The Great Engagement Photo Shoot

Once upon a time, one of Mom's neighbor roommates was very handy with a camera. For instance, consider this picture from a roommate photo shoot back in 2001.

That roommate moved on, but fortunately not far away, which meant that Mom and Dad called her up to do our engagement pictures. We begin with the one we used for the announcements, continue with a favorite, and then end with a few more just because they happen to be scanned. Enjoy!

And now, a special behind the scenes bonus feature for those who managed to scroll down this far. The great secret of our engagement shoot location, and a great tribute to our photographer for pulling off the shots she did under the circumstances. The location was . . .

Yup, that's right. The Pizza Factory in Provo. The old bridge had been upgraded when we went back ten years later, but the rest of the scenery was pretty much the same. Amazing what a camera can do in the hands of an expert, eh?

Thanksgiving 2002: Lots of family, no turkey

After what Mom considered our first official date on November 1, 2002, by Thanksgiving time things had progressed sufficiently that we arranged to use Thanksgiving break as a time for meeting each others' families. First, Dad went with Mom to her parents' home for a somewhat unusual Thanksgiving dinner featuring goose (that's right, goose). Mom's folks then returned us to Utah, where Dad's folks had gone to join his siblings living there. They kindly worked around our transit schedule and had their Thanksgiving meal on Friday instead, featuring ham. Mom and Dad stayed at a couple of homes during that time and so Mom got to meet lots of Dad's family. She thought they reminded her of some of her favorite cousins, and was by no means opposed to the thought of having them as her own relatives.

Our first Official date

Isn't it amazing how complicated the notion of dating can be? Prior to November 1, Mom and Dad had gone on numerous outings which would have been considered dates back before Mom was considered old enough to date. However, once dating, and even perhaps marriage, became possibilities, Mom began to analyze such outings according to her own random criteria, such as whether or not someone (such as Dad) had actually invited her to go to whatever function or whether they just happened to wander in the same direction, etc., etc. Dad, on the other hand, had a rather simpler view of the whole situation, and he readily counted all outings as dates. This explanation is here since if you ask Dad about our first date, he'll probably talk about something that happened several weeks before the events described here. Mom considers it the first official date because 1) Dad expanded on the original idea suggested by Mom that they go to an event for which they could both get discount tickets and 2) it was the first outing they had that neither was connected to a church or institute activity nor involved the accompaniment of roommates or other individuals. Moving on to the actual event report . . .

Morning
Dad woke up feeling sick. Really sick, i.e. can't keep anything down sick. He considered calling Mom to cancel that night's date.

Mom woke up and hit the ground running, so to speak, getting all dressed up in preparation for a day full of interesting formal events. Mom's roommate helped Mom with her hair and such, and then Mom headed off to a couple of classes all dressed up in a blue velvet gown.


Midday
Mom's friend & employer Dr. E gave Mom a ride up to Salt Lake City so that Mom could attend her former roommate's wedding luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Dr. E let mom off a block or so from the building while stopped at a traffic light, and on her walk the rest of the way to the building, Mom was excited to see & shake hands with Elder L. Tom Perry as he was crossing the street going the other way. Mom then found her way to the luncheon, highly impressed with the elegance of it all. Mom first discovered the delights of formal dinners during her senior year of high school, and so Mom felt somewhat smug as she confidently picked up the right fork for her salad while others at the table voiced their concerns at dealing with so much silverware. Mom got a ride home with one of the other guests after the luncheon.

Meanwhile, Dad continued to be sick. Very sick. But he still didn't call to cancel the date.


Evening
Mom got together her contributions for dinner and headed over to Dad's apartment at the appointed time. Mom and Dad made lasagna, but Dad said he didn't feel like he could eat any just then, only later (i.e. years later) revealing to Mom that he'd been feeling sick all day and had nearly canceled the date. So, Mom ate her portion, and then Mom and Dad headed off to the opera.

That particular semester, Mom and Dad were both privileged to be able to get $2 tickets to a few of the fine arts events, including the fall opera, Carmen. The ticket price turned out to be appropriate for the seats, which were at the top of the second level of the De Jong auditorium in the HFAC, providing a nice view of the whole stage, but making it rather difficult for near-sighted Mom, who had forgotten to bring her glasses, to see the actors' faces and, more importantly, the "subtitles" giving translations of the foreign lyrics. Dad very kindly whispered the subtitles to Mom, to the annoyance of his neighbor on the other side, and so Mom was able to follow the storyline.

The best part of the date, though, as far as Mom was concerned, came on the walk home. Dad, feeling bad that things had not gone entirely according to plan (i.e. the issues with dinner, glasses, etc.), said "Next time we go out things will be better." Yes! thought Mom; he said NEXT TIME! He's going to ask me out again! :)

In the beginning: How Mom met Dad

On Sunday, June 23, 2002, the high counselor for Mom's ward, who also happened to be in charge of stake institute, pulled Mom aside to issue her a calling as stake institute secretary. On Tuesday, June 25, Mom was set apart in her new calling. Dad was one of the presidents, and he helped with the setting apart. And now, an excerpt from Mom's journal regarding an incident of note from that evening:

Commentary on a specific event: I was unexpectedly walked home from Institute last night. I knew that he (who shall remain nameless) was going the same direction I was, but figured that we'd part ways whenever either of us got to our turn off. However, when I turned off, he went with me! All the way to my house, despite my living on the other side of 9th East in relation to where he lives. As I thought about the incident later, I realized that he switched sides at some point, thus ending up on the street side of the sidewalk for the last two segments of the journey. I learned the "guy on street side" courtesy from my cousin & have often wondered where it came from. I wonder if this "he" in question knows that rule.

It should be noted that at the time, both Mom and Dad were in active spouse hunting mode (like all good single BYU students, *wink*wink*), and so Mom's journal from that point on until a rather later date is peppered liberally with names and events from now inconsequential people, relative to Muffin history anyway; they are, of course, still consequential in their own right as members of the human family. Mom did not know then which individual would fill the Dad spot, and so she tried to keep a record of the times in general in hopes of catching whatever would turn out to be relevant in the elusive future. Mission accomplished!

Before the Beginning

Mom and Dad did not know each other at all before the meeting described elsewhere on this blog. However, way back in 1984 (or thereabouts), they did reside in the same temple district, and so it is possible that their families may have happened to be in the same area simultaneously at some point. That said, Mom and Dad both come from families of wanderers and both of them lived in multiple places while growing up. However, they eventually drifted toward a common location, BYU.

1998: Dad goes to BYU
1999: Dad leaves BYU for a mission
2000: Mom goes to BYU
2001: Dad gets back from the mission and returns to BYU
2002: Mom & Dad both stay at BYU for the summer

And so we arrive at the setting for the beginning.