Making Memories of Us: June 2013

Short Version: Austin and I met on campus at BYU-I January 2011, he proposed August 31, 2011 and we got married November 19, 2011.

Long Version, Mindi's side

One day in January 2011 I went to go visit my mom in her office in the Hart building at BYU-I, she was already busy with another student at her desk when I went in. I went and sat down and waited for her, she may have introduced me to her student, but I don’t remember. After a few mins I got what I needed from her office and I was gone. A few days later my mom asked if I remembered the student I had met a few days previous in her office and if she could give him my number to ask me out. To please my mother I said yes even though I had no intentions of accepting the date. The next day was a Thursday, as I was walking home late from class I received a call from this student asking if I would like to go on a group date the next night to Lovell Ranch. My first thoughts were, a date to Lovell Ranch! of course the answer would be yes, who would turn down a date to go play at Lovell Ranch! After all it is a group date I don’t even have to talk to him if I don’t want to, and I still get to have a great time. Background: The Lovell Ranch is located about 20 minutes from my home, I grew up going to fun ward and stake activities there, we didn’t get to go up there often but when we did we always had a blast. So even though I was planning on turning down the date, he had made an offer I couldn’t refuse and currently had no plans for that Friday night.

The next night came around and my date, Austin Lovell, came and picked me up with a bunch of friends that also had dates. They were a great group of friends to go to the ranch with, as predicted we were so busy playing murder in the dark and running around outside (remember its January) freezing and riding snow machines, I hardly ever talked to my date. His cousin from my stake and a bunch of his friends came up that I more associated with, but I was a polite date and everything was awesome. The one time during murder in the dark I decided to go talk to Austin, we got killed! He went to go put pizza in the oven, so of course I went to help and got killed for it! Even though I am from Idaho I am not a fan of snowmachines, I love being pulled on the sled, but I don’t like riding them, so when they suggested we go ride snow machines I still said yes even though I was slightly scared. I rode with Austin around the house and up the hills and after a while I asked, aren’t you from Arizona?, his reply was yes, so of course the next question was, how many times have you driven a snow machine? I don’t remember the response but happy to say we survived! We all made it back in time for curfew, I had a great time with our group, I really knew nothing about my date but the group was awesome so I said I would do something with them again sometime.

Austin later asked me out to go ice skating I think the next week. I really dislike ice skating. It is not on my list of fun stuff to do. He said it was another group date and so I said yes being optimistic that I would really have a great time. Well the day finally came and it was freezing outside!! I kept thinking he would cancel and I even mentioned that we didn’t have to go if he didn’t want to. Apparently he really wanted to go because he came and picked me up that evening when it was a chilling -20 outside and everyone else backed out. So the two of us drive up to the outdoor ice skating rink, which was empty, me all bundled up in about 5 different layers including winter coat and snow pants, while austin is wearing jeans and I think a jacket on the outside, and a wetsuit underneath. It was freezing! and I really wasn’t having fun ice skating but Austin was good company and redeemed himself by getting hot chocolate afterwards. I do love hot chocolate.

Well after the ice skating incident I really wasn’t too interested in dating him, my mom on the other hand told me to ask him out again and give him another chance. So I did, I invited him to come to my cousin Alli’s basketball game that my entire family would be attending, I figured it would be another great time that I wouldn’t have to talk to him very much and if he could survive meeting my whole family all at once on a third date, then he probably isn’t that bad. He survived the game even though I wasn’t the most polite date and ended it with dropping him off in the middle of the road in front of his apartment.

After this the dates are hazy, but I didn’t like him so we would text each other a couple of times for the next while but that was it. Later in March I had a computer question, I remembered that Austin was good with computers and asked him if he could help me. Somehow out of this we started dating again, when I realized I really liked doing things with him the question was asked if I wanted to doing things with him and be officially dating or if I would rather stop doing things with him. I decided he was fun to have around and I wanted to keep doing things with him, even though I really just liked him as a good friend.

Time went on and I planned on seeing his family in July when they came up to the Ranch, I thought this would give us plenty of time to see if we were still dating. However for some reason they wanted to meet this amazing girl that Austin had been dating. They wanted to fly us down Memorial weekend, in May, to meet me. This was a lot sooner than I had planned on meeting them but had no excuse not to go. I wasn’t crazy about Austin but thought it would be a fun experience to say “I met the parents”. We flew down to Gilbert Arizona Memorial weekend 2011, where his parents Lynn and Blynne and little sister Baylee were there to meet us. Yes I was very nervous to meet them, and even more nervous to meet me, the girl that had been spending so much time with their son. They were all very polite and sweet and I immediately felt at ease and not super awkward. We had lots of fun seeing his family playing games, going to the river, we took lots of fun pictures! One of the turning points in our relationship for me was I woke up one morning in their house and I thought to myself I must really like this kid if I am willing to fly hundreds of miles to be with him, and take the risk of meeting his parents. Somewhere I guess along the way I had grown pretty fond of Austin.

After a short fun weekend we were back to Idaho going to school, dating the same as usual spending more time at the park now that the weather finally warmed up. It was a fun summer full of activities and fun dates, it ended with us going to Arizona again to spend a week with his family. By this time I knew that I liked Austin and that I wanted to marry him.

This trip was even more fun than the last but very hot! We played more at the river and just enjoyed being in Arizona. We knew we wanted to take Austin’s family geocaching, a treasure hunt with a GPS, while we were down there. Turns out the day we decided to go everyone else had last minute plans and couldn’t come. Austin and I went off to go geocaching, he said he had found a place that was not far from his house. It was about 9pm because we waited for the heat of the day to cool down, the sun was just starting to go below the horizon. We pulled up next to a golf course and started on our journey to find the geocache, we pinned it to a corner of the golf course that was hidden by some trees and a beautiful waterfall. I sat down on a rock and started looking for any sort of little box, after a few mins I found a little tube and called Austin over so we could open it up. We then opened it and inside it there was a code we needed to decipher, geocaches have codes that need to be deciphered usually to help locate where the geocache is hidden, so this was normal. As I started to decode it, it started to say “will you” and then Austin already kneeling on one knee (I was still sitting on the rock) pulled a ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. My answer was yes! It was a perfect evening and everyone was very curious when we got back to see what we had found. Of course they knew he was going to ask and they were all very excited that we were engaged. I loved the ring, Austin did an amazing job!

I of course then went and called my parents to tell them the good news, they had known he was going to propose and were anxiously waiting for my phone call. We set the date for November 19, 2011. I would still be in school at that time but Austin was off track and where it was right at the beginning of Thanksgiving break we knew that most of our families should be able to make it. The next few months were full of fun dates and wedding planning, everything fell into place as it should.

We got married November 19, 2011 in the Rexburg Idaho Temple, all of our immediate families were able to attend, it was a very special day. After we got married we took a side trip to Great Scotts to get us some hot chocolate since it was freezing! We had our luncheon in the Manwaring Center, MC, on campus in the special events room where we had a delicious lunch. Afterwards we had a reception in the Clark Building (my home ward) where we had several family members and friends come to congratulate us. We had a Beatles themed reception, I love the Beatles, their songs and sayings, and it was something that was out of the ordinary. Our colors were purple and silver, with some lime green. We got married on a Saturday, I went back to class and had a oral test Monday morning, and then left for our open house in Arizona Tuesday. The open house in Arizona was wonderful also I had the chance to meet several of Austin’s friends and ward members, his parents were kind enough to open their home to host the event. After a fun Thanksgiving break it was back to Idaho to start married life as Austin and Mindi Lovell!

4 Wheeling Kelly Canyon 6.4.11