My favorite birthday present

Every year as my birthday approaches, I always remember my favorite birthday present.

It was my 18th birthday and a guy I had been talking to for a little while decided he wanted to come down to St. George to help celebrate my birthday.

I had only met him once about 6 months before and that meeting was a bit of a bust. I basically spent 2 hours following behind him and his friend while they tried to find a hotel to stay in for the weekend (mind you it was Spring break so there were no hotel rooms available). They finally gave up and decided to just figure it out later so we went to a movie. I sat between them during the movie and then went home. We hardly said anything to each other the whole night but we had still kept in touch over the next few months.

Back to my birthday... I met him in a parking lot since he didn't know the area and he surprised me with a card and a little bouquet of flowers. It was so sweet of him. When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said he had it all planned out and he was going to take me to the "mountains" ("mountains" to me were considered hills to him so he kept making fun of me for this the entire night because I apparently didn't know what a mountain was) and we were going to watch a movie on his projector as we sat in the back of his truck. He said he wanted to experience a "drive-in movie" since I had never been to one before and it was one of his favorite things to do back home. So, we went to Hollywood video and got a free movie since it was my birthday, and headed up to the "mountain" to find a spot to hang a sheet and watch a movie. After driving around for an hour we found the right spot and began to hang the sheet.

We talked non-stop on the drive and joked around as we tried to hang the sheet. Since I am a little on the short side (maybe a lot on the short side) my side of the sheet was no where near as high as it should've been. We both laughed as I struggled to hang it properly but in the end Thad had to hang my side as well.

Once it was hung, we started the movie - The Butterfly Effect. Honestly looking back I don't remember ANYTHING about the movie. We spent the whole night just looking into each others eyes (cheesy as it sounds, its what happened) and after the movie was about over and me secretly hoping he would kiss me, he leaned over and kissed me. And that was that! We were inseperable from that night on.

Since I still lived at home and had a curfew, I had to be home by midnight so once the movie was over we headed back down to the city and said our goodbyes. It was really tough! I didn't want the night to end but I had to get home and he needed to head home to be to work the next morning. So we ended the night with a kiss and headed our serparate ways.

It wasn't 15 minutes after I got home that my phone was ringing. It was Thad. He said he couldn't stop thinking about me and wanted me to stay on the phone with him to keep him awake and so it would feel like I was with him. So we talked for about 3 hours while he drove back up to his house. I knew after that phone call I needed to see him again.

2 days later I was headed up to visit him. We went to a real drive in and went to Lagoon while I was up there. Leaving was one of the hardest things I had to do. But, I had to head back home because I had school the next day. The whole drive home I kept thinking about him and wondered when the next time I would be able to see him.

3 days after I went back home I was greeted with a huge bouquet of roses and a note asking me to be his girlfriend and the rest is history.

It's been 7 years since that day but besides my wedding day it's probably the day I remember most in our relationship. I couldn't be more in love with him and I'm so glad I didn't listen to those people who were more than a little skeptical when I started dating him. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart, even if it is 300 miles away!