August 11, 2007

Three years ago today, Josh and I had our first date!!

I remember that day very well.  It was a Saturday, and I had just finished my last week of EFY for the summer that morning. To be honest, I had mixed feelings about the date for a few different reasons.  One being that this would technically be a blind date since it had been about 13 years since Josh's family moved from our ward and also the fact that this wasn't just an ordinary date.  It was going to be a date with the Josh Meadows I had been in love with so many years ago.

I had been on my share of blind dates, so I didn't have very high expectations of my date with Josh.  However, I was pretty dang nervous about seeing him for the first time in 13 years.  Blind dates didn't make me nervous, but this one was different - different because this was going to be a date with my first crush.

I'll never forget Josh pulling up to my house in his red truck.  My whole family was outside sitting in the shade and holding Ava, who was only two months old at the time.  As soon as he came into the yard, I thought, "Oh crap.  He is very attractive!"  My nerves increased and I was starting to feel a little intimidated.

We got in his truck and I couldn't get over how good looking he was.  He was just as attractive as he was 13 years ago. {By the way, some of my friends even commented on what a cute boy Josh was when they saw his childhood pictures in our wedding video :).}  I remember feeling very shy and awkward, which was very unlike me on a blind date. 

After a lot of awkward silences in the car, Josh reached in the backseat and grabbed a sheet of paper full of Chuck Norris jokes.  haha.  That helped break the ice and we laughed and laughed as he read each joke.  I love that he had a printed paper of Chuck Norris jokes in his car. Only Josh...

We had a delicious dinner at Asian Star, which also included a lot of good conversation and then went to Mulligan's to play some miniature golf.  We had a blast laughing and competing at mini golf against each other.  And for the record, I was winning the entire game until the last hole. 

When he took me home, he said he would like to do something again soon.  I was excited and happy that he would want to see me again and this date was the best one I had been on in a long time.

It took us a year and a half after our first date to fall in love, but I wouldn't change anything about our story.  We were both able to experience things, date other people and become good friends before our relationship turned into anything serious.  All of those factors helped us fall in love at the right time in our lives. 

I am grateful for Josh, I am grateful for our story and I look forward to all of the adventures ahead!