Holding Hands

I was telling someone as I cleaned their teeth about how I met my husband. (She told me she tried institute council, and it didn't work for her...haahaa) And for some reason the subject came up of the first time we held hands, and I remembered how cute of a story it was, and thought I would share the memory with everyone.



Last year I told my oldest sister Megan that I would babysit for her on Conference Sunday because her and her husband had to work. Five kids, trying to make them watch conference...no sweat. Only.....I was seriously dating Sterling at the time and I thought, what a wonderful way to spend a whole day with him! So I cautiously invited him, warning him that five kids are disruptive and crazy during conference and he might not see a lot, and that was a lot of kids and I didn't want to scare him away, and that I really wanted to see him if he could come! Well, of course he did.



So Conference morning came, I had to be out there at 6:30 am, but Sterling came later, 9ish I think. Anyway, morning session went fairly well, dinner went decently between the sessions, and the second session was...a little rough. While we were getting dinner ready Sterling was wrestling Myles and Danica was helping me, and she asked me if this was a "friend" or my "boyfriend". Danica was pretty up on my social life, understanding that some of the boys she had seen were just "friends" and that one recently had been a "boyfriend"..she was ten I think at the time. I told her that we were mostly just friends. He hadn't even held my hand yet. I said something like "Maybe when he holds my hand I'll call him my boyfriend, but we aren't very serious yet." She nodded as if that was very wise and she understood completely. Then we had the last session. Mostly we colored and someone fell asleep on my lap while Sterling tried to convince the kids to work on the conference coloring pages that Megan had printed out for them. After the session Sterling had the brilliant idea to go on a walk up the mountain and look at all the pretty fall colors.



It was somewhat raining, but we put all the kids in rain boots, took umbrellas, and went off. While on the hike we had lots of fun, and after a while, Sterling held my hand. Then Anders fell and Sterling went to help him up, so Danica and I were quite a ways further back on the trail and Danica says "I thought you said you'd never held his hand!" and I said "I never have! This was the very first time!" and she looks at me with big, wide eyes and says "I just watched you hold hands for the very first time? Really?" It was so adorable! I was laughing so hard! Then throughout the whole night she kept looking at him and giving me meaningful looks. It was so, so funny!

That night, actually, was our first kiss as well. Jared called and said he was on his way home, so we could leave if we wanted to because he would be there soon. All the kids had just been put in bed, so I checked on them all one more time and then we went to leave. Well, since we drove seperate vehicles we had to say goodbye. And he kissed me for the very first time. (That could be a story in and of itself, it took him quite awhile to work up the courage, and he was really worried because he thought I would think it was too soon.) Right after that Jared pulled in. Which was kinda funny just because Jared has been my brother-in-law since I was six, and so he is definitely a big brother of mine, and it was kinda odd to introduce him to the man I had just been kissing, have them shake hands, and then have Jared walk inside. I wonder what Jared thought, having me in his driveway, poor man! We left pretty quick after that, but it was a very good day. And fun to tell this story exactly a year afterwards!