Well back in the summer of 2006 , when I was 16, I was a lifeguard, swim instructor, and swim coach at Brimhall pool. One morning during swim team as I was timing some kiddos, I had a mom come up to me and ask if I was 18 yet. I told her "no," I was 16. She was disappointed because she thought I was really cute and wanted to set me up with her brother-in-law who was like 26 at the time. HAH! She then walked away and I didn't think much of it after that. **Note: this mom is Bear's aunt Marci :)
Later on that summer as I was coaching swim team again, Marci and Bear came by to pick up the kids from practice. Bear had swam on Brimhall's team when he was youger and wanted to come say hi to the other coaches. (Little did I know at the time, but Bear had come down from Utah to live with his aunt Marci. His family used to live in AZ and had recently moved to Utah. Bear went to high school up there for his sophomore and junior years. Utah did not have a very good swim team, so Bear decided to come to AZ and swim at Mesa High School for his senior year. Fortuneately for me as you will read). Anyways...that day Marci saw Bear line up in sight with me and knew she wanted to set us up right away. I had seen him walk by, but I was not really paying attention because I was coaching. I just thought "Oh cute boy" and kept coaching ha. And that was the end of that.
A few weeks went by...one Sunday at church, Marci and her daughter Courtnee came up to say hi. Mind you they were not in my ward, but were there because her brother was blessing his babies and he was in my ward. After they sat back down, I looked back and saw that cute boy again sitting by her. She had told him about me and pointed me out to him and asked if he wanted her to set us up. He was okay with that :) She did not do anything that day, but was still determined to do so.
Well summer ended and she still had not done anything. She was now wondering how she was going to since she would not see me anymore now that swim team was over. Anyways...a few months later (October), Bear and I had a swim meet against each other at Brimhall. He was on Mesa High's swim team and I was on Red Mountain's swim team. Marci just so happened to come watch Bear at this meet. (Destiny? I think so ha). She spotted me and was ready to set us up this time. I was over by my team area so she had one of my teammates get me. This teammate came up to me and said, "Hey some lady wants to talk to you about a bear." hahahahaha I was clueless because I still had no idea who Bear was, just knew him as cute boy, but I went up to her anyways. She explained to me that she had a "hot" nephew. Her words were, "well at least all the girls think so. I guess I'm allowed to say that 'cause I'm his aunt." She told me his name was Bear and pointed him out. She said after the meet she would introduce us and then let us do whatever we wanted. I was more than okay with that since I already knew him as cute boy :) So during my next race, the 100 yard butterfly, I swam extra hard to impress him. I did win by a long shot, but only because those Mesa High girls weren't very good. ha jk, but seriously. (Later I found out Marci had videotaped this race of mine for Bear to watch).
Well at the end of the meet (Red Mountan girls won) Marci came up to me and walked us over to Bear. She introduced us and then left us alone. Neither of us had our phones so we walked over to his bag to get his. I gave him my phone number, but I didn't have my phone so I didn't get his....mistake. After we said bye I found my mom. As we were walking out, one of the moms came up to us and said she saw me talking to Bear and that all the girls at Mesa High were in love with him :) Yup thats right he was talkng to me. Okay mostly because of his aunt, but still....
That weekend passed and I still had not heard from him. This boy was cute and I needed to talk to him NOW. So I talked to a boy at Red Mountain who knew Mesa High kids and asked him to find me Bears number. He did! I was so excited. Then I texted Bear. Yes everybody I texted Bear first....Jeez girls these days are so forward! Hah! His excuse was that he was waiting until the next weekend so he didn't seem so desperate....right... I didn't care if I seemed desperate I wanted to get to know cute boy! Anyways, after that we pretty much texted non-stop. I invited him to come duct-taping with my friend Alexis and I that weekend. He came with his friend Layton. We REALLY hit it off and he was flirting with me the whole night :) Well the rest is history...he took me on a date the next weekend to see The Grudge. At the end of the night he kissed me at my doorstep (YUP on the first date). I was on cloud 9! I could not stop jumping around after I got inside. I quickly told my mom. I could not fall asleep so we kept texting through the night...After this kiss we pretty much saw each other everyday and decided we would not date anyone else. (see what happens when you exclusively date in high school...you could end up marrying the guy and having a baby a year later).
Shortly after, Bear was to go to Mexico with his Aunt Marci and her family for October break. He had originally asked me to come along, but I told him I didn't think my parents would go for it. We didn't want to be apart that long without being able to talk or text (it was only a weekend ha) so the night before he was to leave he came over at like 2 in the morning while my mom was asleep and my dad was out of town. I went out front and we just cuddled until about 4 or 5am when he had to go back home to pack and leave for Mexico (I wonder what the neighbors thought).
Bear's family came down for Thanksgiving and his parents saw how serious it was getting. They did not like this, but Bear just told them how much he liked me. I first met them at this time and just thought they were wonderful and immediately wanted to be in their family.
Bear was quick to say "I love you." We were texting one day and I had asked him if he had ever been in love. He said "I'm not sure, but I think I am now." I didn't say I love you back to him. It wasn't until I took him to Red Mountain's winter formal that I whispered it in his ear in the car and he whispered it back.
Even after swim season ended we continued to see each other everyday until December either at my house or his Aunt Marci's house. Then when school got out for Christmas break at the end of December, Bear went up to Utah to be with his family on Christmas. The original plan was to just stay in AZ for the swim season, but after meeting me, Bear wanted to come back down to AZ after break and finish the school year at Mesa High. His parents were getting worried that he and I were getting too serious in high school and he still had his mission to go on, so they advised him to "break-up" with me. Bear told me this over the phone one night when he was away, but I convinced him it was better to stay together....man I was a bad influence. At the end of the break Bear did come back down to AZ. His Aunt Marci and Uncle John (who lived in Marci's basement) were advised that Bear and I needed to break up. But as soon as Bear was home I was at his house. John saw us together and snitched to Bears parents. We kept seeing each other until February when Bear finally listened to his parents and broke it off. I was in tears! I was so mad at him! He had told me he loved me, but how could I believe him if he was going to start dating around...It took me a few days to calm down. He had broken up with me a few days before Valentine's Day which is every girls worst nightmare, but we actually still spent Valentine's together. He took me to a park and we had a picnic dinner. He gave me a HUGE bear, which I still have today. After this night though we stopped seeing so much of each other. We would still hang out every once in a while, but we both started to date other people a little bit. I would get mad when I would here about the dates he went on because I still really liked, loved, him. He must have felt the same way because one night he came barging over to my house to "talk" because he had heard I kissed another guy...That was cute.
Well the school year was coming to an end and I started to realize that Bear was going to be leaving for Utah after graduation. A week before graduation, Bear texted me and said he wanted to go on one last date with me before he left. He took me to the movies and ended up kissing me goodnight. I was surprised he kissed me, but nonetheless excited.
I went to Bear's graduation and his graduation party. Bear's family came down for this as well. At the end of his graduation party Bear walked me outside to my car. I kissed him goodnight. I thought it would be okay to kiss him since he had just kissed me the other night on our last date, but I guess not. He apparently did not like that I kissed and he went and did something stupid (I won't say what)...which most guys do stupid stuff. But this particular thing made me very mad and I never wanted to talk to him again (obviously this was not the case). I ignored his texts and phone calls for a while, but eventually gave in and answered. He told me how sorry he was and that he really loved me, but of course I did not believe him anymore. He went back up to Utah and we kind of stopped talking for a little while. We would still text but not too often.
The summer passed and then I started my senior year. Bear and I were still only talking every once in a while, but as school went on Bear and I started to talk more and more. He kept saying that he missed me and of course I missed him too. He said he wanted to come back down one more time to see me before he left on his mission in November. He did come down in early November and saw me swim at state. We had an amazing time together and decided I would go up to Utah for his farewell. After he left to Utah we had a week before I was to go up there and see him again. We texted non-stop. It was like we never broke up.
Bear and I wrote his whole mission. I dated other boys while he was gone, but nobody compared to Bear. He was so nice and handsome and strong in the church. When I was younger I had created a list of everything I wanted in my husband and Bear had it all. Bear would send me stuff from his mission, mostly pictures and chocolate. Towards the end of Bear's mission he started writing that he loved me still, which he hadn't written up until this point. He told me he found out when he was to come home and we started talking about how we would see each other since he was going back home to Utah. He hinted that he wanted me at his homecoming, but didn't know if that was possible. I decided to plan a trip to Utah anyways. I told him that I would be in Utah with my mom staying with my aunt and uncle in Draper and if he wanted me there, I would come. He came home November of 2009. The morning of his homecoming talk came and he still had not called me to come...I was getting anxious. I had been texting his Aunt Marci the whole time trying to decide what to do. I got ready for church and finally about an hour before his church he called me and asked if I was coming. I was so nervous talking to him on the phone and was even more nervous to see him. It had been two years! I made sure I looked extra cute before leaving. I walked into the Chapel and sat next to his Aunt Marci. Bear walked in and immediately came up to me. I didn't know if he was going to hug me or shake my hand or what. He told me to give him a hug :)
His talk was awesome. After church we went back to his house for dinner. He had family there, so I decided to lay low. I would get my turn with him at some point. He told us so many stories about his mission. The next day Bear asked me to come to a concert with his family. I was so happy! After the concert, Bear and I were left alone to talk. It was like he had never left. We both acted the same way around each other. We decided we still felt the same way and didn't want each other to date anyone else. (I had to call a few boys that night to tell them the news....) He gave me a kiss goodnight and I went back to my aunt's house. My mom and I left the next morning.
Bear and I continued our long distance relationship through talk and text. After much talking, the "M" word was brought up. Yup marriage. That December we decided we wanted to get married. My parents were not surprised since I had been telling them I was going to marry Bear ever since I met him. Bear's parents on the other hand...they didn't know what to think. They hardly even knew me and had only seen me a few times. I can now see why they were hesitant, but they decided Bear was a big boy and could make his own decisions so after much talking they were okay with it. We set the date for March 11, 2010 (only four months after he came home from his mission).
That whole time Bear was still in Utah. He did not move down to Arizona until the end of January. Barely a month before the wedding. Crazy! So as soon as he got down here we did our engagement pictures...I showed him the ring I wanted (yeah I didn't have a ring yet) and quickly made our announcements so we could send them out enough time before the wedding. When we ordered the ring, the sales associate told Bear they would call him when it was ready, so I had no idea when he would get the ring or when he would propose "officially." I was so anxious I even had my best friend text him to see if he would tell her if he had the ring yet. He told her no, but found out later that he actually did have it he just knew our little trick. One night we were at his grandparens house for his grandpa's 75th birthday party and after everyone left he asked me if I wanted him to play the guitar for me (I had been bugging him to for a while). Well it was almost midnight and I was pretty tired so I told him no because it may put me to sleep and I still have to drive home. Little did I know that he was planning on proposing to me that night with the guitar so I ruined it ha. But the next day I was over there again. We were just sitting on the couch watchin TV and he goes to get his guitar (and the ring) up in his room. He came down and started playing me a song. It was "Angel" by Jack Johnson. At the end he added a verse of his own to it. It went something like "I gotta question for you" and he put the guitar down, got on his knee and asked me to marry him. (Don't worry I made him sing the song again for me so I could record it). I said "Yes of course I'm already marrying you," because by that time almost everything was planned.
Well we spent every second together we could before the wedding. We were/are so in love. March 11, 2010 came and were sealed in the Mesa, AZ temple for time and all eternity.
I love my cute boy, now man! He is so good to me. I am so happy that things worked out between us. I could not ask for a better husband. Everything he does is for our family. Thank you Marci!
