7 Years Ago Today

Colt and I met 9/11/03. Here it is 9/11/10. 7 years!!

     We met at BYU's TooTall Club. Girls have to be at least 5'10" and guys need to be 6'4" or taller. I got a newsletter welcoming me to BYU and one of the articles was about the great clubs available. There was a little write-up of the TooTall Club, and I immediately knew this was a club for me! I looked them up the first week of school, and went to the opening social.
     Colt had been told about the club for quite a while, and decided to go to the opening social as well. When he walked in there were 4 girls to every guy, and he says, "This is the Club for Me!" I noticed Colt because he came in late (Colt is definitely one who runs on his own schedule :) and during the first part of the club, we sat around and discussed what kind of activities we would enjoy doing. Colt's suggestion: "This Club has Co-Ed Volleyball or Basketball written all over it!"

     As Colt was looking around the room, he noticed my Roper Boots sticking out and thought "That's interesting, you don't see boots all the time on campus." He follows the boots up and says "Now, That's Really Interesting!" :)
     I was wearing boots because I was going to the Western Swing Dance following the TooTall Club. In fact, the dance had already started, so after browsing at the pot-luck table, I started making my way to the door.

Little did I know that Colt had his eye on me and was trying to intercept me, but I went down the other side of the table. He quickly made his way down that side of the table and says to me "You're wearing Roper Boots" Why Yes! I thought, this one is observant. After talking for awhile, he invited my fly fishing that Saturday (We met on a Thursday). When Colt went home that night, he flopped down on the couch and said to his roommate Mana, "I so met a girl I could marry today." Mana knew he was a gonner, 'cause he had never acted like that before. The next day (Friday) Colt was tying some flies to go fishing with and Mana suggested that he call me to come over and tie flies. Colt said he didn't want to scare me off because he had just met me yesterday and was going on a date tomorrow. After a few more "you gotta call her" s from Mana - and setting the phone down right next to him, Colt called me. I wasn't home at the time, so he left a message. When I called him back, Mana answered the phone. I thought it was a really good sign that he knew everything about me: That I had served my mission in Croatia, what I was studying, where I grew up...etc.
We had a good 'ol chat before Mana finally gave the phone to Colt :)
    

     I went over to his apartment that night and tied flies. One of the things I really enjoyed while dating Colt was the spirit in his apartment. All of his roommates were top-notch guys and you could tell they got along really well and there was a lot of peace there. Colt always put me at ease - I could always be myself around him and I always felt peace.

     We went fishing bright and early Saturday morning. Colt had bought an extra set of waders for our date and a basket for our lunch. He brought Sun Chips (which will always remind me of Colt) and green peppers. Little did he know he scored some major points with the green peppers - they remind me of my Grandpa picking peppers early in the morning with him and eating them in the field. Crispy, cool goodness.
     We spent quite a lot of time together after that. The next Tuesday we played racquetball together - Colt's roommate Andres passed by as we were sitting on a bench after playing. After passing us on the same bench a couple of hours later...he remarked that things must be going well for us :) I remember we sat and talked a lot. We really got to know each other and what we thought about things.
     That Thursday I invited Colt to a symphony and on Sunday we went to a fireside together. My roommate would say "you can't do that" or "it'll scare him off" or "no way!! That is So corny!" I always told her, this is me...if he gets scared off then he's not the one for me. I wanted him to know the real me.
     We rarely watched movies - in fact, I'm not sure we ever watched a movie while we were dating. We preferred to talk and do things together.

         One date early on was a moment in time I'll always remember.  Colt had organized a group date with his roommates for a group of us to go up the canyon and play ultimate Frisbee, cook tin-foil dinners, etc.  I was really impressed with his organizing the group date and his energy.  He was always upbeat and cheerful.  He has a great talent that everyone around him feels special and that they are of value to him.  He is a natural leader and people tend to look to him as the leader of a group.  He was turning the tin-foil dinners and I had the thought that I would marry Colt and I could see him doing Family Home Evenings with our family around...up the canyon with a fire, cooking tin-foil dinners.  We now have a canyon up behind our house and we go up there for Family Nights...cooking smores and having adventures up the canyon. 

   Colt knew early on that I was the one for him.  It took me a while longer to figure it out, but once we knew, there was no looking back.  For how indecisive both of us are, it's amazing how easy a decision it was to get married, one of the easiest of our lives.  We joke now that some things (of less eternal consequence) are so much harder to decide on than it was to decide to get married.

I came down to Arizona to meet Colt's family and go hunting with them in October of 2003.  We had a nice 5 hour drive back and Colt says to me:  "I'm not going anywhere"  I knew he'd let me take the time I needed to to decide.  It's a saying in our home today:  "I'm not going anywhere"  When we were dating he also said to me:  "Eternity doesn't seem so long now"  It's been a very very good thing to be married to Colt.

     I'm reminded of the Brad Paisley song "Then" about how love grows and matures through time.  "And I thought I loved you then."  Love is like a tree - it was always a tree and will always be a tree, but it grows, and over the years can become much bigger, more rich and deep.  Like a tree, love is a living thing that needs to be nurtured and taken care of. 

 

      This picture makes me laugh.  Colt and I enjoy eating guacamole while playing cards after the kids are put to bed.  This sums up our relationship.  Completely different, yet enough of the same to work it out.  Mine is the destroyed avocado on the left, Colt's is the pristine one on the right.  We both made guacamole how we liked it, in the end it didn't really matter how it was done, just that it got done.  We had a good laugh about how different we are, and that the differences help us see life another way, and that is good.

     We joke that Colt's a girl magnet. When he comes home at the end of the day he has 4 girls surrounding him, completely in love with him.

Colt still enjoys fly fishin'!  He's been able to get out this year more than in the past. 

Colt:  Husband, Father, Adventurer, Provider, Head of our Home.

Karin:  Wife, Mother, Homemaker, Heart of our Home

(this is the day before our baby was born).

 7 years  *  3 girls  *  5 hearts knit together in love.

D&C 42:45  Thou shalt live together in love