When Your Oldest Goes To His First Prom.....

This post basically started back in the 6th Grade!!

Garrett had the crush of his life on a sweet girl named Valerie Harker!

 He used to sneak in to his closet to talk with her on the phone!

One night I caught him in there and he was so embarrassed!

We are all able to look back on these pics now and laugh!

 

 They bought each other little Christmas Gifts that year.

Garrett and I wandered all over Layton Hills Mall to find her something....

he finally decided on a cute scarf from Claire's!

She made him a fleece blanket with basketballs all over.....

which to this day, he still keeps on his bed! 

 

 Their little crush came to a halt when Summer came!

Valerie would be going to West Point Jr. High, and Garrett to Syracuse Jr. High.

Those 3 years they remained great friends.

They text often and talked when they saw each other at school sporting events, etc.

This summer they text quite a bit....as they were headed back to

being in the same school together once High School started.

As parents....we have always been so grateful for Valerie's friendship with Garrett.

Their texts between each other are always above board and they lift each other up!

They truly are such great friends, and for that....we are grateful she's in his life.

She is always good to come cheer him up with a goodie, if a day is rough...

and definitely always good for a great laugh whenever the other needs it.

I love that about these two!

There was no question from the time school started, 

that Garrett had plans to ask Valerie to their very first Prom!

Valerie came over to our house for Garrett's 16th Birthday back in December,

and gave him a bunch of little gifts that were fun jokes between them.

She spent a few hours with us playing around and eating dinner.

We loved having her here.

 

 A few days after that.....Garrett and Valerie were on the phone talking

and I jokingly looked at Garrett and whispered..."Ask her if she wants to go to Prom?"

Before I knew it he said, "Valerie....My mom wants to know if you want to go to Prom?"

Oh my gosh Garrett!! 

This is why I love Valerie......her response was something like,

"Yeah, but you have to ask better than that!"

When Trav and I left for Cancun in February, the plan was that we'd buy Garrett a

Nacho Libre mask and he was going to wear it to Valerie's and ask her in some funny way with it.

So....we negotiated the mask in some little shop in Playa Del Carmen,

only to come home and find Garrett had decided that was a dumb way to ask

and kind of chickened out on doing it that way.

Which in the long run.....he found something much better anyway,

and still found a way to incorporate the Nacho Mask!

So....When we got home, I told him he'd better hurry and ask her before someone else did!

He said it was way too early and she'd think he was dumb if he asked in February!!

I told him he was crazy to wait and could end up losing out on taking her!

It wasn't even 2 days later from that conversation, he came home from school and said,

"Mom!  I have to ask Valerie tonight!  People are starting to ask tonight!"

I panicked! We hadn't come up with another plan yet!

He said Valerie had plans to go to the gym, but with what little idea we had, 

we knew we needed her home.

So....Garrett text her mom and asked if she would keep Valerie home.

We waited a while, and didn't hear back, but we started planning how he was going to ask,

in hopes she'd get the text and keep Valerie home.

Within a few minutes, my cell phone rang.

On the other end I heard, "Sarah!!  This is Valerie!"

At first I thought, "Oh Dang it.....she got her Mom's text and read it!"

Then I thought, "Oh Dang it!  She's calling to tell me she's already been asked!"

But......to my surprise and excitement.....she was calling to give us a heads up!

"My friend told me at school today that someone was going to ask me to Prom tonight!

When I responded, Yeah, I know.....it's Garrett! My friend said, No it's not!  It's someone else!"

Valerie went on to say, "If Garrett is going to ask me, he's got to HURRY!!!!"

I asked her if her Mom was home....and told her we had already text her mom.

So....she turned the phone over to her mom, who had just walked in the house and wasn't quite sure what all was going on.....other than a whole lot of chaos! Ha ha!

Her Mom hadn't seen our text, but I told her how 

Valerie was calling in a panic that Garrett wouldn't get there first! 

Her mom and I both decided that because we had text earlier and told her

Garrett was hoping to ask her that night and needed her to keep her home from the gym,

that technically, he had asked her first......once in Dec. and again that night with the text,

so if that other boy beat Garrett to her house first that night, that we all felt it was ok for her to still go with Garrett where he had technically been asking first!

Ha!  PHEW!!!!

I made sure with her Mom that if Valerie would rather go with the other kid,

we'd totally respect that and back off!  Ha Ha!

She assured me Valerie wanted to go with Garrett......

and I guess Valerie's phone call to me also verified that desire as well!

I was glad she had the guts to call me!  

That lit the fire Garrett needed to know he wasn't asking too early at all......if anything....

he should have asked 2 days before when his Mom told him he should! Ha ha!

So.....the entire Burke family flew in to planning mode!

Before we knew it, we had it all planned and ready to go!

Now we just needed to execute it all within about an hours time frame before a certain store closed!

Garrett sent Valerie on a scavenger hunt.

It all started with Ty on her porch!  Holy Cow.....Ty has no fear!  So funny!

We had him in a pair of running leggings, short shorts, a cape and the Nacho Mask!

He took a carton of Dibs (Ice Cream) to her porch with the first rhyming clue!

Valerie's Dad answered the door and Ty said, "Is Miss Valerie Harker Here?"

Her dad yelled, "We have a visitor for Miss Valerie Harker!!"

When she came to the door Ty said, 

"Uh, Hello.  Dang, what was I supposed to say?  Oh Yeah....

Violets are Red, Roses are Blue....I know this is all a bit strange...but these are for you!"

He handed her the carton of Dibs and ran down her porch and out in the street,

barefoot and laughing a really stupid laugh!!

On the Dibs it said, "I'm calling DIBS on you Miss Harker!"

She then had a card with her first clue on it.

 

(Clearly....Garrett only wrote a few of these cards.....

I may or may not have fired him for his handwriting....

but he was also busy filming the video,
so I had to hurry and write these so we could finish in time!)

That led her to a stop sign just down the street to her house where her next clue was waiting.

The clue on the stop sign took her to Wendy's, where Garrett had paid for a

frosty of her choice in flavor and the workers had her next clue.

That clue took her to the Boss's home.....a family in our ward who are awesome!

Brother Boss is a great singer and is in plays all the time, so we enlisted his help.

She had to knock on their door to ask for her next clue.

When Brother Boss opened their door, he handed her a bouquet of flowers and sang,
"I Could Have Danced All Night" to her!

He gave her the last clue that sent her to RC Willey's Furniture store.

 Unbeknownst to her, our entire family was there, ditched behind some of the tv's

in the Electrical department.

Trav had called ahead of time and made arrangements with the manager of the electronics,

to let us put a video of Garrett on 12 of the tvs in that section for her to watch.

When Valerie and her mom got there, the manager met them up front

and escorted them back to Electronics.

Once they were in front of the tv's....the manager turned on Garrett's Video!

Julia Knocked on our door and Garrett answered!

 

 

Garrett was talking in his crazy voice when he answered the door and said,

"OH MY GOSH!  Look who it is! Valerie Harker!

4 years ago, I asked you.....and I cant remember how, but I asked you to go to prom with me!

You said yes! Uh, fast forward.....here we are on this wonderful journey I put you on tonight,

and the offer still stands if the answer is still yes.....

Would you like to go to Prom?"

Valerie and her Mom thanked everyone in the Electronics Department.....

to which the manager replied, "Congratulations!!!"

They left and we stayed hidden until we thought the coast was clear!

When we got outside.....Valerie's Mom was taking a picture of her

so we all took off running to our car!

Valerie called Garrett when she got back home and they were both laughing

and talking about the night for a while!

I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time they were on the phone!

These are some of the greatest times as a youth when you can start going to the dances

and asking and answering in such fun ways!

I had just as much fun helping Garrett pull this off as he did!

Let's be honest.....the whole family had just as much fun!

Still cant believe we roped Ty into doing that!

Hilarious!

Now it was Garrett's turn to wait anxiously for her response!

And patient he had to be!  Ha ha!

I guess we put Valerie in a little hard spot trying to figure
 out how to answer back after all of that!

But no worries! She did a fantastic job....3 weeks later!  Ha ha!

I went with Garrett to get fitted for his tux and had a note from 

Valerie with me to give to him after we were finished!

So crazy watching him getting fitted for Prom!

How did he get this old?  How did I????

 

Once we were in the car and once I had the ok from Valerie.....

I handed Garrett the card from her.

He opened it super excited!

 

We took off to McDonald's in Syracuse.

Garrett walked up to the counter and asked for a snack.....

the employees played dumb with him for a minute, but then gave him a 

Sausage Egg McMuffin to eat!

We got out to the car, he ate his "Snack" and then we realized there wasn't any other clue!

I text Valerie and she said McDonald's was supposed to have it.

So....Garrett went back in to get it, and apparently the girl who had it waiting for him,

was now off Shift and had gone home with it! Ha ha! Oops!

So....Valerie text it to us......

"Since McDonald's is lame, here's what's next for your game.

Get on your way but first "Squeeze the day" go to Jamba Juice in Clinton."

Garrett walked in and they made him a smoothie, then sent him off with his next clue.

 

 When we got to Hug Hes Restaurant here in Syracuse,

Garrett asked the front receptionist if she had something for him....

she went to the back and another girl came out with some surprises for him....

 

 

 She said she was supposed to sing, "Can I Have This Dance"

But there was no way she was going to do that!  Ha ha!

I sang it myself to Garrett as we walked to the car.....

only to find out I was singing the wrong song!  Oh well!  At least I sang to him!

She gave him balloons and a sugar cookie with his last clue!

 Garrett was 100% positive this clue was sending him to the High School.

I knew it was actually sending us to our driveway....but I humored him 

and we drove all over the High School Parking lot until
he realized it must be sending him home!

Ha ha!

As we pulled in to the driveway....we saw quite a sight!

Boy did she and her friends get his truck good!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garrett pulled the truck in out of the rain and spent the next 45 mins cleaning it out

so he could drive to school the next morning!

That was such a fun night and he loved every minute of it!

We had fun over the next few weeks all of us texting here and there with info on colors,

flowers, plans, etc.

Garrett and the rest of the boys in the group had come over one night to our house

to plan the actual date......day activity, dinner, etc.

I ended up sitting in on that mtg with them.....if the boys would have had it their way,

it would been a total guys type date and the girls would have hated it!

They thought of shooting guns and car racing, etc.

Luckily some of those plans fell through and the weather wasn't good.....

because their alternate plan ended up being so much better anyway!

Before we knew it, Prom week was here!

Wednesday night, April 6th we were all home and everyone was just hanging out.

Garrett and I got talking about Prom.

He wanted to make it super special for her.....so next thing I knew....

we were running to the store!

We realized there were 4 days left, and we had the chance to take her something each night

to spell out the word PROM.

Trav was the genius behind the first night and the letter P.

The boys had planned to hike Waterfall Canyon in Ogden for the day date.

Trav said to get her a water bottle to "P"repare!

Perfect dear!!

Garrett and I grabbed her a cute pink water bottle, wrapped it up and attached a poem to it!

(Oh boy....you can tell we were in a hurry.....the cut job on the paper is horrendous!)

Because it was so late, we left it on her porch and Garrett text her asking her for a favor.

When she replied he told her to check her porch!

The next night we struggled a little to think of something with the letter R.

Garrett said Valerie loved Pretzel Fishies......

so we came up with this for R:

It seemed like every night we had something going until late, 

so he never got to ring her doorbell and run.....just always had to text and ask for a favor!

Ha ha ha!

Now came the really hard letter......"O."

We had something going on that night so I knew we'd have to get this one ready during the day.

I kept texting Garrett at school and could not think of anything for O.

All of the sudden it came to me!!!

"Once in a life time!"

PERFECTION if you ask me! Ha!

I text Garrett to see what he thought about giving her a clock!

He was ok with that, but would not ask her what color her room was!

"Mom, that's creepy!"

Funny!  I guess it is!

But not any creepier than your dates MOM asking you! Ha ha!

So.....there I stood at the store.....texting Valerie to see what colors her room was

so we could match the clock as best as we could!

I think we are the epitome of the "But-in" family at this point!

But who cares!  The clock HAS to match her room!

So....Valerie text me back, even though I'm sure she thinks I'm psycho!

The best clock to match was this cute black and white striped clock.....

I had involved my sweet friend earlier in the day to help us think of something for "O."

When I found the clock, I text her a pic of it and she got the idea to cut some vinyl

for us to put her initial and Prom on it!

Thank you Megan!!

We got it all wrapped up and Garrett took it over to her house that night!

The BIG day had finally arrived!

Saturday, April 9, 2016!

Garrett had come up with the best plan for letter "M,"

But it couldn't be presented until later that night!

So, Garrett woke up early and got started on packing a lunch for the two of them for their hike.

He got it all ready with some water bottles and packing it in his back pack.

Sawyer Larsen and his date came to pick Garrett up before they went to get Valerie.

I was so excited for him, I could hardly sleep all night!

 They all made it up the hike.....even though sawyer locked his keys in his car!

His dad had to call AAA to come help them get in so they could get home!

They hiked and ate their lunch, then headed back so the girls would all have time to get ready!

(Gracie Hamilton, Gant Wheeler, Brynnlee Nash, Sawyer Larsen, Zach Schofield,

 Garrett, Valerie Harker, Aubri Whatcott, Blake Vanderstappen, Ally Milne, Keaton Larsen)

While they were gone, I made Valerie's Corsage.
I really don't know much when it comes to those,

but I worked in the flower shop in High School long enough to know how to put one together.

Garrett asked me if I would make Valerie's and I was so excited.

I love to make them, but wanted her to like it.

In talking to her mom, I found out where they ordered Garrett's Boutineer,

so I was able to match the color of pink roses and the ribbon.

I finished it just before Garrett got home from the day date.

We had bought a cute box to put it in rather than the usual corsage box we could have gotten,

tied it up with ribbon and extra flowers and had it ready with her final poem to go with "M."

 

 

 

 Garrett came home and got ready.

 Valerie's sweet Mom called earlier and invited me over to their home at 4:30

so that I could be a part of them exchanging the corsage/boutineer.

I was so grateful she did that....and knowing I might not ever get that chance again

for other dances, I tried to soak it all in!

Her little sister was outside recording Garrett walking up to their house,

 so I followed behind with my camera!

 

So.....for the letter "M" Garrett came up with this....

He had the letter "M" paper clipped to the front of his suit!

Tonight you get "M"e and "M"emories!

That was super smooth Bub, if I do say so myself!

On the way over to their home, I cried.

Trav laughed at me!  Then when we got inside their home, I cried!

Cannot believe he is old enough for Prom and that his Sophomore year is almost complete.

Time is moving way too quickly!

Valerie looked absolutely beautiful! 

Her dress was gorgeous and her hair was perfect!

She was truly stunning!

They both struggled a little with getting the corsage and boutineer on,

and then we discovered Garrett had toothpaste all over his lapel and tie!!!!

He went to their bathroom and tried to get it off......WITH WET TISSUE!!!!

He opened that bathroom door and yelled, "Mom, help!"

So funny!  The white tissue had left white flakes all over.

Good thing Valerie's Mom invited me over! Ha ha!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We followed them up to the Union Station in Ogden for group pictures.

They had reservations to eat at Prairie Schooner right by there.

As we pulled in, a little black rain cloud came along and dumped some rain,

but thankfully by the time all of the kids and parents got there....

it had cleared up and was just fine!

This place made for some awesome pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After pictures, the kids all left for Prairie Schooner.....

which disappointingly enough....took forever even with a reservation.

They loved the atmosphere and the food, but left before finishing dinner,

so they could at least have some time at the dance!

The dance was held from 7-10 p.m. at the Davis Conference Center in Layton.

Around 10:30, Garrett and Valerie showed up to our home to change out of their formals

before going to Keaton's house to hang out for a little bit.

It was fun having them come back and fill us in on the night a little.

Valerie's Mom asked Garrett to have Valerie home by 12:30 a.m.

I started texting him about 12:20 to make sure he was keeping up with his end of the bargain.

He had her home on time, but then never left! Ha ha!

They sat in his truck and talked til I text and told him it was officially time to end Prom.

He got home around 1:15, and came to our room to tell us more about the day.

He loved Prom and enjoyed his time with Valerie!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this girl?

Oh how I wish we were back in the day and ages of Arranged marriages.

Creepy to say?

Maybe.

But we all just love Valerie!  She is such a good, good girl, and so down to Earth.

I would trust her anywhere at any time with Garrett.

She was the prettiest and the sweetest of all the girls there that night.

Truly.

Trav pulled her aside and let her know he thought so too.

It didn't take long for us to be with their Prom group to realize Garrett truly was a lucky kid

to be able to have her as his date to his very first Prom.

She set the bar extremely high!

That next day, Sunday, April 10th, Valerie's Mom invited our family over for games and dessert.

There weren't any games played.....

rather we sat and talked about our Prom Depression we 

were all in and enjoyed getting to know each other better, while we ate dessert.

Sis is great friends with Valerie's little sister Olivia, which is so fun as well!

Syracuse High School Prom 2016 is definitely one for the books,

and one I hope neither of these two will ever forget!