THE PROPOSAL

Okay, so a lot of people asked me to tell them the 'proposal' story...and I still haven't done it. So, this post is for you!

Rand and I had decided last year, that this summer we were going to complete all the little 'fun suggestions' in the Utah Valley Adventure Passport booklet (it has all kinds of fun little things that you can do around Utah Valley. One of those items is to drive the Alpine Loop. So we picked a day that we were going to do this. May 25, 2007.

Rand called me when 'he got off of work' (not true: he didn't go because he was setting up for this. I think we can let this deception slide this time.) He told me he was running late because a friend needed a ride to his home in West Valley. So, a while later he picked me up (I was already thinking that something was up. He was randomly disappearing the night before for long periods of time...not a normal action on his part. This was also for planning purposes.)

Well, we went to Jamba Juice and got some smoothies and put them in a cooler. Then we went to Subway and grabbed some sandwiches to eat before heading up. On the way to Subway Rand mentioned to me that his friend who had just returned from a trip to China was having some friends up to her family's cabin in Deer Valley, and suggested we 'loop around' the canyon and stop by after our drive. Well, by the time we were done eating it was getting darker. As we drove, we ruled out the scenic Alpine Loop drive. So we decided that heading up to the cabin would work instead. (At this point, I was pretty positive he was up to something, so I just agreed to any of his 'random and not-thought-out-at-all' suggestions.)

Now Rand was being really cute. He even made sure to ask me to look out for the signs because it had been a long time since he had been there (I was thinking, "You were just up here earlier today...but I'll play along!") So after 'finding our way there', including somehow getting past security because Rand had given the pass to his friends who were performing the final touches, we pulled into the driveway of a beautiful cabin on the mountain-side of the ski resort. Rand's famous line at that moment, "oh, we seem to be the only ones here!"

So, we proceeded inside and Rand asked if I wanted a tour of the cabin (seriously, beautiful cabin). This picture below is just a small portion of the front. The balcony to the left is where we ended up for the official proposal (more to come on this in one second).

This is the view from the balcony!

So, as he took me on a tour of the cabin, we went down to the basement where a nice flat panel TV hung on the wall. What better to do that sit down and watch the top 10 plays of the night on SportsCenter! Once that ended, we continued the tour. As we were heading back up the stair (pictured below), he asked me what the sign int he plant was (look closely, you can see it placed in the lower right hand part of the plant). I looked closer to see (there were different art pieces in the house with 'explanation cards', so I thought this was one as well.) Instead, it was the first of 5 cards typed by Rand to me. As we proceeded throughout the 'tour', I kept finding more cards. Each card was in order, and they started with Rand's thoughts and feelings towards me and us from the first time he ever saw me, through all of our dating.
After the fourth card, we stopped in the kitchen and got our smoothies. We ate those as we watched a video that he had put together of us with all the pictures of us throughout our dating. (This is kind of a 'thing' for us. He first gave me a little video on a CD at the airport as I headed to the East Coast last summer for 10 days...our first time apart since we had started dating 2 months before that. I watched it almost every day! Then on Valentine's Day of this year, I took that one and added to it the following 6 months of pictures. So this was a really cute, and extra personal touch to the evening!)

After we watched the video, he made me close my eyes and he took me out to the front balcony. When I opened them again, we were out on the balcony with candles lit, rose petals all over the ground, roses on the chair with the 5th card telling me how much he loved me and realized that he wanted to be with, and wanted to marry me. He then got down on one knee and proposed. He then turned on some music and we danced a little, and then headed inside to call and let people know.

It was a wonderful night and I was impressed with all his planning for it! Even though I knew he was up to something, I didn't know exactly how it was going to play out...and it was perfect!