( Jon's Version )  ( Darla's Version )

I first met Darla at Pizza Hut in Everett.  She thinks it was earlier at a birthday party, though I still believe this was our first meeting.  She was just barely 22 years old and fresh out of college.  A friend of a friend, Darla was fun to hang out with and interested in many of the same activities I liked, such as ATV riding.

The truth is he did meet me for the first time at a birthday party, but the majority of the NNG group were there gathered around computers so it was difficult to tear them away from the screens.

In fact, we went to Moses Lake on an ATV trip, and having never ridden an ATV before she was a natural.  She took to the sand like a fish to water.  I suggested she try riding up her first dune-face - slowly.  She cracked the throttle, shifted into second and managed to JUMP the small dune, nearly flying off the front of the ATV in the process.  She was very excited, while I caught my breath from what I just witnessed.

I had always wanted to try driving an ATV and though Jon has had his share of "accidents" on the quads I knew he would be the best instructor. Obviously he was, since I was able to drive the manual ATV with minimal difficulty in under 30 minutes. The dunes never look that big from the bottom so I had no fear when Jon told me to "gun" it up a seemingly innocent hill, boy was I surprised when I flew into the air after clearing the top.

For a solid year I lived through osmosis, trying to set her up on plenty of blind dates with people I thought worthy of such an impressive young woman.  Fortunately her Mr. Right was not to be found, until now.  In late 2006 I was back on the dating market.  Darla and I had been friends for some time now and she offered to make me dinner for borrowing my car.

During the time he was setting me up I always knew I wanted to find a guy like Jon.  Little did I know my Mr. Right would be Jon almost three years later.

Her cooking skills aside, we had lots of fun that night and saw each other at least once a week since then.  I was so nervous and clumsy I nearly dropped the dinner she had made taking it out of the oven.  Our next dates included making pizzas, which turned out more like a boot and witches hat than something restaurant quality.  Still nervous we clanked away in the kitchen of her small apartment.

We had planned to start out slow because Jon was trying to get his pilots license and I had recently started a new job.  I remember Jon saying don't be upset if I don't call you every day and I said "Yeah right".  Since those words left his mouth he did call me every day (my parents have the phone bills to prove it.)

We share a love of animals, evident by our three dogs and four cats combined!  We've since downsized through giving away and the loss of one pet, though we have three dogs and two cats still.

Jon is adiment that we can't get another animal until we lose one.  This is fine with me but he won't count all the mice living under the house in the total of our animals.

We survived a trip to Yellowstone in 2007 that seemed rought with peril.  Darla even managed to stay happy while we were stuck in 105 degree weather in the middle of Idaho while the transmission in my Ford bled red fluid on the side of the road.  As the AAA driver dragged the RV into the camp site we knew the trip was off to a rocky start.  She is now the final approver of all vacation plans in hopes that we don't go through that again.  After a bit over a year of dating I knew Darla was the one for me.

All this was before I was thrown into the Freeman family reunion where I met 75 of Jon's kin.  We had a great time in Yellowstone, though we were happy to finally come home after the trip.

You can read more in the "Proposal" page, though Darla and I are still in love and forging our way through wedding planning.