How we met:The first time I saw him was at a school PTA meeting, where his mom forgotten him and left him there, my mom had recognized him and tried to help him, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with her. He just sat there bawling. I was so concerned about this little boy who seemed so devastated that even though I was barely old enough to talk, that was all I talked about for the next week. Can you blame me Bryce was the cutest little kid!!! We later became friends through some mutual friends when I was in the 6th grade. One day we decided to go on a bike ride to some dirt hills about a mile away from our house, and my bike had gotten a flat tire so on the way home he switched me bikes, and when we got home he fixed it for me. We were good friends from then on out!
Our first impressions of each other:Candice- “He is really outgoing”
Our First Date:
Our first date was a group date with the other guys from the “hood” we went to a Mexican restaurant called La Luna up at Jordan Landing and then to the movie Shanghi Knights. We had had a lot of fun together talking and laughing, although I think that we irritated a few of the other people in our group. Bryce and I have a very similar sense of humor, we are both very sarcastic. I don’t think that either of us wanted to call it a night when the movie was done so we went to his house afterward and put in another movie, Reign of Fire, but decided that we just wanted to talk instead. That was one thing that I really liked about Bryce, we could talk and laugh for hours.
Our first Date When he came home from his mission:
When Bryce got home from his mission, my best friend and I made a bet on how long it would take Bryce to ask me out on a date. I went to see him with another one of my friends and we hungout all weekend. At the end of the weekend he still hadn’t asked out, and so I started to wonder what the heck was going on with this kid, but as I was leaving to go on a vacation with my family he came to my house and finally asked me out. I was living in Provo at the time so for our date he drove all the way down there, and his driving was scary! I think that he drove over a median, and I was like what are you doing? He told me not to worry that was how they drove in Venezuela, he also honked his horn at everyone, he said that in Venezuela that was their way of saying hi. I told him that he was going to have to get use to driving in America because we don’t do that here. He took me to Boondocks, and we drove the race cars, bumper boats, and then I think we mini golfed. I could tell that he was a little nervous being so fresh off the mission, but I had a lot of fun. Not bad for someone who wasn’t allowed to talk to a girl or be with a girl by himself for 2 years!
After Bryce had gotten home from his mission he took me on a few casual dates. He had a mission friend that was living in Provo as well so we doubled with him a lot. I remember after one date Bryce called me as he was driving home and told me how much he liked me. (he always was pretty ballsy) I was comfortable with being his friend, but I was scared to death of being his girlfriend. I'm not sure why because I really liked him. I was torn and I needed some time to figure this out. In the meantime. He couldn't have been more perfect and patient. I remember that about 10'oclock at night I got a phone call from my mom. I could barely hear her on the phone. She said do you know what that noise is? Bryce is mowing our lawn, and trimming our edges. He came right after he got home from work and he has been here for 3 hours. My dad was really sick at that time with the Cancer and so all his chores had been force on to my mom. I knew she was really impressed with him otherwise she wouldn't have called. There had been a few times I had come home from school late at night to find a note on my car. He drove all the way down to surprise visit me, but since I was at school he just left a note on my car instead. I remember coming home for the weekend and Camille was telling me how cute Bryce was at one of our ward parties. He was playing with all the kids. Even after my dad had died he came over with a picture of Jesus by the tomb with Marry. I knew it was really expensive, but after that I really started to push Bryce away. I started declining dating offers, even hangout invites. All I wanted was to be left alone. After 2 months of rejection Bryce had given up hope on me and was about to move on with his life. I remember listening to the Christmas conference talks given by the first presidency. It was the first Christmas without my dad and instead of being depressed by it I wanted to make it as happy as I could, and In the first presidency message, it told us to give of ourselves. I wasn't really sure how to do that, but I knew that Bryce would have the perfect answer for me. One thing that I really admired about Bryce is his spirituality. So I called him up, we talked for hours. I felt better already. After we had talked I realized how much I had missed him, and I couldn't figure out what I had been so scared about. That weekend I decided to go to my home ward. I was hoping I would see Bryce there, which I did of coarse. It made me happy to see him. He always had this energy of fun and happiness around him, and I was desperately seeking that. I wondered if I had ruined my chances with him, but the next weekend he asked me out on another date. I said yes this time. We went bowling and I tried to apologize and explain myself for being so crazy, but the truth was I wasn't sure what was wrong with me. I have always pushed people away from me. On my birthday I was waiting all day for him to tell me happy birthday. I never got a text or a phone call. I wondered if he had forgotten my birthday or if he just didn't like me anymore. I got home from dinner with my roommates and on the table was a huge present and a bouquet of flowers. One of my roommates explained to me that a guy came over to bring them to me and had left about a half hour ago. I called him up and he hadn't left yet, so he came back over. It was then that my heart of steal turned into jello and I was able to let him in. It only took 4 months. I was still a little freaked out about having a "boyfriend" I had never had one before.
I remember Bryce came up to me one day after church and told me that we needed to talk. I thought that he wanted to DTR (or for people who don’t live in Provo, determine the relationship). I wanted to be his “girlfriend”, but I did not want to talk about it. I hadn't even told my mom or family about it yet. So when he said that he wanted to talk. I said no, I don’t want to. He got a funny look on his face and said, what do you think we are going to talk about? I said I don’t know, but I don’t want to talk about it yet. I had realized that determining our relationship is not what Bryce had intended to talk to me about, so now I felt really foolish because he was going to make me talk about the very thing that I didn’t want to talk about, and yet he wanted to talk about something totally different in the first place, but instead of just dropping it he just sat there and watched me squirm. I saw that he wasn’t going to let me get away from this so I finally told him, and he said oh no I just wanted to set up some dating rules that President Allen had given me. Why didn’t he just say that in the first place!
Our first Kiss:
Our first kiss was kind of a similar experience. We were cuddling on the couch watching Hook and Bryce I guess just got really brave or something because he decided that he was going to kiss me, well me being totally freaked out of being in a relationship and especially kissing was not expecting him to jump the gun on me. And so I sat there stone face, but bless his heart he just kept kissing the brick wall that I had set up. After a while I think that he realized that it wasn’t going to get any better so he gave up. I felt really bad afterward I didn’t want things to be awkward, and I didn’t want to give the poor guy a complex, so a few days later it was New Years Day and I got up the courage and kissed him. We haven’t stopped since.
I went down to Bryce’s room one day and his laptop was opened, on his screen was driving directions to get to Ensign Peak. I thought it was unusual and I was wondering what he was up to. He was talking to Megan on the phone, and I could tell that he was hiding something. He told me that Megan was wondering how to get to Ensign Peak because she wanted to go with her family, which I thought was a little strange. I kind of hoped that he was planning on proposing, so I thought that I would help him and go along with it. I told him that I had never been to Ensign Peak and that I would really like to go, and so he said that we could go this weekend. Saturday came and it was raining. I went down to Bryce’s room all excited, hoping that he would be up and ready, but he was asleep. I was like what are you doing? We are suppose to go to Ensign Peak today, and all he could say in a groggy voice was maybe some other time. I was so disappointed, and I told myself that I wasn’t allowed to get my hopes up like that again. 
The next Tuesday the temple called me and wanted to confirm my address. I thought that it was a little strange at first, but I had lost my temple recommend so I thought that maybe they had found it and they were going to mail it to me, but then they said that they wanted to confirm my fiancÃĐ’s address. I said who? They said Bryce Erickson? I said I know who Bryce is and I know his address, but he is not my fiancÃĐ. The sweet little lady was really confused and didn’t know what to say, and I was like who is this, did someone put did someone put you up to this, and I started laughing. The poor lady just didn’t know what to do or say, and I really thought that maybe it was Kit’s secretary or something playing a huge joke on me. So I decided to ask her a few questions. I asked her what Temple she was calling from, she said Salt Lake. I told her that I had heard that the temple was closing for a few years, and she told me that was just a rumor, so then I asked her what day I was getting married, she said August 28th. I thought that was a pretty good day to get married so I asked her what time, She said 9:00, and that is when I told her that she better cancel the appointment because I didn’t know anything about it. She told me to talk to my fiancÃĐ and then to get back to her. So I called Bryce right after that. He had just gotten off from working a graveyard shift at Jordan Valley Hospital, so he wasn’t very happy when I woke him up from sleeping, but I couldn’t help it I had to tell him that the temple called me and told me that we were getting married. I mean it’s not everyday that a girl gets the temple to propose to her. I asked him if he thought that someone in his family was playing a joke on us, he was relieved that I had come to that conclusion and told me that he would investigate it, but until then not to tell anyone about it. So as soon as I hung up the phone with him I had to erase it from my facebook page. I thought that it was a hilarious joke, but Bryce didn’t seem to think it was that funny.
On Thursday I was suppose to be studying for one of my finals, but I just couple help think about the idea of getting married, and the more I thought about it the more sad I got thinking that it could be just a huge joke. Just as I had finished picking out my wedding colors and assignments for everyone Bryce called me and told me that he had talked to Megan and it wasn’t her, but he said don’t worry I will find out who did this. I just started crying, and I told him I didn’t care who did it and I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. His response of course was, “are you crying?” I told him that I didn’t think that it was a funny joke anymore, but I didn’t want to be a bad sport, so I just didn’t want to talk about it. He then tried to tell me why it wasn’t a good idea for us to get married. I really didn’t understand his logic, but I couldn’t worry about because I had to go take my final, which I didn’t do as well as I thought I was going to do. I guess that I just had too much on my mind. He told me that he take me hiking that weekend to make me feel better, or anything else that I wanted to do. He said that we can play tennis or go biking, but I thought, “No you can’t propose to me at a tennis court”, so once again we made plans to go to Ensign Peak.
I got up Saturday and painted my nails (just in case I was going to be taking some pictures of my hands) I tried to get ready, but I didn’t want to get overly ready after all we were going hiking. He called to make sure that I was still planning on going, and I thought okay this is a good sign; he’s not going to be asleep again when I go over there. When I got there Bryce was dressed nice a little too nice, but I didn’t want to say anything I was just going to go with the flow, but once again thought this is a good sign. So we got up there, and everyone was looking at me like they knew me, they seemed friendly enough so asked one of the girls to take a picture of Bryce and I. As she was talking the picture I could see out of the corner of my eye a little picnic that had been set up. I thought how cute someone is having a picnic up here, but before I could say anything Bryce said that he had planned a little picnic for us. There was a blanket set out for us with flowers in the shape of a heart and CafÃĐ Rio sitting up there. He told me that He had walked up here earlier that morning and set this up, which I thought was impossible, but I didn’t want to ask any questions yet. Then he told me not to look behind me because there was some guy filming us, and I thought oh Megan is up here so I just sat there waiting for him to propose, but we just sat up there talking a little awkwardly. Then he laid the bomb on me and told me that he was sad that I didn’t get a very good valentines day and so he wanted to make up for it, which would have been cute, but I was expecting him to propose to me dangit! So all of this was for a stupid Valentine’s gift? You have got to be kidding me. I was just about to give up when Bryce got a phone call. It sounded like a guy, but when I asked him who it was he said it was his mom. I thought, “Okay lying is good, he is still trying to hide something”. By that time the guy, who was not Megan had left, and so had everyone else. It was just us up there, and before I could realize what was happening he was on his knee and he opening up the box, he was telling me how much he loved me, and he was saying some other stuff, but all I could do was stare at the ring. I then realized that he hadn’t been talking for a while, it took me a minute to come out of shock, but of coarse said YES! We sat up there for awhile to let me soak it all in, and then we decided to tell our families. 
Our wedding:
I may be a bit bias, but we had the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen. It was a little on the stressful side, but well worth it in the end! Our Temple Time was at 9:00, which meant that we had to be at the temple at 7:45, which meant that that I had to get up at 5:00. Lucky my BCF (best cousins forever) was there to help me get ready. She was a life saver for me! Bryce’s sister was doing my hair so I got there about 5:30, and yes it took 2hrs to curl my hair and do my makeup. Everything was perfect until I realized that I forgot to get my temple clothes and recommend out of my car. Turns out that Bryce had already hid my car so that it wouldn’t get trashed at our reception. We were already running a little late, but the car was parked at the neighbor’s house so it wasn’t that big of a deal! We also had to run back to my house so I could pick up my bouquet, veil, and dress. I had purposely put them out the night before so I would know exactly where everything was. Well I guess my mom also thought that I might forget things so she moved them to a more convenient spot, only she didn’t tell me where it was! So again I got a little panicked, but I found my dress the most important thing and once again my life savor of a cousin also one of my bridesmaids found my veil and bouquet and brought it to the temple for me. After that things were smooth sailing. The temple was perfect. Our sealer was Elder Rex Pinegar, he was a member of the 70, and somehow related to Bryce’s family. I had hoped and prayed that I would be able to feel my dad there. I had really been missing him lately, and was really sad that I didn’t get to do a daddy daughter dance at the wedding. I remember Elder Pinegar saying that our loved ones who have passed on before us are here with us now, and will be forever connected to us through the sacred sealing ordinances. Although I already knew that, it was just what I needed to hear. Our wedding was actually a little short, but perfect nun the less and since I was married in my wedding dress, Bryce and I were out in about 15min. The temple wasn’t crowded that day (which was weird because we got married in the Salt Lake Temple on a Friday) We were out before some of our family was even there, so we had to end up waiting for them for about a ½ hour. We took about 2 hours of pictures and then headed up to our favorite Restaurant Sampan. When we got back to Bryce’s house everything was already set up and it looked beautiful. Things were about ready to start when I noticed that I forgot to take my pill and pack for our honeymoon, so I ran down to my house (literally because I couldn’t get into my car because it was in hiding) but luckily once again my BCF was there for me. She already had a bag packed and ready. I don’t know what I would have done without my family and friends, they really came through for me! The reception was beautiful. I loved seeing all of my friends and family there. We had dancing afterward, which was probably the best part of the reception. Bryce has got some moves, along with the rest of the family that not only surprised me but I think he surprised a lot of people! We finally rode away on our motorcycle to go to the Hilton, but first we had to stop and get some Dell Taco (ya know so we could have some energy for the rest of the night!) It was the Perfect Day!!! If you want to read more about our engagement and wedding you can read all about it in my other blog at http://c-candice.blogspot.com/
Our honeymoon:
We decided to go to Cabo. I really wanted to go out of the country and, and so we thought Mexico would be fun, and not too expensive, plus Bryce speaks Spanish so we wouldn’t have to worry about the language barrier. My mom has a time share with the Hilton Resort so we stayed in the Fiesta Americana. Are plane left at 5:00 am so we had to be up and ready at 3. We were told before hand that they would have people to take us to our hotel, so that we shouldn’t go with anyone else or they would charge us a lot of money. So when we got there we waited and waited and waited, but no one from our hotel came. Bryce was getting really nervous, so finally we decided to get on another bus, they of coarse said that they could take us there, we were driving for about a ½ hour and Bryce was panicking I am too naive to worry about stuff like that so I just enjoyed the ride. First they dropped us off at a liquor store, and after that we wondered onto a dirt road. I tried to ask Bryce some questions to keep him calm, but by now he was really freaking out. He looked at me and said I CAN’T TALK RIGHT NOW! But we finally got there and it was beautiful!!! The people there greeted us with some wet towels. Bryce I looked at each other not quite sure what to do with them, but took them anyway and thanked the people there. Fist we signed up to take a tour of the place, so we could have a free breakfast, next we went to our room, relaxed a little bit and then got ready for dinner. We were too tired to go anywhere so we just ate at the hotel. They had a romantic little restaurant on the beach lit with candles perfect for a honeymoon. The next day we rented a car and went sight seeing. Bryce wanted to go to a grocery store so he could make me some authentic meals. We got a little lost trying to find the grocery store and ended in the outskirt of town. I wanted to take some pictures, but Bryce freaked out on me, it was a little grungy where we were at and he did want to bring any attention to us. It was interesting to me that Mexico has a Wal-Mart, Sam’s club, home depot, McDonalds, Domino’s pizza, and a Mall. We were there during there Mexican Independent day, so that night they had all sorts of parties going on, but some people there told us that we should go back to our hotel early because things get a little to crazy for us white folk. Then next day we signed up for some activities. We signed up for a tour boat and snorkeling, and a zip line that goes from canyon to canyon. We were walking around the marina and there were beautiful sail boat and ships, and then we got to ours, it was…festive. Actually I loved it I wanted something really authentic and that is exactly what I got. The tour took us all around Cabo, to lover’s arch, and to a place where we could go snorkeling. The guy on the boat told us that we had an hour to go snorkeling and then he would sound the horn, and if we weren’t on the bus, then welcome to Cabo, find a job, and hitch you way back to home. The funny thing is, he meant it. He wasn’t worried about getting sued or anything like that, it is not the Mexico way. The snorkeling was fun. We saw a ton of fish, there were so many by us that I felt like every time I moved I was kicking them. When we got back on the boat the offered us lunch. I was thinking we would get some tacos, or fajitas, or quesadillas, but no we got bologna sandwiches. It was the worst sandwich I have ever had in my life!!! But we also got free drinks, so Bryce and I filled up on virgin pina colada’s. The Zip lines were a lot of fun too. It was a good workout, there was a lot of hiking involved, and they had 8 different zip lines that went from canyon to canyon. You could do some different things going down the zip lines, some of them you could go down in twos, they had a line called mariposa, which means butterfly, if you are a gringo, but if you know Spanish then it means something entirely different, it was a little kinky, but I liked it. They had a superman one where you would jump off the cliff, one where you went backwards down, and one where I thought you were suppose to hand upside down, but apparently you can only do that if you are one of the instructors, oops my bad. Luckily we were in Mexico so they didn’t really care. We were really sweaty and gross when we got back from the zip lines, so I decided to make us a huge bubble bath, only I have never had a real bubble bath with jets so I poured way too much soap in the tub, there were so many bubbles that Bryce and I couldn’t even see each other in the tub. Our last full day there we went to the beach. We bought a boogie board at Wal-Mart and had a lot of fun with it, but the waves were so big that it sucked by bottoms right off of me. I was more scared about getting away from the way though. All the native guys were laughing at me, but I didn’t really care all they saw was my butt. One of the guys there actually did get stuck in a wave and had to call out for help. It was an amazing honeymoon. I loved spending everyday all day with Bryce. I was really sad to leave and go back to real life, but I was also anxious to see my puppy and get back to America! We definitely want to go back some day!
Some other fun facts about us:
• Some couples will talk to each other in baby talk well Bryce and I like to talk to each other with Asian accents...We think we are funny!
• By my definition Bryce was my first real boyfriend and my first real kiss, and Bryce…well he was more of a slut
• We want a big family when we grow up…which will be years and years from now!
• Sometimes in church we like to switch the singing parts. He will sing the girls part and I sing the guys part.
• One day when we were newly newlyweds we were running a little late to church, so we threw on our close and ran out the door, but the time we got to church I was sitting there right in the middle of sacrament meeting and I looked down at my shoe and I noticed a Trojan wrapper (just the wrapper we are not that gross!) stuck to my foot. I laughed for the rest of church.
• Some of our biggest arguments have been whether chickens cluck or balk (I am not even sure how to spell it) or if cheesecake is in the pie or cake category.• Bryce wears the pants in our relationship, but when it comes to primping he acts more like the girl in our relationship. He is also the clean one in the relationship.
• I only got into one fight in high school (wasn’t much of a fight I just threw a girl up to a locker and put her in her place) Bryce coincidently has only been in one fight as well (pretty much the same situation as mine). The girl that I fought and the boy that Bryce fought also ended up getting married!
• We are both very sarcastic and very competitive.
Our favorites:Holiday: Halloween. We throw a big party every year with our friends.
Restaurant: Sampan, but we only go there on special occasions.
TV show: We enjoy watching Sports (Jazz, BYU, NFL and the Olympics), the TV series 24 and prison break, and Law and Order.
Movies: Bryce likes action, and I like romantic comedy so anything that has a good combo of both.
Activities: We love to play games, and sports such as tennis, bowling, biking, and boating. We also love to rough house, and be sillyMusic: We both like 80’s and country.
