I don’t know who knows the story of how Josh and I met, but here it is:  Our senior year of high school, Josh and I both went to something called Y Weekend at BYU. We went to the campus, got a tour, attended some sporting events and classes, and got to know other seniors from all over the States. I think there were about 40 people in our group.

Josh and I didn’t really talk or get to know each other during Y Weekend, but we recognized each other enough so that, flash forward a few months to the first week of our freshman year at BYU, we recognized each other when we were put into the same New Student Orientation group. After a fun weekend at orientation, with more campus tours and a dance, Josh and I knew each other, had talked, and started to be friends.

During freshman year we hung out a few times, and went on a few dates (including Preference, so I’m a supporter of girls’ choice dances), and really had fun together. But Josh was only at BYU a semester before he left for his mission, and he lived in the Heritage dorms and I lived in Helaman…you know, long distance. ;-) So we stayed just good friends. But as a Christmas gift for me, right before Josh left, he surprised me in the lobby of my dorm and gave me a super nice card (still have it and love what it says) and a framed picture. It was a photo that I had taken a few years before on a vacation, one of a pier and an old boat at sunset, that Josh really liked and had put on his photography blog (and you probably know that Josh is awesome at and loves photography). So the picture had special meaning. I loved it and put it up in my dorm room, and then each other room I had the whole time I was at BYU.

Flash forward two years to when Josh got home from his mission, and really, things just clicked. He started writing me (I was in Spain) when he got home, we exchanged emails, we both ended up at BYU in the spring, we saw each other for the first time, we went on our first post-mission date (an amazing magical date – a photo scavenger hunt, of course), and pretty soon after that we were seeing each other every day, then dating, then in love, then engaged, then married. :) BYU in the spring and summer was a wonderful time to date and fall in love. :)

Anyway, flash forward to yesterday, a few years later, when we’ve moved from BYU, married for three and a half years, with a ten-month-old baby and a new life, and we’re hanging up pictures in our new house (our last big move-in task, yay!). I found the framed boat picture (which I’ve always kept on display in our house), but I needed a frame for a picture of the Savior that we’ve never hung (and I was starting to feel guilty). The boat picture frame fit the print of the Savior perfectly and even matched, so I figured I’d put it there for now, just until we get a new frame, and then the boat picture goes back to where it was (it’s still very special to me). But when I was changing the picture, I was shocked to find, hidden behind the boat picture, a nicely matted picture of me and Josh during our preference date, with a short hand-written note from Josh on it. Wow! I had never even seen that before! It was so crazy to think that Josh gave that to me almost seven years ago, and I had that picture and note the whole time, but never found it until we were married with a kid! Crazy! I started shouting with so much excitement when I found it that Josh (who was hanging pictures upstairs) thought Carson had taken his first step.

It was a really neat experience. Kind of felt like something from a movie. Thanks for letting me share. :)