our love story.

Okay, for all of you who have ever wondered how my handsome boyfriend and I met - here it is! Time to get all mushy and lovey, naaaaawt.

Let’s throw it all the way back to 2007, when I was in 7th grade and Brayden was in 9th grade. At the time Brayden and his Father were living in the same city I was, so we ended up going to the same Jr High School, we did not know each other going into the school year. (For privacy reasons I will use the names Aria and Bennett..) Brayden was and is really good friends with Bennett, and they always were hanging around the same group of friends all the time. I would say that the group of friends wasn't one of the super popular cliques, they were more laid back and just liked to have a good time. They were all really athletic and enjoyed football, soccer, skateboarding, snowboarding, and 'tricycle-ing' (for lack of a better word).

Total side note/story; I will explain what I mean by tricycle-ing... Brayden and his friends would entertain themselves by going and "borrowing" children tricycles off of people’s lawns/driveways and race them down a big hill in our city. They would always go out super late when there were no cars out and just have fun with it. 

Back to the love story, what you really came to read... A couple months into the school year, I want to say end of September early October, I met and became friends with Aria. Aria was Bennett's sister, she was my age and Bennett was Brayden's age. Bennett and Aria would always have hangouts at their house, because their house was super cool and brand new. Everyone that came would usually hangout together somewhat, but it was still kind of separated with the older/younger kids. I remember meeting/seeing Brayden briefly over there a few times, but we didn't really meet until Halloween. Bennett and Aria were throwing a Halloween party at their house, and there were tons of people going. Both of us being friends with them ended up going. I remember that Bennett was blasting music in his room with all the lights off, he just had glow sticks everywhere and a little strobe light (I think, maybe it was just a smaller lamp). I know it sounds funny, but hey you have to remember that this was when we were 13-16 ish haha. I don't really remember if we talked at all, but I do remember thinking that he was a really really quiet.

For the next few years I would often see Brayden around at Bennett/Aria’s house, school, hangouts, parties, around town, etc. We were always really casual when we would see each other. Let’s skip all the way to 2010, I was now 15/16 and Brayden was 17/18. Brayden was in 11^th at the same cities High School, I was still in 9^th grade at the Jr High School. He started to frequently ask me to hangout, go somewhere, go on dates, etc. It just never really happened. Unfortunately I had become really into trying to be the most popular, have the coolest friends, go to the best parties, and date the bad guys (yuck!!) – whereas Brayden was still really laid back. From 2010-2012 he was really persistent about asking me to do things but I would always just blow him off for something else that came along or not say anything back. Which I feel totally awful for looking back at it now.. Our conversations would go something like this… (Yes, this is real word for word conversations)

11/02/2011

We briefly chatted about school and he said that he was interested in going into Aviation, etc.

11/03/2011

Him “Well we should hangout sometime, maybe go do something if your down??”

Me “Okay!! Lets do!”

11/04/2011 ----

Him “Ha alright, so whens the best day for you?”

Me “Well any Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday works!”

Him “Ha well I saw your status and you got your wisdom teeth out so I guess not tonight hah so sometime next week then..”

Me “Haha yeah, deal! Just let me know when (:”

Him “Hah okay, how was getting your wisdom teeth out anyways?? I have to get mine out soon hah”

Me “It’s awful! Eat as much as you can before, and live off of sonic slush’s. Haha!”

Him “Haha okay I will be sure to rember that.. So is your number the same that it used to be?

Me “Yes it is!”

Him “Okay cool, well I’ll text you than..”

How funny is our wording, you can definitely tell that we were younger and a lot less mature. I never want to see “Hah” again. Our conversations were mostly all like that, things just never progressed. We would never actually end up doing anything for some reason. It continued for a while…

2/28/2012

Him “Sledding??”

Me “Ahhh! I just saw this… L I would have been there in 5 minutes! I’ve been begging people to go with me this year and NO ONE will. Text me next time!(:”

Him “Hah okay I will for sure, we will have to go after it snows next..”

Me “Deal”

6/16/2012 – 11:33 AM

Him “Hey! We need to go do something sometime soon?”

6/26/2012 – 5:31

Him “Hey, we need to hang out sometime! Its been a while…”

I am sure there were more, this is just all I could find record of still. Again, this continued from 2010-2012. Around July I started following him on Instagram, and would occasionally like/comment on pictures he posted. He would do the same on my posts, but it was still nothing progressive.

I had dated many people throughout my Jr High / High School years, but nothing too serious. Around the beginning of April 2012 I got out of a really non-healthy relationship, and just kind of gave up on men. Throughout April-July I didn’t go on a single date or really even talk to many guys, I was just focusing on myself and hanging around with my family a lot.. I ended up getting a puppy around the end of June beginning of July, which took up a lot of my time as well.

She is so adorable huh! Brayden and I hadn’t talked for almost a full year until…

7/21/2012

Him “Hey, is your number still the same?”

Me “801.899.5957!”

Him “Okay cool, I’ll text you we will have to do something crazy sometime haha!”

But unfortunately, still nothing happened from it. You were getting excited huh! Are you getting frustrated yet, cause I sure am thinking back on it? Haha! One random day, he posted a picture on 9/13/2012 which I just happened to comment on.

Two days later I was sitting at home watching a movie with my mom (what an eventful Saturday night for a 17/18 year old huh), when I just got the urge to text him. We chatted back and forth probably 10/15 times for the next few hours just making simple conversation. We chatted a little bit on Sunday, and Monday we did not talk at all. On Tuesday morning I was bored at school so I texted him and I said “Lets’ go canoeing sometime!” and he just kind of played it cool and said something along the lines of “You let me know when you want to, I am free any time after ____”. I remember immediately replying “I can tomorrow!” giddy right? He asked me what time, and I said something like “I am not sure when I will be home from school, but I will text you”. Now this wasn't an excuse, my college classes would get out a varied times due to how much I stayed after/got done. He was nice and we ended up chatting for like an hour or so more. To this day he says that in the back of his mind, he thought I was going to either not text him the next day or bail out.

The following day I texted him at around 2:30 ish letting him know I could go whenever. He said he was shocked when he saw I text him that. I asked him what I was supposed to wear and he said it might be chilly so bring a jacket. Now I totally though canoes tipped really easily, so I was asking him if I should wear a swimsuit or what not. He kind of just laughed and said “Sure!!” to all my foolish questions. I go to meet him, and I show up wearing shorts and a tank top over my swimsuit with a light jacket – and he was totally dressed normal. Haha! I even brought baggies to put our phones in, inside on my back pack full of goodies and what not. He was a good sport and played along, sticking his phone inside the baggie with mine as we got on the canoe. I felt like a complete fool not knowing that it is VERY hard to tip a canoe, and that I would most likely have been fine in regular clothes / no baggie. I remember being so embarrassed through the whole evening, the next day, and the next day, and every day to this day. Haha!

Anyways.. We start driving up the canyon, the place where he wanted to go was about 30-45 minutes up. As we were listening to music, driving on this dirt road with hills and tree’s around us I would catch myself staring at him. He would turn my way, and I would awkwardly turn away. He was sooo cute to me, little brace face an all. In like 10 minutes my thinking went from – [telling myself I am not going to get into anything, we were just going on a simple date, I haven’t been in a date in months, this is what I am supposed to do at 17/18, etc..] to [oh my gosh this kid is a babe, I have a huge crush on him, why did I not pursue him all these years, where has this kid been all my life?!] Haha! I know, enough of the mushy stuff, it just gives me butterflies thinking back on all this! We pull up to the reservoir area where we wanted to go, and there is almost no water. I started laughing awkwardly, and he totally played it off cool like “I didn’t think there was going to be water... I just wanted to check it out.” I totally just let him play that card out, and before I knew it we were turning around heading to a different reservoir in the same canyon. On our way down Brayden saw a Moose, which he was so into! I was glad he was into animals, as I was an animal lover too. Another perk/reason why I needed to date him, right?!

We ended up going about 15 minutes away to a different reservoir nearby. We go to pull the canoe off of the top of his Tacoma, and this is when he saw how weak I was.. For some reason, I have always had like zero muscle in my arms, embarrassing I know. I basically was dead weight smiling and trying to be cute standing there and he was carrying it all the way down to the edge by himself. Throughout the next few hours he did a little fishing, he rowed us all over the reservoir wherever I wanted to go, we talked and flirted. He was such a good sport through the whole evening. He even caught like 6 fish which I told him he would be lucky to catch one, he has the best luck I swear. We pull up to my car and he awkwardly gives me a side hug (inside the car!) and we go our separate ways. No real hug or kiss, disappointing huh, haha!

We texted pretty consistently after the canoeing adventure. Two days later on 9/21/2012 he invited me to go to a haunted house with him, Bennett, and another girl. Of course, I said yes and was looking forward to going. He picks me up from my house, and we drove about 15 minutes to the haunted house. The conversation was easy, it was as if we were best friends. Right as we got there we were waiting in line to enter, and there was this automated thing on the wall that would pop out at you to scare you. I had seen it pop out at people probably 5 or so times while waiting in line. We get up to it and I am kind of leaning on the wall by it. It pops out, and I start screaming (a really really loud scream I might add) and dig my head into Brayden’s arm/chest. Everyone in our group and a few others in line were laughing at me. I had no idea why it scared me so bad because I had been watching it scare other people. Maybe it caught me off guard, maybe I was nervous for the haunted house, and maybe I was nervous trying to impress Brayden, who knows. Whatever it was, made me start screaming like a little girl. I guess you could call that mine and Brayden’s fist “hug”. (wink wink) He was really shy, so I would have to keep “being scared” and hold onto him. Throughout the next hour or two we slowly got more comfortable and would hold each other tighter. At the end of the haunted house we came running from chainsaws out of the gate holding each other pretty tightly, and didn’t let go of each other for a good 15 minutes. Yeeeeahhh! Haha!

Even though it was around 11:30 I invited him to come watch a movie at my house. I didnt want our date to end! We went quietly inside and into the basement, as my family was already sleeping. I turned on Stomp The Yard and we started to cuddle on the couch. A few minutes later, literally minutes, I was out cold. How embarrassing! He stayed there and let me sleep on him the full movie, cute huh. He woke me up when it was over and I walked him to the door. I gave him a real hug, and he went in for our first kiss. So “Magical”, lol. The next day he came over to hangout and ended up meeting my family. We started seeing each other every day after our second date. A few weeks later he introduced me to his mother’s side while camping. A few weeks after that I met his father’s family. We were inseparable. 

On 11/13/2012 I woke up and went outside to go to school and on my car I found the cutest little surprise. The bears left hand was a voice recording of Brayden saying “Will you be my girlfriend?”, I just about died it was so cute. There was also a little heartfelt letter from him, that I will probably keep forever and ever.  I of course had to get him back somehow, so I made him candy poster and wrote “YES” with air heads on the back of his truck for him to find after work. We are so cheesy. (:

Brayden and I could not have started talking again at a better time, for both of us. I had never really understood when people would say “time will tell”, “just give it time”, “don’t try to look for something, just let it happen” or “that special person will come into your life when you are ready” until our first date. In the past two years we have had many up’s and down’s, learned a lot individually, learned even more as a couple, and have gown together quite a bit. I am so excited to see what the future holds for me and this hunk. (:

Now for the completely cheesy and overused phrase - 
"I guess you could say the rest is history.."

Enjoy, xoxo.