o u r . s t o r y

June 17th was the day I had been looking forward to since I received my "you're hired" email from EFY the Valentines Day before. I was initially hired for 5 weeks working with the "Salt Lake Team" in Salt Lake City and Cedar City, and one week at BYU. Whenever anyone asked about my summer plans, I could not have been more excited to tell them about my job as an EFY counselor. My aunt Mel, who was a counselor herself, kept teasing me and saying I was going to marry another counselor. I thought "No way. EFY counselors are way too weird." Little did I know what that summer would throw my way.

June 17th was the day that began my whole EFY journey. I drove up to the University of Utah, just scared out of my wits. I was so nervous. What if the girls didn't like me? What if I would never ever be able to bear my testimony without bawling incoherently?  What if I slept in? The questions and doubts were endless! I'd been to EFY myself twice as a youth and absolutely adored my counselors. They were thee coolest people alive and I swore I was going to grow up to be just like them..and there I was, years later, one of them.

I walked into the Institute building and found the room in which the training for new counselors would be held. Anna, one of the coordinators stood up and introduced herself and began the training. She handed out our counselor handbooks, our lovely polo's, and name tags. She started going over protocols and such, but then received a phone call that she needed to take. She excused herself and said she was going to grab her "co-coordinator" to take over. No more than a minute later, a handsome guy in a perfectly tailored suit with a paper clip on his tie walked in and introduced himself as "Steve." My initial thought was "dang that guy is handsome" but that was where my thought began and ended before the nerves once again took over.

"Steve" learned my name before the end of the night 

and yelled it frequently that first week,
flirted like mad with me on Monday,
started shooting rubber bands at me on Wednesday (mature, I know),
asked me on our first walk on Thursday,
asked me on a date that same night (I said no..sorry babe..),
and held my hand the following Monday.
We went on our first date the following weekend
and had our first kiss on my number one favorite holiday, the 4th of July.

First picture ever taken together. This happened before we ever had a conversation.

I'll spare you the details, but to make a long story short, I fell in love every day that summer without even knowing it. We spent every night walking around the U and SUU's campuses, sharing our life stories and laughing our heads off. We raced rubber ducks in gutters whenever it rained, and bought a plastic bowling set and bowled in parking lots. I averaged a total of 4 hours of sleep a night and looked and felt like death by the end of every week. By week two we were making plans for Christmas break (6 months away..) and by the end of the summer, I was completely sunk.

The Sun and Moon Cafe, a favorite find on one of our drives, and Rubber Duck Racing in Cedar!

My sweet Grandpa Benson passed away the Sunday night before our last week in Cedar.  That was the first time Steven had ever seen me cry, and boy did I cry. I was an emotional wreck all week. I don't know what I would have done without him. He snuck me out of classes when he could tell I needed a hug, took me out to lunch so that I didn't have to eat my millionth cafeteria meal, gave me dance duty in the hall, and got me a dozen roses. To top it off, he woke up with me at 4:00 in the morning on Saturday to drive up north with me for my Grandpa's funeral in Salt Lake - which also meant meeting my ENTIRE family in one day. He blew me away that week and I knew he was something that was not going to be easy to give up.

A week later, we said our first "I Love You's" (meaning I said it first...he followed with a "I don't know what to say....", I then wanted to die, and then he finally said it) and two weeks after that, we started our long distance relationship!

Did I mention how much Steven LOVES picture time?

Logan to Provo, Provo to Logan, over and over and over. It was a long and expensive 9 months, but so worth every minute and every single penny. By the second week of September, we had started ring shopping and had scheduled the Salt Lake Temple for our June wedding. 

And by second week of September, I mean less than 3 months after we met..

The ring shopping process was a little less than brutal (who knew I could be so picky?!) but finally on November 24th, the love of my life got on a knee (with theee perfect ring) and asked me to marry him. I cried, said yes, and kissed that handsome red headed boy a million times.

Hi, welcome to the happiest moment of my entire existence.

6 months and lots of wedding planning later, we were sealed for time and ALL eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple. What I would give to relive that blissfully perfect day! Every bit of it was a complete fairytale.

I couldn't tell you the exact moment that I feel in love with Steven, but I can tell you that I haven't stopped falling for one single moment since. He literally is my better half, my missing puzzle piece. He is the man that I have dreamed of my entire life and the one I am SO lucky to call mine.