How I Met Your Mother

Saturday it cleared up long enough for us to go wine tasting/winery touring with our friends, The Kamin Family, from out of town (California). The last time we had seen Steve was when he came to visit us 12 years ago. This time he came with his wife Tara and their beautiful 13 month daughter, Sydney Claire. We had trouble getting together earlier in the week due to Spencer's birthday, Kaelin's portfolio night and other commitments. But the weather cooperated on Saturday and we went wine tasting/touring in Newberg. We went to Ayers and The Brickhouse. I can't drink alcohol due to the 10" of intestines missing etc. but I sure enjoyed the scenery and company and what great photo ops! Dave isn't really a wine drinker and after passing on the first winery, he partook in the second and was very pleasantly suprised at how much he liked it and enjoyed the taste! Steve and Tara didn't want to lug the glasses home, so we have some great souveneirs! I highly recommend winery touring/wine tasting for a way to spend a nice sunny day, especially if you have out of town guests!

A little history lesson...

Steve's apartment is where Dave and I met on April 28th in 1990. Dave and Steve lived in the same apt. complex in Santa Monica. Steve was throwing a suprise birthday party for his girlfriend at the time, Kris Miller, who happened to be a good friend of mine. So my friends and I were there to celebrate. I used to have a crush on Dave when he played basketball at UCLA, but I had never met him and he graduated 2 years before I did. My crush moved onto Troy Aikman, our star quarterback, so I had forgotten about Dave when we were at this party. Out of sight, out of mind. LOL We had all gone out the night before partying, so we weren't really up for a party, but we went anyways because Kris meant a lot to us. My roommate Sheila pointed Dave out to me, "That's Dave Immel over there." And I said "That's not Dave Immel, I would know Dave Immel if I saw him." He was watching Star Trek on the TV and my friend Rachel was giving him a hard time, pretending she liked it too. Before I knew it, my friend Kris dragged Dave over to me, introduced us by saying "Shauna, this is Dave. Dave, this is Shauna. She likes sports too." And then he noticed the big scar on my left leg (ACL reconstruction) and we began talking about surgeries (he had a lot of them). He asked me what section of the newspaper I read first. I said "sports" and it was all over. He says he was hooked! It seemed like it was that point that my friends were ready to leave and they dragged me with them (they were driving). I so didn't want to go. I had a boyfriend at the time. He played soccer at UCLA. I left thinking that nothing would ever come of that encounter. A few days later I got a suprise phone call. Dave had asked Steve, who had asked Kris, for my number and he called me! It was the last person in the world I expected to call me! I was scheduled to go to Catalina with my boyfriend and his family for the weekend over Cinco de Mayo. But Dave had asked me out and I couldn't say no. So I lied to my boyfriend and told him I had a bunch of homework I had to do. Dave and I went on our first date on Cinco de Mayo, I think we even double dated with Steve and Kris. Our date went so well that after that weekend, I had to break up with my boyfriend, who happened to be the sweetest and nicest guy, but I knew Dave was the one for me. I lied and told my boyfriend that I was getting ready to graduate (he was an underclassman) and that I was going to move away so it would be easier to break up now than later. My roommate Sheila and I had planned on moving to Sun Valley and being ski bunnies after we graduated. But then I met Dave and everything changed (Sheila went to Sun Valley though!). I felt so bad hurting him by breaking up, I didn't want to hurt him more by telling him I had met someone else. He showed up at graduation with flowers for me. Dave showed up at my graduation party at my apartment afterwards and met my whole family. We dated for 2 months after I graduated and then we moved in together and we've been together ever since. We moved to Portland in late summer/early fall of 1990 and then we moved to Australia where Dave played pro basketball and I played on the NSW state women's team that Dave coached and got to tour with the men's team. It was a great way to see the country (we traveled by bus) and we met and made so many wonderful friends. We moved to Kent after our year downunder and then to Seattle. We were engaged for two years before we got married (my wedding had to be perfect and we wanted to get married on the 3oth, as Dave's jersey number was #30), as well as the dryest day of the year (the last weekend in July). So we were married July 30th, 1994. We went to Disneyworld for our honeymoon and it was there that the magic of Disney blessed us with conceiving Spencer, who just this week turned 13.

So thanks Steve for playing a big part in our relationship. For had you not thrown that suprise party for Kris, we wouldn't have met and lived happily ever after (or as close as we can get to it minus the stupid cancer). Thanks for taking time out of your busy lives to come visit and bless us with your presence and for stirring up memories of the good ole days!

xoxox

Shauna

PS. Kaelin and I went to see Indiana Jones today (Sunday). We enjoyed it! We finally got thru the first 3 movies on DVD.

PSS. Took Spencer to the Urgent Care today. Turns out he has an ear infection and Bronchitis due to his allergy symptoms turning into ear/lung infections. He's not contagious, but he's probably going to miss his class trip Tues - Friday to Mount Saint Helens. They are camping and hiking and caving and learning about volcano's etc. for the week. Bummer.