Dan walked into Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian to attend Sr. High Youth Group in September of 2002. He was 15, and Rita was 14. She spotted him across the room because he was a) new to youth group, and b) wearing very bright surfer-looking clothing, complete with sun-in hair.
Their relationship stayed in the friend zone for the first 2 years while Rita struggled with the thought of dating someone who lived "so far away" and while Dan worked on figuring out if Rita liked him. In 2005, Dan and Rita went on a Ski trip through SOTH and spent the entire bus ride to and from Mt. Bachelor talking. After that trip, you might say, the rest is history.
Their first date was February 24, 2005 where Dan attended one of Rita's choir concerts and then went to Casa Mia's in downtown Puyallup. The restaurant workers eventually kicked the two out so they could close. After that, their relationship slowly blossomed. Rita finally told Dan that she loved him after returning from a long trip in August of that year.
In September, Dan began college at WSU and they maintained their relationship via instant messenger. Rita joined him the following year and for the first time Rita and Dan were living within walking distance from each other. They did everything together including Fraternity dances, and even taking a few classes together.
Once they graduated the relationship began to hit a slump, which is when the two started talking about how to solve their long-distance problem: the answer, get married!
