All Started When . . . Remembering the Beginning of Love

I was telling a friend of mine about my honeymoon the other day and she encouraged me to write it down.  I really do have a very interesting honeymoon story - it was an adventure!  And it is a lot of fun to remember those beginning days :)  Next week it will be 8 years since TR and I were married.  8 years!  I can hardly believe it's possible - but here we are 8 years later with 3 children and 1 on the way.  We have moved twice.  We have had ups and downs.  Moments of financial lows and financial highs.  Moments of health and moments of sickness.

In honor of our anniversary coming up I thought I would share a little with you of our story.  Of course I don't have much for pictures, they are all non-digital.  But here's one that we took a few years into our marriage:

It is a fitting picture because it was a quadding trip that really began our friendship.  I had first noticed TR at my sister Rachel's wedding.  She married TR's brother, Nigel.  I actually don't even remember meeting TR.  Nigel would bring him over to my parents when he would come to see Rachel.  But it wasn't until their wedding that I noticed him.  I was playing the piano trying to distract my young niece Natalie while everyone was visiting after the meal.  TR came and talked to me a while and it just hit me - he's a really nice guy!  That was in November of 2002.  I was just barely 16 years old.  

I didn't see TR again for many months and just put him out of my mind.  It seemed very unlikely that anything would ever develop between us.  I was young and not really all that interested in dating. 

The following Spring I saw him a few times when he was there to see Nigel.  He came out to my parents once to help reshingle the roof.  Again I was attracted to him, but nothing happened.  

In August of 2003 Rachel called and asked if I would like to go quadding with her and Nigel, a friend and her boyfriend and TR.  Of course the only place for me to ride was behind TR.  It was a long weekend and the day after TR called and asked if I wanted to go riding again.  So again the 6 of us went quadding.  I spent the evening with Nigel and Rachel and TR.  When I left TR asked if he could call me sometime.  I don't think I've ever waited for a phone call with so much nervousness!  We began talking on the phone and spending some time together.  I would hang out at Nigel and Rachel's and he would come over to visit at my parents house.  In October he left to go to a 5 month school program.  We emailed back and forth and spoke on the phone about once a week or so.  When he came back in March of 2004 we began dating officially :) :)  He was living about an hour away at the time and we saw each other on weekends.  A couple of times I went to see him and his family who lived there at the time.  It was such an exciting time and it didn't long until both of us were thinking about marriage.  We were engaged in October 2004 and married April 2, 2005. 

We took a 3 week honeymoon (thanks to his job where April is usually Spring break up and very quiet work-wise), spending some time in Banff and then flying to the Turks and Caisos Islands.  TR's Grandpa was born there and there is a lot of family history there.  In fact, we met his great-Aunt while we were there!  Our time on the Islands was full of many adventures.  It was not an all inclusive vacation, I'll just say that!  From the taxi ride, to the 1 star hotel,  to the water supply, to the chicken in the restaurant.  In fact, we both were thinking of just taking a plane ride right back to Canada!  But we didn't and looking back we have many laughs!  But that's all another story for another post :)  Stay tuned . . .