Stan and I had been talking about getting married for maybe about a couple months. I think his impending departure to New Mexico made it have to come up, which is probably a blessing. A week or so before he left at the beginning of August, we went and looked at rings. It was so weird to be there and it felt surreal.
The next three weeks were good but talking on the phone just does not do justice when in comparison to being with someone you love. I'm grateful for technology in letting us being able to hear each others' voices, but someone really needs to work on that whole instantaneous travel business that Harry Potter and his friends can do. Labor Day couldn't come fast enough. Stan flew in on Friday night and we drove to Idaho to spend a wonderful weekend with his family. That weekend went by too quickly and no ring appeared, though there were subtle hints everywhere that it was in the works.
The original plan was for me to go down to Albuquerque three weeks after Stan had come to visit. But right before our trip Labor Day weekend, we had decided to each drive to Mesa to see my family that next weekend. Fate was against us and Stan got super sick and was unable to come. I ended up going down anyway and it was good to see the family. I was beyond super sad that I wasn't able to see Stan that weekend but he kept encouraging me, saying it was just less than two weeks before I would be in Albuquerque. Little did I guess what he had in mind...
I had suspicions that the weekend of September 14-16 could be a very special weekend, but Stan had been throwing "static" in the system for so many months by this time that I had given up on guessing. During Labor Day weekend, Stan made me calendar in a phone date with him for all night Friday the 14th, and most of the day Saturday. We decided that we would do the some of our favorite things, just in our respective locations. We decided sushi on Friday night along with a movie. Saturday we would go for a drive and do a few other things. We were just going to be on the phone or texting for it all. It sounded fun, but, like I said, I had my suspicions about it...
Thursday night came and we were having our usual phone call. It was wonderful, as always, to hear his voice and visit. At about 9:50, our phone call got dropped. It happens, but we were unable to reconnect for about a half hour. He texted and said he felt like going for a drive, was in the mountains, and reception was spotty. Went for a drive at almost 10pm in the mountains?...in Albuquerque? Suspicious? Very. But we had ourselves a nice visit and I went to bed.
Friday day came and went and I excitedly got ready for the date. At 7pm, Stan called to "pick me up" as we had planned. I asked what sushi restaurant he was going to and he replied, "Oh I don't know. There are a lot of sushi restaurants in Albuquerque." I thought, "He's totally here!" We hung up so we could both drive and he told me to start texting him when I got to the Happy Sumo. I asked for my table, no one would be joining me, and patiently waited until they were ready to seat me. Every man that walked past, I hoped it was him. I hoped in vain. Stan and I started texting and he gave me the name of a sushi restaurant. My hopes sank. Maybe he really was in Albuquerque. They finally sat me, I ordered my food, still no Stan. I started to feel really sorry for myself, my boyfriend was so far away, here I was sitting by myself looking awesome, completely all by myself. Just as I was in the midst of my pity party, this super handsome young man walked right past my table, I could hardly believe my eyes. There was a curtain slightly covering where I was sitting and he totally missed me. :) I was too astonished to do much, so I just watched him walk through the rest of the restaurant before he turned around and saw me sitting there.
Being with him at dinner and the rest of the night was so wonderful. He kept wanting me to guess where he was driving to the night before. Come to find out, Stan had driven to Mesa, six hours, the night before, had breakfast with my dad early Friday morning, then drove ten hours to Provo just in time to join me for our date. I love him. What a wonderful man. We went to JCW's after dinner for ice cream, that was our first date :)
Saturday morning, Stan ran some "errands". He told me he was looking at guns on sale...typical Stan answer. He picked me up about noon with some beautiful flowers(I think these were part of the "guns"):
and we drove to the destination of our second date. It had happened on the 29th of September last year when the trees in the canyon had been absolutely brilliant. We had watched the sunset from on top of a beautiful peak that overlooked the valley. While the colors weren't quite as brilliant, and the sun was high in the sky and no where near setting, it was even more "magical" than it had been a year earlier.
We had ourselves some Argentine sandwiches, part of the night he first held my hand last fall, and enjoyed the beauty of our view. The peak is somewhat of a popular spot so we had lots of random people throughout the hours we sat up there. During a quiet moment when no one else was there with us, Stan pulled out a poem he had written years ago but had never shared with anyone. He dedicated it to me and read it. He then pulled out the ring box, had me stand, and got down on his knee in front of me. Really everything from there on is kind of a blur. He asked if I would marry him, I said yes, and then about three minutes later we had some guys on 4-wheelers show up. I doubt they knew they were ruining our moment :) but we just had them take a picture and then took off.
We decided to not call anyone until we had finished our drive on the back roads, one of our favorite past times. We drove from Hobble Creek Canyon to Provo Canyon and then started to call family. :) Oh happy day! We're engaged!! Weird....Here are some fun pictures:
This was moments after it happened.
Stopped in front of some pretty trees for this one :) Yep, I love this handsome man.
