It's funny how many little "anniversaries" you have before your REAL anniversaries start kicking in. Anniversary of your first date, anniversary of your first kiss, anniversary of the proposal, then every month of your first year married. (Ryan's a pro- he knows every one!) So silly, I know, but sometimes you just can't help it. Let us have our year of being crazy-in-love-newlyweds, will you?
Humor me in our latest milestone- one year ago today, Ryan popped the question.
It's been fun to go back through my journal and relive all the details and feel the excitement all over again. Here's the story...
So,
I knew it was coming. We had been
going ring shopping, and I was even THERE when he bought the ring when we were
in Boise for Thanksgiving. Ha, I
don’t think we really meant for it to happen that way, but as everyone always
says, once you KNOW, it’s not really about the surprise anymore…you just want
that ring!
Even though it wasn’t
exactly a “surprise” anymore, he sure kept me on my toes those next 3 weeks waiting
for it! The suspense was almost worse knowing it was coming. I knew he had the
ring, I knew he had talked to my dad—but when was it gonna happen?! Talk about
torture! Of course Ryan was LOVING it, and drew it out as
long as he possibly could.
The
MEGA-tease started about 7 days before he really proposed. Every night he had some big, elaborate
date planned. ALL my favorite
things—he nailed it every single night. Malawi’s mac & cheese, Rocky Mountain
Chocolate apples, Riverwoods Christmas lights, Chipotle, Temple Square, a carriage ride through the Christmas lights at Thanksgiving Point...HELLO! Every night was set
up to be the perfect proposal—any one of those things would have been just fine. Looking back, it
was the BEST week ever—it’s a shame I could hardly even enjoy it! Wearing all my cutest outfits, painting
my nails every day, preparing the perfect “reaction”—goodness, I was a wreck.
After all the fake-out dates, came Tuesday. The BUSIEST day of my life. All 3 of my finals were on Wednesday,
so naturally, the day before I was beyond stressed. We had plans to go up to Bryce's house in Draper that night with all our friends for a Christmas party, but unfortunately, it
was on that dreaded Tuesday night. I crammed
ALL DAY so I'd be able to go, but when it really came down to it, there just weren't enough hours in the
day and I was completely overwhelmed. I had to bail. This is coming from the girl who NEVER backs out of social
plans—especially for homework... NEVER. Since this was a first for me, I thought for sure Ryan would understand and let
me off the hook, but he really
pushed it! Not in a way that would make me suspicious at all, but kind of guilted me into going since we'd had these plans for a long time and everyone was expecting us to be there. He promised we'd just make a quick appearance, so, what the heck, I just went. We got up there, hung out, had a cute little hot chocolate bar, played
games, had a great time.
Then Ryan wanted to take me to see the Draper Temple! He had
mentioned a few days earlier that he wanted to go look at the Christmas
lights at the temple while we were up there at Bryce’s, so I didn’t think
anything of it. Besides, “temple grounds” were one of my only requirements of
where not to propose, so there was no suspicion. Bryce’s house is right in the neighborhood of the
temple, so Ryan wrapped me up in a blanket and we started walking. He took me on a back pathway behind the
house and said it was a “short cut.” Lucky for Ryan, I’m completely
directionally challenged, so when we started walking the complete opposite direction of
the temple, I hardly noticed.
It was super cold and extremely windy, but Ryan was just being so adorable, I just ate it up and let it happen! After we had been walking about 15 minutes, trudging through
the snow in the freezing cold, and were no where near the temple…I started to catch on…which was luckily right around the time we arrived at
our destination. We turned a
corner and kind of came up over a snowy hill, and….there it was! The snow was covered in
candles and roses. After gigging and squinting and smiling uncontrollably, Ryan took me
into the middle of it all, told me the sweetest things he’s ever said, got down
on one knee, and asked me to marry him! I only wish I could
remember all the details… It was cold, and windy, and I wasn’t even dressed cute
(dang it! After all those fake-out nights!), but I’ll never forget how happy I
was. After we had our moment, all our
friends ran out from the woods and started celebrating with us. It was the perfect set up…just “us”
for the proposal, but all our friends close by ready to attack us with hugs and
tears and tons of pictures. We
spent the rest of the night making phone calls, gushing about plans, and toasting with sparkling cider. Wouldn't have had it any other way.
Don't even ASK how all those finals went the next day...like I'd ever be able to contain my excitement and actually focus...but who cares! I was engaged! We were married on April 27th, and I still couldn't feel luckier to have such an incredible guy ask me to be his :)
