A New Beginning - Part 2 (dating)

Hey all,

Here is the next part to my last blog post (again the only time I find to write this is in class... hopefully my grades don't suffer ^-^).

When I left off last time, Kenny and I had just become a little more than friends. We both now knew that we liked each other and it was time to get things rolling.

The funny thing is is that we didn't exactly date... we basically saw each other every day so there was no need to go out anywhere. We did go out a few times though. One time Kenny's roomate, Aaron, and his friend, Kyle and his wife, were out swimming and playing marco-polo. Kenny and I were walking by and stopped to watch and laugh as they played. They were getting ready to come out and were going to go get ice-cream and they had wondered if Kenny and I wanted to go with. Kenny looked at me and asked if I wanted Ice-cream and I thought it would be fun. So I went with Kenny, in his car, and we went to cold stone. We got there and found Kyle, Vika, and Aaron and all got in line and were figuring out what we wanted to have. I decided that I didn't want a bowl of ice-cream but they had some smoothies. I saw the triple berry one and wanted to get it and Kenny made an executive decision to make this a date and he paid for my smoothie. ^-^

*the picture is not the smoothie that I had with him but I thought I should have a picture

One of the other dates (which I think was my favorite) was our hike up Rock Canyon. We decided that (I forget the exact date but) Wednesday we wanted to go on a hike. I only had class till one that day so we got everything ready and then got in the car and went up about 6 or 7 pm to the opening to rock canyon. We made sure we had our map and made it there with not alot of problems. We parked, made sure we had our water and cameras and everything else, and then set of. The trail was pretty cool and we found lots of places to climb up into like the picture on the right.

As we were walking along there was this part that I saw that went like straight up the mountain. I turned to Kenny with almost a pleading look and he laughed and said he was going to suggest it to me. With a smile on my face we made our way up. I found on that trial that all the rocks were against me and kept trying to throw me back down the mountain but I also found that the plants were on my side so every time I slipped, there was a tree branch for me to grab. Kenny laughed a lot of the way up because every time I slipped I would let out an "eek"sound as I scrambled for a tree branch. We got to this one part that wound around a little and then went up a little more and we found a nice ledge to sit and look out at how far we had come. As I looked out I had to get my camera (I got several pictures of it but I figured I should only share one) because the sunset was beautiful.

This was on the way up the mountain

This was at the top of the mountain

This was at the top but with my sunset setting on my camera on.

We then realized that with the sun going down we would need to start heading back down the mountain. We decided we wanted to take a slightly different way down but the cliff I lead us too was a little far down for my little legs to reach. Kenny decided he would go down first so that he could test it before I went down. He made it down and then watched as I started to go down. I slipped a couple of times and then I got low enough that Kenny was able to put his hands under my feet and lower me enough so that I could sit on his shoulder and then I jumped down. While hiking back to the main part that we came up on, Kenny found this plant and wondered what it was, but we were running out of light so I took a picture and told him we could look at it and figure it out later.

Funny plant that Kenny found

In haste we started back down the mountain to beat the sun. It was still light for a little while after the sun went down but we knew it wouldn't last for long, and we didn't have a flashlight. As we were hurrying down the mountain, Kenny was ahead of me and I kept slipping and accidentally sliding rocks down the mountain after him but he was good at dodging. While going down the mountain there was a spot in which Kenny stepped on this rock and didn't realize how smooth it was and his foot slipped off the rock and he fell/slid down the mountain a few good feet. I, now in panic mode, hurried faster down the mountain to get to him all the while yelling, "Kenny! Are you ok? Don't move, I am coming!" I finally made it down to Kenny and he had a grim hurt expression on his face. I asked if her could move at all and he tried to stand and his face twisted and he sat back down. At this point I am thinking.... how are we to get out of the canyon before dark!

Kenny had found a stick a little way back up the mountain but had dropped it when he fell so I went back up a little and got his stick for him to lean on... but it was a little short to do any good. I looked at Kenny and realized that I was the right size for a crutch for him! I asked Kenny to stand again but this time to lean heavily on me. He got up and with the stick on one side and me on the other, we moved slowly down the mountain. We got back to the trail that lead to the parking lot and we took a slow pace back. It got darker on the way by since we were on the trail, it wasn't bad. While walking he and I talked. We were very close because he had to lean on me and I found that I didn't mind how close he was to me. The funny thing with having him so close though was that I had to adapt my walk to his limp-ish one because it was hard to walk normal with him on me ^-^.

We finally made it back to the car and Kenny was still insisting on opening my door for me. So I let him open my door, and then walked him back to his door, opened it, sat him in, closed his door, and then walked back over to mine (which was still open) and climbed in. Kenny then asked if I wanted something to eat and I told him yes so we left and he was asking me what I wanted. I told him that with his leg like it was that maybe we should do home and have something at my place. We got home and I think we had some Italian chicken (chicken with Italian dressing) not sure what else but I know that after the hike, the food was really good. He stayed till midnight like always, we did scripture somewhere in there and then I walked him home (still being his crutch) and bid him goodnight.

One of the other dates I remember is going to a movie at one of the other guy's apartments. It was How to Train your Dragon (which is like my FAVORITE movie ^-^). We went together and there was a couch in the front and we took a seat, with his arm around me :D. I remember that before we were dating he was at another movie and he was sitting next to me and I wanted DESPERATELY for him to put his arm around me and he didn't (sad face) but it isn't his fault that he was clueless to me desires. Anyway, he had never see the movie all the way through so it was fun to watch his expression through out the movie :)

Those were the three dates I remember the most. One that I wouldn't call a date but was fun was when my family invited him to lagoon with us. We were so excited! I believe it was May 14th that we went to lagoon for my sister's band concert (it was called Music in the Parks) where their band competes with all the bands in the district. After the concert though we were aloud to go to the park! (during the concert though, Thomas, Kenny and I were playing "slap", and Thomas is wicked good). We got to the park and went on all sorts of rides!

On the Screamer (yes.. I did scream... ^-^)

 

 

Waiting in line for the bat!

On the swings (Kenny is to the right in the picture, behind me)

There were so many times I wanted him to grab my hand while we were walking but I had no success. I wanted to grab his hand but I didn't want to seem too foreword and scare him away. So we would sit with his arm around me but no hand holding.

One thing I feel I should also mention is that A LOT of people like to ask the story of our first kiss. Well here it goes. Our first Kiss was on May 30th (exactly a month from when we met). Kenny had asked me about kissing before that but I was scared. Not sure why I was so scared but I was. Anyway, that day I had two classes (got out at 2) and then I was not feeling good at all. Eating food made me sick and I just wasn't feeling well at all. Kenny had also just hurt his ankle from the Hike and so when we were playing football and Frisbee for FHE, we both went but, both sat out. I of course was stupid and didn't bring a jacket with me so Kenny was rubbing my back a ton trying to warm me up. FHE ended and we got up and started to walk home... me shivering like crazy... and went back to my place to grab a jacket.

My bedroom is to the right in the picture

We walked into my place and I had him wait in the living room while I went in to get a jacket. I grabbed a jacket and as I was walking out, Kenny was right outside my bedroom door. He opened his arms and I went in for a big hug (I was still shivering a little so it was very nice). I then heard him whisper my name, and so I looked up. (I knew immediately what was going on and automatically got scared but when Kenny had asked before about kissing me and I told him not to ask me, but to surprise me... but I wasn't expecting this.) He was right there and our lips touched. I felt a slight thrill and remembered what my mom told me about not being a "dead fish" so I kissed back. It was better than I had expected a kiss to be. I thought it would have been gross and weird, but all it was was a little wet. Well that is the story of my first kiss. It isn't like dramatically romantic, but in the moment it was perfect and grand to me. 

The one major thing that I won't touch too much on, but I believe really strengthened our relationship was when I was in the hospital. I had been having problems with my stomach to where some food really bugged me. I didn't know till I had an attack that it was my gallbladder. We had taken me in for an ultra sound a couple of days before thinking that it might have been my gallbladder but the results showed nothing wrong. After the attack though, we drove me right to the hospital and asked to do what is called a hyda-scan(to check the functionality of it). After the hyda-scans results which came back that my gallbladder was only working 7% instead of 35% -ish, it was determined that my gallbladder was not doing its job and needed to come out. I went in on June 14th to the Hospital. Before being admitted in, Kenny was with me the whole time. He was with me almost every time the food I ate hurt, and he was there during the attack and he even met me at the hospital.

Flowers from Kenny after Surgery

In the hospital I had to put on a gown (it was so confusing to figure out how to put it on) and then I filled out some papers, got in a bed, and waited for someone to come in. My mom was with me the whole time and Kenny showed up right before I was going in. After a while someone came in and started my IV (my mom wanted to try and put it in the middle of my arm and I got a nice bruise from it but it wouldn't work there. We ended up putting it in the top of my hand, which actually wasn't bad). Kenny showed up a little bit before the doctor did so he was there to give me a hug of support. The doctor showed up and asked if I was ready. I nodded and then don't remember anything else.

All after my surgery, I wasn't allowed to lift anything and I had to get up a lot and walk around. My mom stayed with me that week but Kenny was there to go on walks with me and help lift thing when I couldn't lift. He was loyal by my side till the end. I really feel that if I hadn't had gotten my gallbladder out, we wouldn't have connected or clicked as well as we did.

Well that is our dating experience. In the next part I will talk about the engagement story and other things that happened between the engagement and the wedding.  Tune in for the next part of "A New Beginning".