Our Story

Sam and I have known of each other I think most of our lives (we went to A.J. Winters Elementary School together), but we didn't know each other, if you know what I mean. I think the first time any thought of something between us ever surfaced was in 2007. I had moved to Nevada in 2002, just after fifth grade. I still kept in touch with all of my friends back in Idaho and so for Spring Break in 2007 I went back for a visit. Now, I was on Spring Break, but my friends weren't, this meant that I went to school with them everyday. Which sounds like a bummer, but it was good for me because there really isn't another place that you get to see everyone at once like you do at school. So one day that week I was walking down the hall when I saw the hottest guy I had ever laid eyes on. He was tall and tan and had jet black hair. I thought to myself, "this can't be real." When he got closer to me he smiled (my heart almost stopped, actually, I think it did a little) and waved. I was smitten. I'm sure you're smart enough to know by now that it was Sam, obviously.

The rest of that week I saw him around the high school, but we never spoke to each other. The last day I was there my mom came to the school to pick me up and she wanted to go say hello to a Spanish teacher that she had substituted for on many occasions. When we walked in the room, I couldn't believe it--Sam was sitting in the middle of the class. My heart melted and I'm pretty sure my face turned bright red. He smiled at me again and I just knew I had to get out of there before I let out an accidental girly love squeal. To my dismay, the teacher said to the entire class, "you guys remember the Stewart's, right?" So then everyone's attention was directed at me on top of Samuel's. It was too much. Despite all of the frenzy, I do specifically remember that he was wearing a blue shirt that day, and that I couldn't be more sad to be going home. I had never felt butterflies or smiled that wide because of a guy before. This was something new.

I went back to Nevada and finished my last two years of high school. Sam is two years older than me, and I didn't think he really thought anything of our small exchanges that week, so I put them out of my mind and came to terms with the fact that I lived in Nevada and there was no chance for me and this senior hunk to be together. Sam graduated that spring and then served a mission for the next 2 years for our church. 

I graduated high school in my wonderful class of 12 people (very small town), and then went on to the University of Nevada, Reno. I was studying there and was just about finished with my second year when the most miraculous thing happened. I was laying on my bed one day and out of nowhere I thought about Sam. He literally hadn't even crossed my mind at all over the 4 years since I had seen him last and I was confused as to why he had entered my thoughts so arbitrarily. So, like any good college student does, I looked him up on Facebook. As I typed in his name you can imagine my surprise when I found that we were already friends! When did that happen!? I looked through his information, saw no signs of a wife (mormon joke) or girlfriend even though he had already been home from his mission for a year and a half. Strange.

Even stranger was the fact that although I had such strong feelings that week I had seen him, I really knew nothing about him. At all. So I decided to send him a message. It was April 14th, 2011 and my life has never been the same since. Turns out he was in Canada working for a company in Newfoundland. Also turns out that in Newfoundland they don't have very good cellular reception or very many wifi hotspots. Our communication over the summer was little to none. On top of that, Sam isn't the most forward man I have ever met. I really had no idea if he was even that interested in me or if he was just being nice and replying to my messages. I on the other hand am as subtle as a stick of dynamite so I decided to back off and let him contact me. I didn't want to freak him out, right?

End of October--the motorcycle ride happened.

So over that summer, I moved home to work and kept myself busy, but in the back of my mind there was always this mysterious Sam in Newfoundland, Canada who had promised me a motorcycle ride when he came home. Was he for real? I still wasn't sure. I moved back to Reno for school the end of August, and only a few days after class started something incredible happened; Sam called me. Only I missed his call. Lucky me, he is old fashioned and left me a voicemail (who does that anymore?). When I called him back we ended up talking for hours. This was September 1st.

Our Halloween Costumes

Over the next month we talked everyday. This was quite the challenge because he was 4.5 (yes .5) hours ahead of me in time. Sometimes I would stay up until 2 am so I could catch him waking up at 6:30 am and we would talk until I fell asleep. Finally one day around the 21st he told me he was coming home. I was so excited, I could barely function for the next week. Until he told me at the end of that week that he actually wouldn't be coming home for another week because he was having problems with his visa. Bummer. The biggest let down was that I had scrubbed my apartment spotles, you know how it is.

So I waited, and I waited. Finally, on October 8th he was actually driving to Reno to see me. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was at the UNLV v. NEVADA rivalry game. There was about 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter, but we were winning so I wasn't really paying much attention. Then, I called him still thinking he was about a half hour away. When I heard him say, "well, I'm on Virginia street, where are you?" I told him how to get to the stadium and then jumped over people as I made my way out of the stands. I was in flip flops but I ran down the bleachers, around the stadium, down the hill towards the parking lot and was standing on the curb as his headlights swung across the sidewalk when he made the turn in. I think he scarcely got the truck in park and opened the door before I was right there.

I was worried when he said that he was finally coming that it might be awkward or weird to finally be around him after so many days of talking and texting. It wasn't. We immediately embraced and stayed that way for a long time. We were finally together. After so many years. It was incredible. The most incredible thing was that when I sent him that message in April, all I asked was where he was and how he was doing, I was astonished when he was the one to ask me if I remembered that day I came to his Spanish class. Turns out he felt the exact same way that I had that day.

My family Christmas morning before church.

And so we dated. He was in Idaho, and I was in Reno, but we saw each other a lot, minus 3 weeks that he was in Africa for charity. I met his family the weekend of Halloween, he met mine on Thanksgiving, and on Christmas he got down on one knee and changed my life forever. I said yes, and moved back to Idaho to work while he went to school until we were married in April 2012.

p.s. i know you are very impressed by our ginormous bubbles