The Best First Date Ever!

I wrote a series of posts ahead of time to celebrate my husband and I knowing each other for ten years and being married for one. I feel a bit silly posting this happy little story with all that’s going on right now though. I don’t have time to write a post to explain everything, but I will tomorrow. Maybe a happy little story is what’s needed right now……

Ten years is a really long time. Why did hubby and I wait so many years to get married? It took us a really long time to get it right. We attempted dating three different times. Having met at 19 and 22, we both had a lot of growing up to do, but we stayed true to the old saying “third time is the charm”! Our first date is something I’ll always remember though. Appropriate that it was my husband who took me on the best first date ever!

Our first date was Saturday, July 24th, 2004. I had to look that date up. I can remember birthdays quite well, but anniversaries always escape me for some reason. The plan for the date was dinner and a movie, your typical first date. When he picked me up from my parent’s place, he gave me a bouquet of flowers! They were really nice. I found out later that his mother and sisters had been teasing him about the flowers. This was the first time he had bought flowers for a girl. That made me feel special.

So anyway, he told me that he had a surprise for me between dinner and the movie. He wouldn’t give me any hints. After dinner we got back in his car and he drove us to a park I had never been to before. He said we were going for a walk. The sun was setting and he started walking me towards the forest in the park. It was dense with trees, so the further we went in, the darker and quieter it got. Eventually it was pitch black, it was a little eerie. I started to wonder what kind of a surprise was waiting for me in a dark forest?!

I relaxed when I started to see the little lights. As we walked further, more and more of them appeared. Fireflies. There must have been millions of them. They looked like the stars in the sky except they were all around me! It was beautiful! I have been back to that spot several times over the years, but it has never been as awe-striking as it was that night. I guess you could say he swept me off my feet with that one!