The Story of Us, Part Four

In the summer of 2006 Bryan and I were 5,000 miles apart.  When I was waking up for the day he was going to bed.  I was discovering the most incredible places, watching amazing shows, meeting wonderful people, and learning so much.  He was spending time with his family, working hard at his internship, deciding to be a Civil Engineer, and surfing.

Emails, letters, postcards, and even a few packages whizzed across the ocean.  We wrote each other every day and sometimes even multiple times a day.  Though we were apart, this time was priceless because we got to know each other so well. 

On my last day in London Bryan sent me an email confirmation of his flight coming to Richmond in a few weeks.  I was ecstatic, and it made leaving that glorious place a little easier knowing I’d see him soon.  Bryan came for a long weekend and my family loved meeting him.  Just the two of us spent a day up in DC, which was so so fun.  The weekend was a nice reassurance that I did still like real Bryan and not just letter-writing Bryan.

 Bryan with all the Andersons- oh, they all look so little

Washington Monument

About a month later we were heading back to Provo ready for a new semester of school and to finally be able to date like normal people.   At this point we’d been dating for almost 5 months but we had spent only 2.5 weeks of that time actually together. 

We had so much fun that fall.  We ate lunch together on the wall outside the library when it was nice and inside the Wilk when it was cold.  We went to football games and won a pumpkin carving contest.  I cleaned Bryan's disgusting apartment and we laughed about his completely insane roommate.  We spent a lot of time in the library studying (our moms would be so proud) and would always get ice cream afterward.  

Prize-winning pumpkin

On Bryan's birthday I planned a fun day for us.  I got a bunch of friends together to surprise Bryan and have breakfast at Kneaders.  Then I'm pretty sure he worked on my car that day (because he's great like that.)  At night we went up to Cafe Pierpont in Salt Lake for dinner then went bowling with some friends.  As Bryan was dropping me off at home that night he said, "Rachel, I think I love you."  To which I eloquently replied, "You just think?!?!?!"  Then I couldn't wait any longer and said, "I love you Bryan."  And he said it back.

Birthday Dinner in SLC

To be continued...