The Boyfriend

As I mentioned before, I have been seeing a boy for about 4 months. I could go on and on about how amazing he is, but I don't want to make you guys all sick. Instead I will tell you our story (no we aren't engaged or anything, but I've had a lot of people that have been asking me all kinds of questions about him).

I met Daniel very shortly having my knee surgery; he was roommates with a friend of mine that had worked in Alaska the previous summer. When I first met Daniel I thought he was a cocky jerk; I wasn't even planning on giving him the time of day. . .apparently my Heavenly Father had something else planned for me. Daniel and his roommate, Paul, tried to set me up on a date with one of our co-workers, Mitch (yes we ALL worked together). I thought he was a really nice guy, but I wasn't super interested. I had come up to Alaska to work, I was focused on preparing to serve a mission and had pretty much given up on guys all together. I began to spend a lot of time with Paul and therefore Daniel, they both kept pressuring me to go out with Mitch and I finally said yes.

Right before Mitch and I were to go out, my dad and I had gotten into a little bit of an arguement. Paul and Daniel knew something was bothering me and they both asked me what was going on. I broke down and told them both everything, about the fight, how frustrated I was with my knee, and how much I was struggling with decisions in my life. As I was getting out of the car to leave, Daniel told me that if I ever needed to talk, he was more than willing to listen; he felt that we had a lot more in common than either of us knew. It was then that I had realized that I had sorely misjudged Daniel and maybe needed to re-evaluate my opinion of him. As I thought back to all of our encounters I realized that he wasn't cocky (okay he is, but not as much as I had first thought), but rather just brutally honest. He does not care what other people think about him. I think that I liked Daniel from the beginning, I just didn't want to admit it.

By the time I went on the date with Mitch, I realized that I liked Daniel a lot more than as just a friend. To be honest, I didn't really even want to go on the date with Mitch, but I did anyways hoping that it might change my mind. Mitch and I did have fun, however I realized that I only liked him as a friend and wanted to leave it at that (thankfully he did too).

The next week we all went to see The Avengers (AMAZING). Before the movie, Daniel and I were waiting for some friends to come home so we could go inside, so we sat in the car and talked. I didn't feel like I had to guard myself from him, I could be open and honest with him. When I am with him, it becomes easier to not care what other people think, one of the many qualities that I love about him. Anyways, I opened up to him, and later on that evening he opened up to me. We knew that we like each other, but neither of us had come up here wanting to date; we planned on working and then going back to our lives in Utah. But as the days progressed we realized that we had to come to a decision. Our biggest concern was that if things did not work out between the two of us, we didn't want things to be awkward at work. We decided that we were going to go a whole week without any physical contact (no hugs, holding hands, cuddling, etc. We hadn't kissed yet). At the end of the week, if it felt right we decided we were going to jump in and give it a try.

That week was the hardest week of my life, and he knew it too. However, I made it pretty hard on him too (it's amazing the many ways girls can get a guys attention). But it quickly came to a close and we decided that we wanted to give this a try, so here we are four months later, happy as can be.

Now a little about Daniel:

Daniel is a twin; his favorite thing to tell people is that he has "An ugly looking clone running around" that looks just like him. He's about 6'3" with dark brown hair. He just turned 26 years old, is originally from Las Vegas, but lives in Provo right now while attending UVU. My mom joked with me that it's funny we both have been living in Provo for the past two years, but it took both of us working in Alaska to meet. I owe HAP Alaska-Yukon a lot! ;D Nothing is set in stone for the future, but we will see what it has to bring. Wish us luck!



Daniel came with me to Homer in June to go fishing.

P.S. Daniel can be an absolute sweetheart; he was originally supposed to be a highway driver (gone for a week or so at a time). He had overheard me telling my co-worker that I had always wanted a boyfriend to make me a Build-a-Bear, so when he was gone on a highway trip he went to the Anchorage 5th Ave. Mall and made me a Build-a-Bear. The bear's name is Daniel Jr. (Daniel dressed him in a little driver guide uniform too) and he even put a little voice box in it with him saying "I'm thinking about you and I'll be back soon." to make the separation a little easier. That ended up being his last highway trip of the season too, so now I have it for when he is in St. George and I am in Provo.