The Story Part II

The next week and a half we spent a lot of time together and enjoyed getting to know each other better. I even introduced him to Nate and Mandi and Alicia, Peter, and Will. He took to Will with especially impressive ease. The Friday before Thanksgiving Kyle left for Oregon because his little brother was getting home from his mission.

Throughout the break we talked on the phone or skyped everyday, usually for at least a couple hours. As much as we would rather have actually got to spend time together, we actually really enjoyed our skype dates, even if it meant losing some sleep. Kyle was supposed to be back in Provo the Sunday after Thanksgiving around 9pm, which I was definitely looking forward to. Around 4pm Kyle called me and told me his car broke down and they probably wouldn't be back until midnight. I was super disappointed, but told him to just let me know when he got back, because I still wanted to see him (as I said earlier, liking people makes you irresponsible!). When he finally got home around midnight, I went and picked him from his apartment. After we had been together for about ten minutes, Kyle told me he thought he was falling in love with me. I told him I was pretty sure I was falling in love with him too, to which he replied, "I love you, Krista."

We took this the night he got back from Oregon

Despite it being the last two weeks of school/finals, we spent as much time as possible together the next few weeks. Kyle finished finals the last day of finals and we went to lunch and walked around temple square before I took him to the airport; his family spent all of Christmas break in Florida at Disney World. It was super hard to say goodbye, but we had actually already decided to get married, so at least there was no anxiety about the status of our relationship. Kyle describes it as having "stumbled in" to the conversation about getting married. The truth is, because of some of the conversations we had very early on in our dating (we're talking a few days here), we were very comfortable talking about marriage as a hypothetical. A couple days before he left for Florida we realized it didn't seem hypothetical at all anymore.

We kept in contact all of Christmas break and skyped every night. We decided on our wedding date and colors and scheduled the temple and luncheon place all while Kyle was still in Florida. It was quite the whirlwind. The weekend Kyle got back from Florida was Abby's baptism, so we got to spend some time with my family, which I loved. It was great to have so many of the people I loved all in one place. On our way back down to Provo we tried to go ring shopping. I say tried because I was entirely unhelpful. We walked into one store and I was really overwhelmed. I told Kyle just to pick it; just keep it simple with one round diamond. 

We started school again and got quickly busy with it and trying to plan out the future (it's hard stuff). Thursday, January 8th I was over at Kyle's apartment when one of my classmates, Zach, called and asked if I could take him to the train station to pick up his car that his wife had left there earlier that day. I of course said yes and we went and picked him up. As we were pulling out of the train station parking lot, Kyle pointed out we were right by the church I mentioned earlier. I told him I was pretty sure it wouldn't be open, but that we could give it a try.

We walked around almost the whole building before we miraculously found an open door (still not sure why one of them was open). We went to the foyer and talked on the couch for a little while. As we were talking, the subject of marriage obviously came up. While we were talking Kyle said, "I don't want to wait." I, thinking he meant waiting to get married, said we had to wait until May to get married. He said, "I know. But I just don't want to wait anymore." He grabbed the ring box, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. I of course said yes and started crying.

I know it is kind of unusual, but I love the way Kyle proposed. I loved that we were alone in at least a somewhat significant place and that I didn't know it was coming. We are simple people, so I think the ring and proposal were perfect for us.

The rest of the semester was a whirlwind of school work, church callings, family time, and wedding planning. It has been a crazy few months, but oh so good at the same time!