Oh boy where do I even start.. 

Landon and I go waaaay back.
And in order to tell our story correctly we have to start at the very beginning.

 We were both born and raised in Elko Nevada. For a time we were in the same ward at church but we were too little to remember. Although I'm sure Landon was my favorite boy to steal toys from in that little nursery together.

I honestly can't ever remember a time when 'I first saw Landon' I just always remember  knowing who he was. 

The first memory I can consciously trace back in my mind to thinking about Landon was when we were about 4 years old. Our moms had stopped to talk in Walmart, I was in the big part of my mom's cart and he was standing behind his mom's legs being all shy. Prior to this moment I had been struggling with knowing what 'cute boys' were. My sisters would always say Aaron Carter or the Backstreet Boys or some kid on the movies were 'cute' and as a 4 year old I only could see them as a really old guy, not cute..  It frustrated me cause I didn't know what a cute boy looked like. So back to Walmart, I remember looking at Landon and realizing he was cute! He was my age and was a cute boy! I finally knew what cute boys looked like to me. So Landon was the first boy I ever thought was cute. But that only satisfied me for a short while and I soon completely forgot about him as I  found new cute boys in my kindergarten class. 

From there the memories only consist of playing together at church basketball games as little kids, he remembers my brother Cody and I picking on him. I don't deny it. Then a few years later as we got older just seeing him shoot around during church basketball games. We didn't go to the same elementary schools so I only knew who he was and not much else.

 6th grade rolled around and the only memories I have are seeing him at high school basketball games, though it was just seeing him sit there with friends my memories are so vivid, it's scary. I could even remember what kind of phone he had in his hand (silver razor flip phone) I was unconsciously paying very close attention to him. ;)

 Then 7th grade.. Where it all began. On the first day of school we met outside by the track for P.E. Landon was in my P.E class. Since that first occasion in Walmart I never stopped thinking he was cute but I just never had time to dwell on it and I wasn't all that fond of him to be honest. But when I saw him in my class I was excited. He had health first semester then I had Health 2nd semester so I never saw him in P.E but we had science class with Mrs. Knight together. We sat on opposite sides of the room but the desk faced each other so I had a perfect view. Although after that first day I soon became distracted by all the new friends I was making and have no other memories of even thinking about Landon. 

  Months went by and  one day about the time of April, my best friend Kylee and I were passing notes and creating our 'hot list' of all the boys in our school we thought were hot. I don't remember when or where my hatred for Landon came but over this course of time my feelings about him turned very negative even though we never even talked or interacted.  But in a note to Kylee I suggested Landon, I said he was cute but I wasn't too fond of him but Kylee agreed to put him on the list. Fun fact, we wrote this note at a stake choir rehearsal where Landon was also attending or in other words Landon was in the same room when we wrote this note about him. Funny thing is as much as I seemed to not like him, I went back to the rehearsal hoping he'd be there again and he wasn't and I was disappointed. But I guess I wasn't the only one thinking about it cause not to long after I was sitting in my 7th hour English class doing some work at my desk. One of Landon's best friends John Urquidi was in that class. He came up to me and asked "Do you know Landon" I replied "yes." He said "Oh cause he says you go to the same church" I confirmed that was true and that was all he said and walked away.. I didn't think much of it until the very next day. Same class, same exact situation. John walks up to me and says " You know how I asked you if you knew Landon, well it's because he likes you" I didn't even look up from my desk I was almost offended by what he had said. I said "oh" and nothing else and John soon walked away. The rest of the class I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was furious! I'm not sure why. I later wrote in my journal about what happened and called Landon a Mormon monster.(HAHA) Couple weeks went on and now I was really on my guard. It wasn't like we ever talked before but I kept a close eye on him and observed him a lot closely. We were now in the same PE class, and while we played games I remember listening in on conversations and while he played to see if he cussed. He didn't. I then watched to see who he sat by and ate lunch with. He sat by Scott Nisbet, who I didn't know very well at the time but I knew he was a really good kid. It was then that all the signs added up to me realizing he wasn't as bad as I thought he was. It was almost like I was trying to convince myself he wasn't a good kid and I shouldn't like him.

On May 9, 2008 just a few weeks after finding out that Landon liked me, my sister Amber came up to me while I was cleaning my room, she said with a little song tune in her words "I know something you don't know" I answered back in the same tune and said "What do you know that I don't know" Then she told me how Whitney, Landon's older sister, told her that Landon liked me. I told her I already knew that, then Amber went on to say that Whitney told her about all the things Landon would say about me. Which included that he thought I was really pretty, that I had a cute laugh and he liked my personality

I remember the rest of the day I couldn't stop thinking about it. Hearing that Landon thought that about me made me absolutely twiterpaited. I was so giddy and happy inside and by the end of the day I decided and came to the conclusion that I also liked Landon back.

May 9, 2008 I wrote in my Journal that I liked Landon. And that was when it is all began. Never did I imagine this simple little journal entry would change my whole life and eternity. Little did I know I was beginning a lifetime with my husband <3 As I tell people now "It was a crush that just never ended" From then on Landon basically became my whole life. That summer after 7th grade we emailed back and forth constantly.(since I didn't have a phone.)  Since we were only 13 we both made it clear we didn't want to be boyfriend/girlfriend. We always made Scott or Kylee tag along with us so it was never just the two of us alone. ( Thanks for always 3rd wheeling with us guys, we owe you eternity for it! )  One of the first times we actually hung out that summer, we had talked and planned to have a basketball match. It was Scott and Landon vs Stephanie Meo and I. We agreed the winner had to buy the others a milkshake. Stephanie and I killed them. When I reminded Landon he now owed me a milkshake he told me he'd get me one when we turned 16. ( Which was our first date when I turned 16) Since I didn't have a phone or a computer and since Landon was still a little scared to talk to me we wrote notes back and forth. Landon always had a note ready to slip to me right before I went to my first class, I would then write back during the day and slip a note back to him before we went home after school. We followed this pattern the entire year of 8th grade. And it was something that carried all the way through high school. We did get to the point of being very comfortable talking to each other face to face, but we still would leave nice little notes on each others cars, or hide it inside a text book, and we always got long notes on Birthdays, May 9th, Valentines Day and before any extensive time away from each other. ( weekends sometime were included in that category) When we both reached the age of 16 we still agreed we didn't want to be boyfriend/girlfriend. so we remained "best friends that liked each other" or in other words we dated non-exclusively. Everyone knew we liked each other but we still went on dates with other people which allowed our friendship to deepen and we still got to know lots of other people. High School was the greatest time ever. Our group was very close and we had such a blast together. We were all in our select choir which took us on trips to San Diego, Hawaii and San Fransico. Landon truly was my best friend all through high school. I told him everything, he helped me through everything and we just had so much fun with all activities high school had to offer.

To sum up the rest of high school, Landon asked me to Senior Prom, Landon received his mission call to Florida, we graduated together, and Landon took off for the MTC.