the marathon date and so much more

  Our fist official date was what my brother called a "marathon" date.  It was the best first date I had ever had.  So we started talking online and within a week we decided to meet in person and see if we really did like each other.  Well that date ended with a resounding YES!  It was a lovely brisk morning June 18th, I got up early that morning to get ready and headed out to Jace's house at about 10 am.  When I got out there we did the total awkward not sure if we should hug each other dance as we introduced ourselves.  Well we did end up getting some form of hug in there... it was more of one of those one armed hugs that you do when you aren't sure what exactly to do.  So after the awkwardness was over we went inside and started making salsa.  Let me tell you this boy is amazing!  He can cook like no other.  It is so much fun, we both enjoy cooking so we do it together as much as we can, I love it!  Anyway, so we finished making salsa ran out to the store and grabbed some other things for a picnic at the Palisades Lake.  After lunch we went over to the golf course right in time for it to start pouring down rain.  So we hit balls in the rain.  It was so much fun.  We both got a good laugh out of myself.  It was the first time I had done the driving range thing, so I had a lot of swings and misses and a few close calls where Jace almost met the tip of my club!  Once we were finished Jace took me by an elk farm which  was way cool!  Those suckers are huge!!  On the way back to the house we saw that the Manti pageant was starting that night.  We had a few hours to kill so we went back to Jace's house played the WII for a while and talked a ton.  After a while we realized that we were both pretty hungry so Jace made me the most amazingly delicious fajitas!  oh they were so good!  Anyway after dinner we headed off to the pageant we stayed for half of it but then left because I had to work the next day in the morning and I still had a drive ahead of me.  I left there around 11 that night.  We had made plans to go out again and then to maybe go out to Fish Lake for my birthday weekend!  I was way excited. So the next week Jace was on the grave shift so he came up on one of my days off I took him out to Deer Creek we fished out there for a while but didn't catch anything, so we left and goofed around the rest of the day.  After going out a few more time we decided to go up to Fish Lake for my birthday weekend.  It was so much fun!  I got to meet most of his wonderful family and he showed me a ton of way cool places.  He took me out to a couple of places to look for elk and anything else that we could find.  It was so cool to see them out in the wild and to hear them do their calls.  This was also the weekend and the place that our first kiss happened!  I had butterflies in my stomach the rest of the time.  So after the weekend was over I gave him a little early birthday present.  Our birthdays are about a month apart so I figured I would splurge and get us both tickets for the Kenny Chesney Concert and it also ensured that he would be sticking around for another month he he he.  Tricky I know!  After my birthday we pretty much were together every week.  We were able to find ways for me to either come down to Centerfield to spend time with him or for him to come up to provo on our days off.  I am not sure exactly when it happened but I think it was right after the 4th if July when I knew he was the one I was going to marry.  He had come up just after the 4th and stayed with my brother and I for a couple days.  I think it was when he was leaving.  This weird feeling came over me and the idea that I was going to marry him popped into my head.  I realized that weird strange feeling was love.  Me fall in love no no!  That couldn't be right, but it was!  After a month I had fallen in love with him and I was ok with that.  Which  was so out of character for me.  I always thought those girls who fell for someone after a month were crazy and there I was doing the exact thing I promised myself I wouldn't do!  But it didn't feel like we had only been together for a month.  I felt like I had known him my entire life.  When I was with him I felt like I was home and when he was gone a part of me was missing.  What I didn't know was he was feeling the same way, but neither one of us wanted to fess up to those feelings.  So the Kenny Chesney Concert came along .

 We had so much fun!  It was a way good concert.  After the concert I took him up to the really cool spot on a hill behind the Capital Building.  As we were sitting looking at the lights of the Salt Lake Valley we started talking and both kind of said that we definitely liked each other, but that we both wanted to take it slow and not rush anything.  So we kept talking and then suddenly he kissed and whispered I LOVE YOU! 

I looked at him, I wanted to say that I loved him too, but we had just said that we wanted to take things slow so instead I said something along the lines of what happened to taking things slow ... he just smiled.  So I gave in, I am sure he already knew because of the smile on my face, but I said it anyway those three little words!
  So between then and now,  we took a road trip down to California while we were down there we got a phone call that his grandpa was not doing well and probably would not make it much longer, so we headed back.  Jace was able to spend a little more time with his grandpa before he passed away.  It was hard to see someone that I loved and cared for so much hurt like that.  I just wanted to take that pain away from him, but I couldn't.  All I could do was just be there.  After that Jace and a few hunts to guide on and got each one of his hunter an animal.  It seemed like every couple of days I was getting a picture of another huge elk that Jace guided his hunter to.  Then Jace's Moose hunt came. 

That was way cool.  I got to go with him, his dad, and brother the first week  he was out.  The very first day we had been out there looking for no more than an hour, Jace had stopped the truck and was glassing the hills (looking at the hills with binoculars) just as he got ready to leave this one spot I spotted a very large dark spot in the middle of these bright red trees.  Jace grabbed his binoculars again and started yelling its a bull!  So we watched the moose the entire day that day.  When we came back the next day Jace had decided to take it, however there was just one problem.  The Moose was no where to be found.  His Dad and brother eventually ended up leaving and Jace and I stayed up there trying to find it or another one the rest of that weekend, but we saw nothing at all!  The colors out there we absolutely beautiful!  We got some really cool pictures of all the fall colors.  I do have to say that this state has the most amazing change in seasons!  So after that weekend life went back to normal for a little while and about a month later Jace had one more shot at getting his once in a lifetime moose.  He and his Dad went back out and they got one! 

The same moose I had spotted a month before walked right out in front of him!  Once they brought it down the mountain they stopped by Mason's so we could all see it.  That thing was huge.  It weighed over 1000 pounds and stood over 7 feet tall!  I couldn't believe how huge it was!  So we had a few more weekend up in the mountains just being out and enjoying nature.  Not long after that Jace told me to maybe start looking for rings that I might like, so being the obedient person that I am I jumped right on that!  I however didn't find one until he was with me.  But that is a story for another day :)