five years ago ...

... was the day that I spent three and a half hours peeling, coring, and slicing apples by hand for a dessert to take on a group date where I hardly knew anyone. I had met the guy the week before while doing laundry in Glenwood apartments in Provo, and he asked me out.

It was a group date, and we would be doing a potluck dinner, and could I make a dessert to share with everyone? Sure! Not a second later I knew I would make apple crisp - my family recipe and by far my favorite.

The date commenced by shopping at DI for smocks, or rather large shirts we could use. The reason to me was still yet. My main memory of shopping there is how nice my date was to the people we encountered - and you encounter some weird ones at DI.

The date continued by driving up to a bishopric member's home (during which time the juice from the apple crisp leaked out of the pan all onto my jeans ... nice touch on the first date) and having a potluck dinner with 6+ couples. I knew maybe three people there in the beginning - including my date. We played games for a while and ate the yummy food everyone brought (including the main dish which my date grilled - oh yeah). By the time the dessert came around, a new friend, by the name of Jake, announced to my date that he definitely needed to keep me around because it was the best dessert he'd ever had. (score one point for me)

Dinner was done, and three couples continued the date by going to a pottery studio where we threw our own pots. This smaller group consisted of my date and his two roommates with their dates. It was quite entertaining to watch one another try to mold and sculpt clay into anything functional, and we had a good time. My favorite part: a guaranteed second date was required to go and pick up the bowls after they were fired in the kiln one week later.

That was the end of the date. One week later? Went on a date again, but to a concert in SLC. We actually never went back to pick up the bowls.

The best part of the whole evening? The date ended up being the first of many which led to our wedding day in August. Thanks for being my favorite first date Ryan!

Note to readers:

The previously mentioned apple crisp recipe is not a hard recipe. What took me 3 1/2 hours the first time now takes me about 20 minutes to complete. Thank goodness, or else that might have been the only time we would have had one!