1. When was your engagement? Adam proposed to me on New Years Eve, at the Space Needle in Seattle, WA, at 12:00am on January 1st, 1998. He didn't get on one knee, and he didn't have my ring yet, but as the fireworks started to go off (we'd always had a joke about fireworks), he just felt it was the right moment, so he turned to me, took my freezing hands in his, held them to his chest and asked the most waited for question in history..."Will you do my laundry for the rest of our lives?" Just kidding, he asked me if I'd marry him. Of course I would! And I'd do the laundry too. I wasn't kidding about it being the most waited for question in history (see #4).2. When is your marriage anniversary? August 15th, 1998.
3. How long have you known your spouse? Over 17 years.
4. How long did you date before you got engaged? We started dating two years after we'd met, when I was 15+10 mos. and Adam was a couple weeks away from 18. We dated for two years, I broke up with him once for seven days, then we were happily back together again. He left on a mission. We wrote hundreds of letters over the two years. Yes, I dated other guys (my parents prayed Adam would return home safely, and I would return to my senses). No, he did not date other girls...he was on a mission after all! He was dating the Lord! He came home, and we picked up where we had left off. He broke up with me after moving to BYU, thanks to the influence of his friend Cameron, knowing I was weeks away from moving out there myself. He went on one date. I arrived in Provo, my mom gave him a dirty look that chilled his soul so deeply he will never forget it, and we were blissfully dating again two days later. Either he was terrified my mother had cursed him with a terrible curse if he did not beg my forgiveness and take me back, or he realized he loved me too much to let me go, regardless of what Cameron thought about fish and seas. I prefer to think it was the latter. So that is a grand total five years of "loving." But if you remove the two mission years, it is three. To be honest, I think the letter writing from his mission was where we began to fall deeply in love, as you share things in letters, discuss things in letters, put yourself out there in letters, that you don't necessarily do in person.
5. Where did you meet your spouse? At the home of our best friends, the Dompiers. Chad was Adam's BFF, his little sister Kori, was mine. I had always thought Adam had a killer back flip on the trampoline, but it wasn't until we had been around each other for a couple of years that we both realized how incredibly attractive the other was. Maybe it had something to do with me not being 12 anymore. Thankfully the liking was mutual and began at the same time, on a Dompier family vacay that we both had been invited on. Ahhhh, what a week! A week of falling hard, and falling fast. That was August 1993; intense flirting commenced with the beginning of my Sophomore year and his Senior year. Football games were the best times for being near him and batting my lashes his way. I nearly melted when he pulled my shoulders against him to keep me away from some madly moshing Seniors after one particular touchdown. He held on longer than necessary, but he wasn't ready to let go, and I didn't want him to! It was like our bodies were frozen, all but our pounding, nervous, full-on crushing hearts. Cheesy, but true! But he didn't ask me out officially until the beginning of October.
6. What is your spouse's full name? Daniel Adam Conlin.
7. Do you have any children? Yessir!
8. How many? Four of the most incredible boys walking this earth.
9. Do you have any pets? Princess Rubybelle of Summerfield, our 3-year-old Golden Retriever.
10. Do you own or rent? We own, it's only the second house we have owned, the first we only owned for two years. And we love it...now if only we could get that basement finished for free....
11. Do you live in the country, city/town? I guess Colorado Springs is a "city," but it is a really small one, comprised mostly of suburbs.
12. What is your favorite activity you do together? Hmmmm, ;). We actually enjoy doing quite a bit together. I think we are just suckers for anything that allows us time together. Life is busy, you gotta grab those moments when you can! We love hiking and camping, and putting the two together: backpacking, although we haven't done this for a long time (see #8). We also love watching TV together, or movies; it's good snuggle time. We enjoy PF Changs together. We enjoy a good laugh together. We love our late night talks (maybe not as much in the morning when we wake up after getting too little sleep).
13. Do you have a favorite vacation spot? I love this question, as if there are multiple "spots" we get to often enough for one of them to be our favorite. We've had some great vacations though. Our favorite is probably our 10th anniversary trip to Puerto Vallarta, but we loved Alaska, Arch Cape, Sun River, Lake Billy Chinook, Hawaii, Disneyland, all of them. Any chance we have to go on vacation is never bad!
14. How many siblings do you have including in-laws? I have 8 in all. One sis on my side. The best sis ever. And from Adam I was blessed with three more sisters, two brothers, two bro-in-bro-in-laws (meaning they are married to two of my sis-in-laws). I love all my bros and sises. They are incredible people, and so special to me. What would I do without them all?!
15. What church do you attend? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
16. Is this the church you got married in? We were married in the Seattle Temple. It was an amazing day! I was late to the wedding, thanks to our hairdressers. I also was wearing jeans and in my scramble to get to the hair appointments had forgotten a skirt. But that was OK. I guess there is an exception for harried brides! The woman who met me at the door said, "You have a very nervous groom in there! He thought you weren't going to show up!" (this was before cell phones). As if! See #4! Since my family aren't members of our church and couldn't attend the actual ceremony, they allowed my sis and mom to help get me dressed in my wedding gown in the temple matron's office. I cried a lot when I had to leave them, and cried more as we got married. But they were two very different kinds of tears that day, first, heartbroken to not have my family near, and later incredibly, completely overjoyed to be marrying my best friend and a man so perfect for me! Thank goodness for waterproof mascara. Later in the day we had a ring exchange ceremony in the park that was very special to me and my family, my dad got to walk me down the aisle and everything. Following that was our reception at the Stake Center that was decorated magically to not look like a gym.
17. Where have you and your spouse lived? Provo, Utah (Undergrad-2 years); Kirkland, Washington (Graduated from BYU, just picked a place to live-7 months); Bellevue, Washington (Wanted to be closer to Grandmas and Grandpas with our baby, Zach-1 year); Bellevue, Washington (Needed a larger apartment, Ben came along-1 year); Provo, Utah (Adam's MBA-19 months, during three of which Adam lived in Gumi, South Korea for his internship); Everett, Washington (Graduated from BYU again, moved close to Adam's work and into our rental house...a house!-1 year); Everett, Washington (Thinking we were settled for awhile we bought a house-2 years); Colorado Springs (Adam was transferred with work-1 year at the end of next month!).
18. Do you work or stay home? My mom used to wear a shirt when I was a kid that said, "Every Mother is a Working Mother," and this working mother is a stay-at-home-mom.
19. Where did you go for your honeymoon? Honolulu, Hawaii. I remember waking up the first morning thinking, "Wow. I am married. Forever." It was surreal, but not in a bad way. We had a great week, Adam's parents gave us the tickets as a gift, and my parents provided the room as a gift. We mostly just relaxed up on the North Shore where it was quiet and we could just be together. We found the yummiest little shrimp scampi bus that served fresh pineapple on ice too. It was our favorite. But we did some sight-seeing too, Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Cultural Center, long beach walks, Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu, snorkeling in Hanama Bay. The one day we went to Waikiki it was so nasty compared to the North Shore we didn't stay long. We tried to go to the Hawaii temple, but it was closed that week, so we just took some pictures outside and went to the visitors' center. But we also took a great beach walk that day and saw some sea turtles, that was cool. It was the best. We also ate a lot of Drumsticks, the Original Sundae Cone. Yum!
20. Leave a piece of marriage advice: Before we got married my dad took Adam out to root beer and gave him these cute little cards he had made with pieces of advice on them like, "Don't sweat the small stuff." And, "Let her be right, because why does it really matter?" On our wedding day our officiator (a kind, sweet man from a different generation), who gave us loads of good advice, like, take time to calm down before you start a conversation about something that made you angry. But also made me laugh a little inside when he told me, "It's better to come home to cold dinner and a warm wife, than a warm dinner and a cold wife (meaning: I shouldn't get mad at Adam if he is a little late from being out and doing his man duties). It is good advice for both of us, really, just take a deep breath and relax when things aren't going your way. But it made me picture myself in my 1950's beehive hairdo and apron waiting patiently by the table to serve my husband dinner as the minutes tick by. In reality, I make him a plate and stick it in the fridge for him to microwave when he gets home. Anyhow, my advice would be: Respect each other, try to outdo each other with kindness, and be quick to apologize when you have made a mistake.
21. Things I love most about my Valentine: Adam is an amazing father to our boys, they love him and look up to him so much, and he is incredibly involved; he listens to my rants and raves endlessly, even when I am repeating myself over and over; he is a caring human being; he is my own personal stand-up comedian (dry-style, just like I like it); I still catch him watching me sleep (which I always tell him is creepy, but if he ever stopped I'd cry); he still makes me feel like I am beautiful and deeply loved just by looking at me; he works hard to support our family so that I can be home with the kids, and he is really good at his job, they love him there; he knows me more than I know myself and loves me eternally; and I love the blueness of his eyes, and the gentleness they hold, they always have; I also love the softness of those perfect lips. There is so much I love about him, but that's a pretty good list, so I will leave it at that!