Sarah and I met as two teenagers working at a department store in the Kitsap Mall. We worked in different departments and only for a short time, but we had managed to catch each other’s eye. The timing it seemed would have to wait. I was in school working on my Associates Degree with plans to study geology in Hawaii while Sarah was working two jobs with a short modeling venture in New York on the horizon. Neither of us could know at that time what life had in store for us. Parting ways and losing touch, we found each other again, ten years later on a seemingly random night at a random establishment in Silverdale. I consider our first date a text message exchange we had the following Sunday during a Seahawks game. It was then I really discovered what a catch Sarah was, and since then our paths have become one. The more I got to know her, the more I fell in love with her ways and strong character.  Sarah has shown me a great many things and continues to surprise me in so many ways, I feel so lucky to have this chance to build a wonderful life together.

Our first date was more of an interview process if you ask her. I like to think it was two people, checking each other out; each other’s likes, dislikes, politics, personal views, religious ideals, etc, etc. Sarah to this day will tell you how frustrated she was after that first “sitdown” at Moondog’s in Port Orchard. She would later tell me how she called her bff Emily and had to vent that this guy, “Never talked about himself, and only wanted to know about me!” I like to think we got a majority of potential issues overcome that first night. I also like to think that she only went on a second date with me because she was so frustratingly curious about this guy. Our curiosity towards one another quickly developed into attraction, and attraction into love.

One date I like to think of as our first official date, I will never forget. I had gotten tickets to a Seahawks 49ers game, right near the end zone.  The Hawks won that game in the final minutes of play and we were elated. Afterwards, I took her to Bennie Hanna’s where we ended up sitting across from Bill Gates and his family. It was then I might have first considered the rest of my life with Sarah, quietly I smiled and kept this secret to myself.  I then took her for a drive around the sound back home, one of her favorite things to do it turned out, and gave her plenty of time to evaluate me and where we might be going together.  This would play a big part in our courtship unbeknownst to us at the time, and every Sunday since then we’ve essentially been together – either enjoying the Seahawks or finding a new adventure, but never staying still.