Anthony and I grew up together. My family and I moved to the same city where he lived when I was 5 years old. We went to the same elementary and middle schools. We went to the same church and were in the same ward growing up. His younger sister was, in fact, my very first friend that I made when I my family moved there. A couple years after moving into the same town, my family and I moved right across the street from Anthony's family. I would play and hang out with his sister. There were times when many of us kids from the neighborhood would get together and play. It's sad that this isn't still true today. The world definitely is a different place. Anyway, we would put together clubs and invite some people into our clubs. One time, Anthony made a anti-(his sister's name) club. It was so mean, but he invited me to the group and I accepted! Oops...what a great friend I was! I had a crush on Anthony growing up, hence the reason why I joined his club. For each club, we had to make up a password. I made up a password and told it to Anthony. He loved the password and said that his sister would never guess it. Guess what the password was.......Vinegar! Haha! Lame, I know! Later, his sister and I made a club that he wanted to join. It was a girls only club. He really wanted to join and he went to some extreme measures to join. Eventually we let him "visit" for the day. It was awesome and still is a great memory that we share from our childhoods.
When I would hang out with his sister I would sneak peeks at Anthony to see what he was doing. I always thought that he was nerdy, which I like/d back then. I always thought that he was studying and doing homework whenever I was over there. Later he told me that this wasn't entirely true. Haha. When we were both in high school, I was a freshman and he was a senior. He was still so handsome, smart, and nerdy. We didn't go to the same high school, but we were in the same Seminary class (a scripture study class). We were assigned seating right next to each other. He sat on one side of me and his sister sat on the other side. That was the best year of Seminary ever! I was so "in love" with him and he didn't know it. He knew all the answers and was so smart. (He later told me that he didn't recall ever answering anything and that he just tried so hard not to fall asleep during class). Later he graduated and left to go to Cal Poly Pomona to get his education in Civil Engineering. He went there for a year and then left to serve a mission for our church in Rome, Italy.
I wrote him a couple of times while he was on his mission. He didn't remember that I ever did, but that's ok because he was so focused on his mission. So many people told me, after his mission, that he was such a great example to them and that he was such a stalwart missionary. (This only made him more attractive to me).
He came home from his mission in December of 2007. That was my first year in college. I went to BYU-Idaho (the best college in my opinion!). I came home for Christmas and went over to visit with his sister, and mainly to see Anthony because I knew he had just returned home from serving two years in the Rome, Italy mission. When I went over and saw him for the first time, oh my, he was so handsome and I had the biggest crush on him. He was so sick though, poor guy. He sat on the couch next to me and I started asking him questions about his mission. He was so shy around me and I thought it was funny. Later, I told his sister that I found him very attractive. She wanted to set us up for a date. So she set up a double date for New Year's Eve. It was too soon for him to feel comfortable having a date, so we cancelled it. I went back off to school and he went off to his. We started to talk over Facebook and when I came back home, he would come up and "visit" his family. I later learned that he would really come up to see me.
During the summer, we both were going to go to a bon fire. I had a couple friends that were going to come with me. I wanted to invite Anthony to go with us, but I was too nervous to ask. When my friends finally talked me into asking him, he drove up next to us and asked me if I was going to the bon fire. I told him that I was just about to ask him if he would like to go. So he drove us out there. I made a fool of myself, being too flirty and freaking out when a tumbleweed rolled out in front of us. (My friends said that I was on the brink of being ridiculous...great! What a way to grab Anthony's attention!) We got the the party and he went one way, and I went the other. I really wanted to talk with him, but obviously we were both nervous to do just that. We both were invited to play one game with a group of people. It was what changed things for us and our relationship. It was called, The New Yorker (kinda like Apple's to Apple's). I picked his answer and he picked mine, not knowing who's was who's. After the party, on our way home, we talked about how we have the same sense of humor (because of the answers we picked), which is a big deal to both of us. We talked the whole way home and my friends sat quietly in the back letting us flirt.
A week or so later we went on our first date to a baseball game (his favorite sport). I talked his ear off and he was so polite as to not tell me to shut up. We found out we had a lot more in common than we thought. We went to Denny's afterward and stayed out talking till the early hours of the morning. We didn't want our time together to end. After our first date, I would go over to his house to "talk" with him. His younger brother, who was four years old, would get so confused and tell me his sister (my best friend) was upstairs. I told his brother I was there for Anthony and he would again say that his sister was upstairs. (Poor little guy was so confused!) Anthony and I enjoyed our talks. He was working for his parents, over the summer, fixing up their ranch house out in the middle of nowhere. I went out there with him one time to help him paint the outside of the ranch house. We had a lot of fun chasing each other with paintbrushes. I surprised him for his birthday with a candy gram poster. He loved it! After that we talked every day.
My grandparents came home from their mission a week or so later and were giving a welcome home talk in their ward. I invited him to come with me. When we walked into the service, an old man greeted us. He said that I must be a grandchild of the Morgan's and I told him that I was. Then he said, "...and this must be your husband!" haha...we weren't even officially dating yet. I turned beet red as did Anthony. The whole meeting my family, cousins, aunts, and uncles kept nudging me, laughing and giving me "the look". We later came back to my house, played games with my cousins, and talked until 3 in the morning. He invited me to go the next day to his grandparents' house for the holiday to swim and have a BBQ. I did and it was just Anthony, his dad, brother, grandparents and I. It was a lot of fun. It was the first time I wasn't embarrassed to wear my bathing suit around anyone else. Especially a man! I knew there was something different about him. I never felt that way about any other person. I knew that I was falling in love. That was one of the most mortifying feelings ever. What if he didn't feel the same way? I was going back up to college the next week and I didn't want this to end.
When I left for school, I wanted Anthony to know how I felt. I wrote him a letter and left it on the car that I knew he would be driving that day. He surprised me by being outside to say goodbye to me. That was so sweet. We left early in the morning and I know that he isn't a morning person. He wanted to see me one last time before I left. Later that day he sent me a text message. The text message was so sweet and I knew that he felt the same way about me as I felt for him. I later called him to talk with him and tell him that I didn't want to date anyone else but him. He didn't pick up, so I hung up and didn't leave a message. I felt stupid and knew that he would know I called him, so I called him back and left a message to have him call me just to talk.
He called me the next day and we decided that we wanted to be officially boyfriend and girlfriend. That was one of the best days of my life. A week or so later, I had a dream about him and I woke up knowing that I truly loved him. I loved him so much and I was feeling very vulnerable. It freaked me out. What if he didn't love me back? That day when he called, after talking for a while, he told me that he loved me. I started to cry and told him that I loved him too. He had the same feelings and impressions that night/day as well. What a blessing!
We met up for General Conference that October. We went to a mission reunion for Anthony. It was so fun to meet people that he served with on his mission. They told me all sorts of nice and good things about Anthony, telling me what a great man he is and what a great example he was to them. That made me smile. I knew what kind of man that he is, it's just nice to hear it from others. Later that weekend, right before he left to go back to school and before I left to go back to school, we had our first kiss. The night before we both left, we talked for forever and I could tell that he was nervous. He wanted to kiss me! I made him laugh to ease that nervousness we were both feeling. Nothing happened and he left to go back to where he was staying. (He told me he was kicking himself all the way back to his car, trying to figure out another way to see me before we both left the next day, so that he could kiss me.) He texted me about my leaving my leftover food in his car and that he wanted to bring it to me in the morning. He came the next day and told me that I forgot two things, I forgot my left over pizza and my goodbye kiss. Then he gave me a kiss. It was both of our first kisses ever! It was so special. I felt like I was on cloud nine. He did too. We both didn't want to leave and we were so excited about this new dimension in our relationship.
Come Christmas time, we were both back home visiting our families, and we were starting to get really serious about our relationship. On New Year's Eve we talked about getting married. We both loved each other so much and knew that we wanted to marry each other. We both had prayed about it and knew it was the right thing for us to do. On March 22nd 2009, my family and I flew out to my cousin's home coming. He was returning from serving his mission in New York. Anthony drove up to see me. We went out to lunch and then were headed to my Aunt & Uncle's house. He missed the exit and I told him. He said that he wanted to take me for a drive. We got stuck in traffic and I could tell that Anthony was super nervous.
We ended up at the Oakland Temple. We got out of the car and walked around the temple. Taking pictures that showed the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. We went up the stairs to a terrace around the temple and he said that we should sit down. Then he said, "I want to do this the right way", and got down on one knee in front of me and asked me to marry him. I said yes, and was so ecstatic! I looked at the ring and was so surprised! It was huge! It was beautiful! It was a blue topaz stone with little diamonds on each side. I loved it! He told me that this was just my engagement ring until I picked out the one that I really wanted. We were the only ones there at the time and after a minute or two a father and son walked up the stairs and saw us celebrating. We asked them if they would take a picture for us and they did.
We took some more pictures on the temple grounds and then headed back to my aunt and uncle's house. We made the plan not to tell anyone about it until we wanted to. We wanted to surprise everyone, but not ruin my cousin's get together, since he just got home from his mission. When we walked in the door, my sister spotted the ring, and told me mom. Then my mom had everyone gather in the living room because "Anthony and Laura have an announcement to make." So we told everyone we were engaged and they were so happy for us. It was such a wonderful day out of a fairy tale!
(Right after we announced to everyone that we were getting married!)
Sadly, I had to go back to school and Anthony needed to get back to school as well, so we couldn't spend a lot of time together. We decided to get married on June 13th, 2009 in the Los Angeles Temple. That was the best day ever! Right out of a fairy tale...our fairy tale. (I know I keep saying that, but it is true!) It was such a wonderful magical day. The wedding itself was amazing and the reception was beautiful. So many people came out to congratulate us. It was awesome.
(This is our happy ever after!)
We spent our honeymoon in Big Bear, Ca. It was so nice to be up in the mountains, away from the hustle and bustle of Southern California. Sadly, we couldn't stay up there forever and had to come back to the reality of work and school.
(On our honeymoon in Big Bear, Ca)
Now it's been almost four years later and we are still madly in love. I'm so lucky to be married and sealed for time and all eternity to my best friend. I couldn't imagine my life without him in it. He is the love of my life and of eternity. He is such a wonderful husband and great provider. I can't wait to see what our future holds!
