The Summer Goodbye

Shortly after graduation Big B and his family took off on a family vacation. One night after he got home he walked to my house in the middle of the night and sat on my front porch and wrote in my yearbook. When I went out to my car the next morning I found a little souvenir from his trip. a balloon from one of the car dealerships he passed on his walk, and a pack of my favorite blue gum from K-mart. When I found out that he had actually walked to my house rather than drive a car I was a little shocked....as it is a fair distance between our two houses...he said he wanted to show how much he cared. After that the song "I Would Walk 500 Miles" took on a deeper meaning, and eventually ended up as one of our songs on our wedding soundtrack.

That same day...or the next...however you look at it Big B told me some news I did not see coming. We had talked already that we could not spend every free second we got with each other. Big B had a lot to do to prepare for his mission. However, when he got home from his trip he said that his parents thought that we should limit our time together to once a week. And if you know Big B he is ever the stickler to rules.....so that meant no more IMing, no more phone calls, nada.....unless it was "our" day to be together. And when I say day, I mean DAY!! My mom used to joke that we could go to Mexico and be back before our dates were over! We just had a lot to catch up on! While at the time it was tough, it only strengthened our relationship as friends and prepared us for what the next two years would be like.

We took full advantage of our "day". Since it was only once a week, we left no string untied. We would plan super creative dates, and ask in super creative ways. Oh yeah that was the one rule you could break.....when you were asking the other person out for the special "day" of the week.

One of the dates that I planned was a scavenger hunt. Part of the date included eating dinner at a steak place in town that rings a cow bell and cuts your tie off and hangs it up in the restaurant. I made this tie for Big B to wear and I puffy painted our names and the date on the back. He was pretty embarrassed...but he claims my face was redder!

One date ended with dessert at "our" park....there was a pinata at this date that Big B had to break to get one of his "late" graduation gifts.

Hanging out with Big B often created the opportunity for adventures....this was a picture from a hike we did.

This date was our "Chinese" date. We went to a Chinese restaurant, set off fireworks, went to the movies and saw Mulan, and Big B taught me some Karate moves.....I remember being mad at him for taking a picture of me dressed like that.....and yes that is a stuffed Easter Bunny wearing Levi's. I am sure we did more on this date....this is just what I remember at the moment.

We did not take nearly enough photos of that summer. Like I said earlier, this was the day and age of film, so you did not really carry your camera everywhere you went. We had fun on our dates and spending time together. The summer passed quickly. At the end of July Big B got his mission call to the Saint Petersburg, Russia mission. We thought it was funny because he used to say that he was going to go on a mission to the Russian space station....he even carried around a magazine about the space station in his backpack in high school. The day Big B got his mission call he came to my work to visit me. I knew something had to be up because he was visiting me at work. He pulled me outside to the courtyard and read me his mission call and said that he would be reporting to the MTC in September.

Later that night he took me out on a date.....not "our" date but a special date. We went to dinner and then saw a movie....it was the Romeo and Juliet movie with Drew Barrymore. I remember that he held my hand the whole movie....which was not something he typically did. And then I remember him driving around, and around on his way to drop me off at my house. When we got up to the porch he kissed me for the first time. It was a special day!

Needless to say things got pretty busy after he got his call. A few weeks later I started my Senior year of high school. We continued to see each other.....but the rules changed a little....and we could see and talk to each other a little more. August rushed by in a blur....and then the dreaded month of September began....and it was a countdown to our goodbye.

Here we are on our last date. For part of our date we hiked up a little trail and watched the sunset....and Big B said something about how the sun was setting on our relationship.....but that the sun would soon rise again.....you know the stuff us girls eat up and get teary eyed about. He had made me a little box with pictures around it and a poem on top. Inside the box were little notes for me about things he loved and appreciated about me....there was one for every week he would be gone on his mission. I gave him a watch with the inscription "Our Friendship is Timeless" and a box with his name engraved that he could keep my letters to him in. I bawled like a baby, but we knew that if it was meant to be, that it would be meant to be when he got home from his mission. We had become best friends, we knew what the other was thinking without them having to say it, both of us knew that it was meant to be but did not say it out loud, at least not at this point in the story.

The next day was Big B's farewell. I remember going to it and being so impressed and proud of him. I knew he would be a great missionary. I went home after and was told to come to his house towards the end of his open house. I was so nervous driving there, knowing that the final goodbye was near. At the end of his farewell, before he was set apart as a missionary, he drove me home....his parents followed behind. We talked, I cried, we listened to the Micheal Mclean soundtrack...."We Can Be Together Forever Someday"....then he pulled into my carport.....and he walked me to the door....he hugged me and told me he loved me and gave me one last kiss....and turned and vanished into the dark to get into his parent's car. I went into the house I flung myself on my bed and cried a good cry.....it was going to be a long two years.....but I knew it would be worth it!

The next day Big B finished his packing and had a little B-day celebration. That day in my locker I found a note from him.....he knew it was going to be a hard day and it was just what I needed. His little sister slipped it into my locker for me!

Here is Big B on his flight to the MTC.....he was already exhausted.

We were both nervous, we did not know what the future held but we both knew we had some growing to do and that the next two years would serve that purpose. We had also decided to only write each other once a month....with the exception of the occasional package. Time would only tell where we would stand when the two years had past.....but one thing was for certain.....we had no regrets!