Happy 11th Anniversary!

Here comes the Anniversary Post...November 15, 1997...the best day of my life! There are no pictures because Whitney and I got married way before digital cameras were invented and we haven't scanned our old wedding photos yet. So, how did I get Whitney to marry me? Well, it wasn't easy, and it took me doing the bravest thing I've ever done.

The Bravest Thing I have Ever Done

Once on an unusually warm Spring day in 1997, Whitney actually set me up on a date with a girl named Melissa from her singles ward. A group of friends all got together at the park and played a few Frisbee games. We had a fun time, but there was something else weighing on my mind that day. At this point, I had been thinking for a long time that, at least in my mind, things had changed with Whitney. I wanted to be more than friends with her, and I was really starting to develop a strong attraction to her. The problem was, she didn't have the same thoughts. After the "date" with Melissa in the park, we dropped Melissa off at her house, and found that the evening was far from over, so, not unusually, Whitney invited me to hang out with her at her apartment. It was really common for us to spend time together like this, sometimes alone, sometimes with other people. On this night, we were alone, back at her apartment in Sandy. I don't remember at all what we talked about, but we had talked for a long time, and it was late at night. Finally, I got the courage to do the bravest thing I have ever done. We were sitting next to each other on the couch, and I remember putting my hand on her back, and saying "What am I going to do with you?" She was kind of confused by that comment, and kind of turned and looked at me with a strange look on her face. By taking the conversation down this path, I had gone past the point of no return. I had to follow up on my thought. The next thing I told her was that I had fallen in love with her, and I just had to tell her what I thought about her. I was probably hoping for some kind of Sleepless in Seattle moment where sparks would fly, and we would fall into each others arms and immediately kick off the relationship of the century. Nothing like this happened. Her reaction was "It's really late and you must be really tired, because I don't think you know what you are saying." With that, she literally pushed me out the door. We didn't talk for a few days while she thought about things, consulted with her dad, and just tried to deal with that bombshell in her mind. Her dad's advice to her was that she should try out a relationship since we both knew we were best friends with each other. She agreed to try and date me but it also came with a warning. She made it clear from the beginning what her position was by saying: "If things don't work out, I will dump you, and then we can never be friends ever again. Is that what you want?" We had a great time spending a lot more time together, this time as "boyfriend and girlfriend." It wasn't too long after that she was asking me to marry her.

Happy Anniversary!!! I love you!