The Name ‘FollowMeToTheHut’

“Follow me to the hut” is a phrase that in our family means “let’s go home”.  It originated with the group of boys on the top of this page.  My dad, the skinny guy in the aviator sunglasses, belonged to a group who hung out in the homemade hut.  It was built in my dad’s backyard and was a place where they could be themselves.

Neighbors grew tired of the hut and complained to the city zoning department.  The city explained that the hut needed a permit.  When my dad and his buddies drew up their own blueprints and came down to the office, the zoning employees got such a kick out of it, that the hut received a stamp of approval.

My brothers and I grew up listening to hut stories about feeding friends dog food crackers for “hors d’oeuvres”, staying in the hut for a week, and cruising State Street, Utah yelling “Follow me to the hut” at girls.  The girls would actually follow these guys!  We love hut stories and the guy who eventually grew up but still wears those aviator glasses.

How We Met

Ben and I first met right after High School on December 18th 1995.  I remember the exact date because it was my mother’s birthday and much later, our son Adam was also born on December 18th.

I was working at Peter Piper Pizza and my manager Jim would constantly tease me about being LDS (mormon).  Then he said he had the perfect guy for me.  I did not believe him, since he always joked with me.  However, when he brought Ben in, I knew this guy WAS something special.  It turned out that Ben and Jim had grown up together and gone to LDS church together.  We’ll always credit Jim for being our match maker!

We dated for around nine months before Ben left on a mission for our church.  He served two years in the Manchester England mission.  We wrote every week for two years and when he returned, we were married.

I write all of this like it wasn’t complicated, but in hindsight it wasn’t.  At the time it was so difficult.  It would have been so  much easier to meet after Ben’s mission.  Plus, when he left I transferred to Brigham Young University in Utah and was attending there when he got home to Arizona.  Our engagement was long distance while Ben attended Arizona State University.  We were so glad to finally be married on May 1, 1999.

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary this past spring.  I am so grateful for Ben.  His personality is exactly what my personality needs.  When I get scared or emotional about not being able to have the many children that I always dreamed of, Ben is right there to calm me.

We know that somehow the Lord will provide another miracle in our lives.  We are so blessed with our son Adam and having the privilege to adopt will be another miracle.  There is nothing we want more than to add to the joy that our family brings us.

A Family Timeline