Relationship is no playground

The playground at Newport Elementary School offers the perfect

backdrop for the beginnings of romance, with its picturesque

beachscape and cool ocean breeze.

For Newport Beach residents Tonya Van Hee and Russell Reno, it is

where their relationship began more than two decades ago.

While students in sixth grade, Reno asked Van Hee to go steady

with him. They were outside by the girls’ bathroom. Although she

agreed, Van Hee said she was scared at the time because she had heard

that Reno liked to French kiss.

After school let out for the day, Reno offered his new girlfriend

a ride home on the handlebars of his bicycle, which he then crashed.

She fell off. Frightened that the experienced French-kisser would

use this as an opportunity to make his move, Van Hee ran away.

The next day, Reno ended the relationship.

Fast forward 25 years.

Reno and Van Hee were married in Tahiti on July 27, 2005.

The couple reunited 10 years after the bicycle crash, when friends

set them up on a not-so-blind date. They dated for several years,

moved in together and even bought a dog together -- a chocolate lab

named Morrison.

Unfortunately, their differences outweighed their similarities.

They broke up, again, and shared custody of the dog. Eventually, Reno

took full custody of the dog and the couple parted ways.

In December of last year, while each of them was recovering from

other failed relationships, Reno spotted Van Hee driving her Mercedes

on the freeway. He e-mailed her, which led to their third “first

date.”

“We had a heavy conversation about what we want and where we want

to go,” Van Hee said of their date, which took place at Sage

Restaurant in Crystal Cove.

The relationship moved quickly this time, and Van Hee decided to

start a “Tonya and Russell” scrapbook. Reno told her he knew a

teacher at Newport Elementary who had some old pictures of them and

that he had arranged for the two of them to pick them up.

As it turned out, Reno did not know a teacher with photographs. In

fact, this was his plan to lure Van Hee to the spot where they

started their relationship so many years before so he could propose

marriage to her.

“I was completely surprised,” Van Hee said.

Reno, on the other hand, said it was exactly the plan he had in

mind since seeing her on the freeway three months earlier.

“I always knew she was the coolest,” he said.

Reno and Van Hee, who still have Morrison, are now happily married

and living in Newport Beach.

* LINDSAY SANDHAM is the news assistant. She can be reached at

(714) 966-4625 or o7lindsay.sandham@latimes.comf7.