"Caleb and I met on an online dating app called Mutual!
I'd never been on a date with someone I met online before, so of course I had some reservations about it. We started talking, and it didn't take long for me to realize that this handsome, strong, wrestler was also incredibly intelligent, kind, and so easy to talk to. We talked on the app for a couple weeks, then he asked me if I would like to start texting. After that, we communicated most using voice messages over text.
My family and I had a bet going about when he would ask me out on a date. I won :)
Our first date was in late August, and he drove down to Provo to pick me up. I was so nervous the morning of the date, pacing in front of the door for an hour before he arrived. Yet, looking back now, I realize that I wasn't actually nervous–I was EXCITED. I felt like I already knew him so well because we had been talking for weeks already, over the phone and in voice messages that were usually 20 - 30 minutes in length.
He picked me up and we hugged like we already knew each other. He shocked me with original date idea: going to a second-hand store, picking out old dishes, and going up into the mountains to smash them with baseball bats and pitch them to each other like baseballs. I LOVED it. He was patient as I hobbled around the store with crutches, and he carried me through the woods as we found a spot to hit the dishes.
After getting some food, he brought me back home and asked on my doorstep if I would like to go on another date on Monday when he got back from his camping trip. Of course I said yes.
We hugged, and I stepped inside my apartment door, where some of my roommates were gathered in the living room. I dropped my bag and said, "I'm going to marry him. That was the best date EVER."
Then I realized the door was still open. I poked my head back out the doorway to make sure he had truly walked away and was out of earshot of what I had said.
To this day, he says that he didn't hear me shout that. :)
The rest is history. I knew I wanted to marry him on the first date... and even before the first date when my mom and I stalked him on Facebook (as a responsible preparation for a first date with a stranger) and I fell in love with his mission homecoming video. I loved the way he smiled and cared for people. I knew that I was going to marry him when he started to be the first person I wanted to tell about things in my life: the good and the bad."
