From the Beginning

That's us, Colton and Erica! Well I guess I'll start by telling our story from the beginning. That's always a nice place to start right? Back story: my grandma has lived in the same house my whole life next to the same neighbors, the Walkers. We kids always were running treats, bread and other things over to the Walkers house. When their dog had puppies, we always went over to play with them. Growing up, my little brother Ryan and I would scoot the little tramp my grandma had up to the wall and throw rocks at my grandma's neighbor kids swimming. The boy we happened to throw rocks at most often? You guessed it, it was Colton :) My grandpa passed away in 2004, Colton and his mother sang at his funeral. I was an awkward little 7th grader in jr. high when my grandpa passed away. Colton was a senior in high school, had a steady girlfriend, was going to go to college for a year and then serve a two year mission for our church. I don't remember seeing him after my grandpa's funeral for many years. 

Now I joke and say I didn't know what was right in front of my eyes but Colton and his family have always been a part of my life. Whether I noticed it or not. 

May 2009, I was getting ready to graduate from Mountain View High School. My grandma Olsen had been telling me about her "cute neighbor boy" for a couple months now and that I should meet him. I never thought anything of it because I was busy living in my "high school world".  Prom night I was going with some of my closest friends. My best friend Conger was in my group and she spent the night at my house after instead of driving back to hers in Fountain Hills. We slept in, as teenagers often do, and I missed church. I promised myself I would go to my grandma's ward later in the day after Conger had gone home. She left and I got ready to go to my grandma's ward. I was running late and sat next to my grandma's husband Orville near the front. My grandma was up on the stand going to sing in the ward choir. She saw me come in, keep in mind the meeting had already started and there were speakers giving talks, my grandma walked down off the stand, right over to me and whispered to me "there is my cute neighbor" POINTING over to him. Oh how i was so embarrassed! She then walked back up onto the stand. Not awkward or distracting at all, right? I kept peaking over at this "cute neighbor boy" to see if my grandma knew how to pick the good ones. I was impressed and immediately began to worry about how I looked, what I would say to him, etc. The meeting ended and he was the first one out the doors. I was shocked because I had been sure my grandma had talked to him or his mother about me and thought he would at least come up and say "hi" since it had been years since I had last seen him. I left church and didn't think about "cute neighbor boy" after that and my grandma didn't bring him up again. I graduated high school, got a job, enrolled in college and began "growing up". Lucky for me, my grandma wouldn't give up on setting us up that easily.

Until next time... and thanks for reading!

The girl who threw rocks, Erica