009

While we were waiting for showtime, we noticed a lot of people standing up and looking over the edge. Shortly, the reason was divulged...

From Our Anniversary 2009

President Thomas S. Monson was there for the performance. How Cool is that? He is a close family friend of the actress who played Guinevere. Cole teased me a bit for being a little "starstruck", but I couldn't help but try to get a picture...and I could feel the strong spirit of being in the presence of a prophet of God. Way cool.
The performance was great...but I'd forgotton how terribly sad Camelot really is. The cast did a spectacular job.

From Our Anniversary 2009

After the performance, we picked up a late dinner, and went back to our hotel. In the morning, my early rising husband was very kind to let me sleep in. He went out wandering, taking pictures all over Logan. After I woke up and got ready, we had some time to kill before the performance of Carmen. We decided to drive up Logan Canyon for awhile.
We have always loved Logan Canyon. It's a beautiful drive at all times of the year.

From Our Anniversary 2009

We made it up to Rick's Spring.

From Our Anniversary 2009

We have always wanted to stop there, but have never had the opportunity. We had the time, so we stopped. The water was FREEZING...just a few steps in and my feet were painfully cold.

From Our Anniversary 2009

Cole waded all the way to the back,

From Our Anniversary 2009

and got a couple of cool pics of the blue, blue bottom of the spring...it was a lot deeper than it looked, it went almost up to his knees...

From Our Anniversary 2009

Us...

From Our Anniversary 2009

From Our Anniversary 2009

We drove back to town, had an amazing lunch at the Bluebird, and headed to Carmen.

From Our Anniversary 2009

From Our Anniversary 2009

On our way home, I had to take a pic of this barn...

From Our Anniversary 2009

This has always cracked me up...when I worked doing pediatric homecare, I drove to Logan 3 days a week. This barn never failed to make me smile. The paint was really faded at first, but someone started keeping it up...for nostalgic purposes I guess. I think it's great, though...
We stopped for dinner on the way home, a great little Indian place in downtown Ogden. Yummy...
We had a great time, but we were glad to be home.

Happy 14th, Love...it just keeps getting better and better!