THE HILTONS: December 2008

2 Years Ago Today...

I was sitting on Hislop Dr. in Ogden, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. I'd sworn that I would never go on another blind date, yet I was about 10 minutes from one.

A few weeks earlier, I was running into the Institute building, late for my class. I ran into Greg Peterson, who was a year younger than myself, but who I went to school with for basically my whole life. Since we had been in the same stake, I'd been with him at various activities growing up and played sports with him and knew who he was, but I don't know that I'd ever had a conversation with him. We were in the same institute class and had chatted a few times, so I said hi. I turned down to get a drink, and he followed me. He said, "Hey, Spence -- I've got somebody I'd like to set you up with." I immediately thought, You've got to be kidding -- How can I get out of this?

The "blind" date I'd been on just before that was a girl in my ward who wanted to go out with me and so she had one of her friends set me up with her (even though I knew exactly who she was.) I swore after that date that I was done going on blind dates set up by people who thought we would get along great because we were both old and unmarried.

I said, "Oh, really?" and tried my best to change the topic and rush into class. After class, there was an ice cream social that I felt guilted into supporting (even though everybody was waiting on me to watch Lost.) Greg tracked me down there and introduced me to a couple of his friends. I said hi and then tried to get out of the situation ASAP before any more talk of blind dates came up.

But a couple of weeks later, I got a voicemail on my phone from Greg, asking when we could get together and go on that blind date. I felt bad telling him no, because I really didn't have a good reason, other than I didn't think he knew me well enough to set me up. I didn't call him back that night or the next night.

On Sunday night, I was over at Erica's house chatting with Erica, Lisa, and Allyson, and my phone rang again with Greg's number. I felt guilty for not having called him back, so I answered. He asked if we could do the date that Wednesday. I racked my brain to come up with something that I had scheduled that night, but I had nothing. I told him that would be fine, through a grimaced face. He said he had thought of going to dinner and going back to his house and playing games. As I envisioned this miserable date, I said, "Well, maybe we should just do dinner. If it goes well, then we could do something else another time."

So there I found myself, three days later, December 20th, sitting in my car and kicking myself for having ever agreed to this. I remember texting Erica and telling her that this was the LAST blind date I would ever go on. I was right. :)

The clock finally approached 7:00, so I drove up to Maxfield Dr., parked my car, sighed, walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell to meet my date named Tiffany Clark. The door opened, and to my complete amazement, this girl was cute... really cute!

We got in the car and drove to Iggy's to meet Greg and his date. I was completely impressed from the beginning. Tiffany was soft-spoken, but every word that came out of her mouth seemed to be perfect. She was sweet, witty, with just a touch of sass. I have a very clear picture in my mind of driving down Highway 89 into Uintah and looking over and seeing her looking at me with a little smile on her face.

We got to Iggy's and met Greg and his date. The whole night was a lot of fun. The conversation was great, and I was completely shocked that this was how my blind date was turning out. I probably had a smile on my face the whole night. We finished our dinner, and Greg said, "Well, I had thought of going and playing some games... but we probably had just better get home."

"No!" I said (probably a little too loudly), "We can play some games." We went back to Greg's house and played a game for an hour or so, and then I drove Tiffany back home and dropped her off.

I got home, and decided that I couldn't wait to talk to Greg to find out how things went or wait my normal couple days to call her and see if she wanted to go out again. So I sent a text message letting her know that I had a really good time. I waited in anticipation for a return text. 15 minutes went by, and finally my phone beeped. I was relieved to read that she had a really good time as well.

The next night was the Vegas Bowl and then her family was coming into town, so we didn't go out again for a week. We went down to Salt Lake for dinner and a movie. Then we went out on our third date a couple days later on Friday.

I commented that I couldn't believe that I had never noticed that she and I had been in the same Institute class all semester and I had never noticed her. She dealt the ultimate blow by saying, "We actually met one time." I didn't believe her at first, but as the told me about it, I did remember meeting her at the ice cream social I was trying to avoid Greg at. It never occurred to me that she might be the girl he was trying to set me up with.

That's when it also came out in that conversation that she had actually orchestrated the whole date set up. I'm grateful she did, and I'm grateful that Greg was persistent.

I invited her to come over for the big New Years Eve party the next night, and these are the first photos of us together:

... and then again for New Years Day:

The rest, as they say, is history. It's been the best two years of my life!

One of our daily routines is trying to get Connor to wake up enough to eat. We went for a checkup last Friday, and the doctor was a little concerned because Connor hadn't gained any weight since the week before. (We have our own theories on why that is.) We also found out that Connor is in the 12% percentile for weight, and the 81% percentile for height, so the doc wants him to eat more. Unfortunately, he doesn't eat too well when he's sleeping, so we have to try to get him fully awake. Here goes.

Taking off the blanket and shaking (that's "gentle shaking"... no need to call CPS) does nothing. How about flashing the camera?

Apparently he doesn't like the flash.

There's a yawn! Sometimes as he wakes up, he likes to perform a little magic -- Here he is demonstrating the missing hand routine.

And his eyes are cracked!

At this point, he's a diaper change away from being awake enough to nurse. You can tell by the next photo that we try to get him to wake up A LOT! (Keep in mind that the camera adds 30 lbs...)