Friends Forever :)

once upon a time...

twas just before the valentine's dance;
Haley's mind swirled round.
it was a girls' choice dance, a date needed to be found!

ok...maybe I wont finish this post in rhyme ;)

wanna know who I took to that valentine's dance about four years ago?
my pal colton kilmer! ha!



I remember being conflicted about asking him cuz we were just good friends; valentine's day is about love--should I let someone ask him who had more romantic intentions?

but, I knew we would have a blast, so I asked him anyway. we never dated, but we did indeed have a blast :)

funny to look back on that time in high school--I had no idea he would become my lifelong valentine :)

Colton Kilmer and I are engaged! forgive me if I sound a little giddy ;) :) :)

wowsa. life sure takes you down unexpected paths! sometimes those paths are incomprehensibly wonderful :)

when he got back from a mission to canada, he wasn't going to date for six months. I was getting ready to put in my papers for a mission. buuuuut we fell in love instead :) what can ya do? ;)

dating him rocks, but that can be a story for another time. since we are recently engaged I figured this would be a convenient place to tell that tale for anybody interested :)

I had one request regarding the proposal: I wanted to be surprised!

Mission accomplished :)
I had been wanting to go skating at the gallivan center for quite awhile. so we did :) ice skating is one of my favorite things ever. ice skating outdoors? even better. ice skating with my favorite person? cant beat :)

(Man skating was fun. It felt like we were dancing the whole time!)

(He helped me lace up my skates...cuz it is harder than it looks ha. Yep, love him.)

after that little piece of heaven, we headed to meet my family for dinner. so I was told. really, my family had no intention of ever joining us! since our dinner plans were now open, Colton decided to make a "last-minute" reservation at olive garden. a very specific olive garden, actually.

(you see, when Colton got home we went out to grab some food so he could tell me about his mission. no romantic intentions on either side, just catching up with a friend. that was the non-date that started it all :) )

(different day...but I felt like another picture was called for ha)

I was very excited--in a few days I was going to leave for a cruise with my family. what better way to soak up some last minutes with Colton than heading back there?

towards the end of the meal, our waiter brought out fortune cookies. that was the first time I got a little suspicious--fortune cookies have come to have a fun and significant meaning between us :)

but the waiter covered it great! he told us something about olive garden being a franchise, owning red lobster and several other restaurants (to which colton nodded and responded in the affirmative. I figured I had just never heard that before). the waiter offered us the fortune cookies as a promotion of the company's new concept, which was gonna be a chinese place. yep. tooooootally fell for it; suspicions lowered.

a sweet message from colton was inside :) then my man took a knee and popped the question :)

:) :) :)
I am getting married! I get to marry my Colton :)

after that, we hit up toys r us and temple square (re-creating that first non-date). it was blissful :) since I am always happy when I am with Colton I dont think I realized how happy I was til I saw someone in toys r us and it caught me off guard that they weren't beaming too :)

:)

P.S. I love the song Lost In This Moment by Big and Rich :)
one of the lines in that song says,
"lost in this moment with.you, I am completely consumed; I'm feeling so absolute, there's no doubt."
that is how I feel with him--complete, happy, no doubt :) just...good!

Wanna see something pretty? :)

:)