This year was the third Valentine's Day Stephen and I have celebrated together. I take that back, it was actually the second because hiking Angel's Landing on Valentine's Day last year was definitely NOT A CELEBRATION!!!!!!!! But I digress. ;)

We had a lovely dinner at Pizzaria 712 and then dessert at Rockwell Ice Cream Co. (I highly recommend both.) Since Lydia was born we have had quite a few friends offer to babysit for us, but I've always thought it was easier to take her with us wherever we go since she still sleeps a lot. For our Valentines Date we finally took some friends up on the offer and I am honestly surprised at what a difference it made! I've never felt like it was stressful to have her with us, but actually being able to give Stephen 100% of my attention and not worry about Lydia needing anything was quite refreshing! Two and a half hours flew by and we had the best time just talking and laughing (and eating delicious food, of course).

Even though I'm finally getting this post out almost month after Valentine's Day, something about "the month of love" made me reflect on our love story and I realized I've never really done a post about it. I enjoy reading other people's accounts of their "love stories" so I thought it would be fun to do one! ...Then I remembered that were was a reason I've never done it. ha. I've never been very good at not including everyyy SINGLE detail when I'm telling a story, and seeing as our "courtship" covers a span of about 4.5 years...thinking about writing all of it out is a little overwhelming! BUT, as I was thinking about it, I remembered a part of our story that I'd almost entirely forgotten about. A part that actually happened ON VALENTINES DAY, I might add.

You see, it was Valentine's Day weekend of 2010 when I first realized that I MIGHT POSSIBLY have feelings for Stephen KIND OF, MAYBE. I had known Stephen for about five months (we met the day after moving into the dorms in August) and had been friends-ish starting around November. It was President's Day weekend (and subsequently Valentine's weekend), and my friend Melanie and I decided to roadtrip up to Rexburg, ID to visit our friend, Alyssa, who was attending school up there. On the four hour drive from Provo to Rexburg, Melanie and I filled the time with what I thought was myriad of topics. Shortly after we arrived, however, Melanie told Alyssa, "Hannah is totally in love with this guy named Stephen, she basically talked about him for two hours on the way here." I was SHOCKED! What was she talking about?! Sure maybe I had mentioned Stephen's name once or twice in the car. MAYBE I had told a funny story or two about a conversation we'd had after english class. And possibly one pertaining to the ridiculous inner-tube waterpolo team we were on. PERHAPS I had alluded to the fact that he had the most beautiful blue eyes I'd ever seen. But FEELINGS for him?!! WAS SHE CRAZY? Yes. She must be crazy.

I opened my mouth to defend myself and tell her she was being completely ridiculous when I stopped for a second and realized that maybe I HAD talked about Stephen for a good chunk of the car ride. NOT BECAUSE I LIKED him, though, simply because WE WERE FRIENDS. But Melanie's comment made me pause, and I didn't correct her, because in that moment I realized that she might actually be on to something...and boy oh boy I'm glad she was. ;)

_ _ _
han.

PS Shout out to Thomas&CeeCee for watching Lydia while we went on our Valentine's Date. Thanks guys!