On Friday, January 9, 2004 I walked into a Famous Footwear in Bozeman, Montana and met a boy named Brandon. My sister had told me a lot about him but I wasn't that impressed at first. :/ (I know, horrible to say but I am just being honest) Later that night he came over to my sisters, cause he spent most of his free time with her and my BIL, and this time it was different. I saw something in him and I knew I wanted to know him better. We didn't see much of each other the rest of the week although I could always hear his car coming and going to work and my heart would jump a little hoping he was coming over. I say our love story started 1 week later on Friday, January 16th, 2004. So here we go!!!
Friday, January 16, 2004 - Brandon and my brother in law Shayne were working this evening so Chelsea and I went to meet them while they were closing the store. We had decided we were going to go the movies and of course invited Brandon to come along. Once the store was closed, Brandon kept talking about needing to go to his house to get a hat. He said this over and over before I finally got the hint that he was trying to get me to go with him. So we got in his little Mazda hatchback, drove down a long road going a little to fast, awkwardly talking on the way there. Once we pulled into the driveway, he was nice enough to warn me that there might be dead bodies hanging in his garage. (Animal bodies of course) I then waited in the kitchen with a huge mean looking cat while he went upstairs to get this much needed hat. We then headed back to Famous Footwear to meet back with my sister and BIL. As we pulled into the parking lot, Brandon thought he would show off his driving skills by doing an E-brake parking job in the icy parking lot! Embarrassed to admit that I almost just peed my pants, I quickly got out of the car. :) We jumped in my sisters car and headed to the theater. We bought our tickets to watch Cheaper by the Dozen and got our seats. I purposely left my hand open and available for Brandon to hold it. He never did. I was little bummed when the movie got over but was glad that I wouldn't have to be teased my Shayne for holding his hand. When we got back to the parking lot to drop Brandon off he said 5 words to me that changed the rest of our life. He said, "Hey, come visit me sometime!" That sentence sent electricity through me. The reason I say this changed our lives is because I had my plane ticket to go home to Arizona in the morning. But after Brandon said those 5 words to me I knew I had to stay longer. Who knows what would have happened if I would of gone home and not experienced the next 3 days.
Saturday, January 17, 2004 - As soon as I woke up I called the airlines and changed my ticket to Monday. That gave me 2.5 more days to see this amazing man. Brandon told me he was pretty excited when he found out I decided to stay a couple more days. Later that day, me, my sister and BIL went to visit Brandon at work at the Bowling Alley. While there Brandon politely told Chelsea and Shayne that he would be happy to babysit for them if they were needing a night out alone. :/ That was a good ice breaker!! I may of only been 17 but really?? A babysitter?? He just thinks he is so funny!! Good thing so did I! Although they did not take him up on the babysitting we did decide that we would go Jackpot bowling that night when Brandon got off work.
We had a lot of fun and even though I was not technically old enough to even be playing I won a whopping .25 cents.
How cute were we 10 years ago??!??
As we were leaving the bowling alley, Brandon asked me if I would like to go to church with him in the morning. I consider this our first officially date since it involved him asking me, picking me up, and us not being with Chelsea and Shayne. I of course said yes and then couldn't wait for morning to come.
Sunday, January 18, 2004 - I was super excited to get ready that morning and my heart almost leaped out of my chest when there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and he look so HOT!! Wearing his vest and sun glasses. And he smelled so good. When we got to the church building he held my hand as we walked up to the doors. I couldn't help but smile. We turned lots of heads as we walked into church. Here comes Brandon Little walking into the University ward, holding hands with a girl that no one has ever seen before. :) It was fun to see the looks of wonder on every ones faces. After church we went to his best friend PJ's house and he introduced me to PJ's mom. He was to scared to take me to his house so he decided his second family would be a good place to start. When the spent the rest of the night at Chelsea and Shayne's house. (Our first kiss happened this night. Nothing intense, just small and perfect)
Monday, January 19, 2004 - The day I had to go home. Although I did not want to leave I had no choice since school would be starting the next week. Brandon came and picked me up early that morning so we could spend a little bit of time together before Chelsea took me to the airport. We went to Burger King and shared an order of Cinni minis. We sat and talked and were sad for the inevitable departure I would have to soon make. At this point we were head over heels for each other and couldn't stand the thought of leaving. (I know it is crazy. We had only known each other for a week and had only spent a total of 4 days together. Oh and I still had a boyfriend at home. Whoops!) We eventually said our goodbyes so he could go to work and me and Chelsea headed to the airport. I told Chelsea that those were lips that I could kiss for the rest of my life!! Not knowing at that time if I would ever see him again let alone have the chance to kiss him again.
Well lots of emails, text message, phone minutes, a move to Arizona, a proposal and temple marriage later, things worked out just great!!!!! And I can't believe it has been 10 years since that amazing weekend!! With Brandon working so much lately I knew that we needed a special night out and I decided what would be a better date then to relive the weekend we fell in love. So after much preparation we went on the best date ever!
Here is how we celebrated this weekend.
I made little cards for him to open for each phase of the date. Each one reminding him of an event that happened on the weekend 10 years ago and inviting him to join me on each adventure starting with Fridays event from 10 years ago. I set up our "Movie theater" at the fire station. Complete with popcorn, candy and soda. And what did we watch???
Cheaper by the Dozen of course!! I think the last time I saw this movie was 10 years ago so it was fun to watch it again. He laughed cause he had just watched it at work this last week.
He was super excited!! He he. I left my hand available again. He never once held it! What?!?! He did it on purpose and told me afterwards.
I then gave him his next card which lead us to the bowling alley. The Safford bowling alley does not do jackpot bowling so I had to make up rules for our own game of jackpot bowling.
We had such a good time!! Brandon was worried because he hasn't bowled in over a year because of the issues with his back but as you can tell by the scoreboard (224) he had no problems and he won almost all the money!! People were probably wondering why I kept paying him after each frame. At the end of the game, I walked away with $1.00, which is .75 more cents then I got 10 years ago, and Brandon made $15.50!!! He had a lot of fun and was happy with his score (had he not scored well he would of been sad the rest of the night) :) On to the next part of the date.
Like I said earlier, on Sunday 2004 I went to church with him. Well since we went out on Saturday and there was no church's opened, I invited him to join me for hot chocolate and stroll around the temple. It was freezing but beautiful as always. Little did he know that I had printed some emails that we had sent back and forth to each other after I had come back to Arizona 10 years ago. These emails were full of sweet words and poems and affection. I had him read the ones he had sent to me and I read the ones I sent to him. It was so fun to reread those first words of love between us. We found ourselves laughing a lot at some of the cheesy things that were said. Brandon couldn't believe some of the stuff he wrote. Ha ha. It was great! At one point he jumped over to me and was like, "What is the date on this email?" So I told him and he was freaking out cause we had just met 2 weeks before these email and we were already talking about getting married. He was saying there is not way Jordan better try to pull that on us. Ha ha!! I think he got a glimpse of how his parents were feeling 10 years ago. :) But it was great to read those words and remember all the cheesy things we said to each other.
Now that we were freezing, it was time for our last stop. I told Brandon he would get brownie points if he could remember what we did my last day in Montana in 2004. He thought hard but could not remember. Knowing how well his memory is I gave him a little hint on the card and we soon found ourselves at Burger king. Although they do not have Cinni mini's anymore, we enjoyed a treat together before we headed home to relieve the babysitter and peek on our sweet girl.
It really was such a great night and a great way to relive that fabulous weekend we had 10 years ago that set the foundation for many amazing years together. I think it will go down in the book of great dates!!
Love you Baby!!! Thanks for an amazing 10 years. Can't believe how fast it went. Can't wait for the next 10 years!
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