First Meeting

Scott: We first met when Jayleen joined my rec soccer team after an invite from a mutual friend, Josh. I hosted a practice with the team and Jayleen was one of 5 other players to actually attend. After the practice Jayleen, myself and Josh went to a local pub to grab a bite to eat.

Jayleen: My friend Josh and I worked together at the University Hospital and I had expressed to him that I was looking to get back into sports (I had played soccer for years growing up). He told me about his rec league soccer team that needed more female players, so I decided to join. I went to the practice that was scheduled to try to meet the team before the games started. There were only about 7 people who came, but I still felt better at least getting to meet some of the team. The team captain was super nice and inclusive to anyone who was new (I think I was the only new person). But he made me feel very comfortable and even though I was way out of shape and terrible with the ball he made me feel like I could still fit in with the team. After the game Josh and I wanted to go for nachos and beer, so we invited the other players, but the team captain (Scott) was the only one who wanted to join, so the 3 of us went to First Round downtown together.

First Impressions

Jayleen: My first impression of Scott was that he was very good at soccer! Haha he was well liked by all the people around him. He was and still is super charismatic and easy to talk to. He had a confidence to him that I really admired and he went out of his way to make conversation and always ensured those around him were feeling comfortable. He was so kind and patient with the new players (haha me), and that was something I hadn't really experienced much in the past. I myself don't have much for patience and I just really thought to myself "How amazing is this guy that he cares enough to organize a rec team practice (no one does that, it's rec league! lol), and then go out for beer and food with this random girl and her grumpy friend". It wasn't long after that I asked Josh "So.... what is Scott's deal?" (Obviously code for Uh, is that guy single? haha)

Scott: My first impression was that she was really smart and funny. One of our team mates had left his jacket at the field so she took a bunch of "sexy" photos of Josh (our mutual friend) in it with some of the wait staff to send to our team mate. I thought it showed that Jayleen was a good friend, getting him out of his comfort zone and boosting his self confidence.

A Story to Sum up Our Relationship

Our one year "anniversary". We don't have an officially recognized date that we celebrate as our anniversary to when we started dating. However our first anniversary we universally consider being our canoe trip with Jayleen's Man of Honor Phil. Phil used to be a guide near Rocky Mountain House. Jayleen planned a trip for us, Phil and his gf, as well as another former guide that Jayleen and Phil had used to work with and his girlfriend. On the first day of the trip we got all of our gear into the boats and we asked Phil, "Should we tie down our stuff?" to which Phil replied "nah, it's a pretty lazy river". Jayleen and I had never canoed before. We were definitely fish out of water, and after about an hour or so on the water the two guides suggest that we go down an "adventure channel", a small channel separated by the river bank and a small island in the river. They gave us this instruction, just as the river started to split, Jayleen and I tried desperately to join our fellow travelers but could not make the turn fast enough! This resulted in our boat going backwards down the river!! By the time we get our boat turned around we were headed right towards a tree!! We could not escape the tree and while Jayleen was able to duck under the tree, I was not. I got stuck between the boat and the tree. I was able to maneuver the tree out of the way, but this caused part of the boat underwater which resulted in our boat tipping over! Jayleen managed to grab the cooler (full of our beer), our tent (wrapped in a garbage bag, which stayed remarkably dry), and me while I grabbed the boat. We were lucky that a group of Kayakers helped us recover our stuff and the only things that were lost were my hat, my water bottle and both of my right footed shoes (a water shoe and a rubber boot). I finished the trip wearing a left water shoe and a left rain boot. We didn't get down on ourselves though. We had an amazing trip apart from a small cut on my forehead nobody was hurt. We learned to respect the river that day. I feel like this sums up our relationship because we had fun, we tried something new, we learned together, we faced adversity together, and we didn't let the hardships ruin what turned out to be an amazing trip. Jayleen and I love to adventure together and it wouldn't be us if we didn't get a little lost along the way.