It's Official - Officially!

I said yes!! I wasn't surprised that we got engaged, but I was surprised about when Eric did it. He got me :)


A little reenactment....and I realize that in this picture, Eric is crouching and not kneeling, but believe me, when it was the real thing he was kneeling! :)

The ring that Eric picked out on his own. I thought he did a great job! :)

This is it!!!! We are now on the fastrack to happily ever after and have taken the first step on our life together when Eric officially proposed on July 14.....just shy of our six month anniversary. And I'm sure what comes to mind is the famous question.....how did he do it??

Well, Eric and I have known for months that it would come to this. And we knew it was going to be even more in the imminent future after our trip to Washington and Eric's talk with my dad. So I knew it was coming, but I didn't know when. Eric knows I am a curious person and I think he got a lot of fun out of teasing me and alluding to things about the ring he may or may not have bought, when he was going to propose, and how he was going to do it. He loved it :) But so did I.

The day before he proposed, he and I and the girls had gone up American Fork canyon to find a camping spot to roast some hot dogs and make some s'mores. It was a great night! While we were there, Eric asked what I wanted to do the followoing day for date night. I said I was up for whatever and he suggested coming back up the canyon to make some foil dinners. We had been talking about foil dinners recently and how delicious they are, so I eagerly agreed to the idea. And I love being outside and it was a beautiful spot that we had found to enjoy a campfire.

So the next day Eric and I headed up the canyon after I got off work. The girls were with their mom and so we were just going to take advantage of some time with just me and him. Eric had very lovingly prepared everything for going up the canyon while I was at work, and so he was all ready to go just as soon as I got home. We packed up the cooler and chairs in the car and went on our way. We got to the little picnic sight next to the river and Eric started employing his Eagle Scout skills to make a fire while I wrote a letter. The foil dinners required a bit of monitoring since the foil started to disintegrate in the fire haha. Eric managed to save the dinner c0mpletely but got burned on his arm in the process, and has since dubbed that mark a love scar, since it will indeed leave a scar.

While we were starting to eat dinner, Eric asked if I wanted to play one of the card games he brought and I said of course. He said he forgot them in the car so he went to go get them and came back with his backpack. I didn't think anyting of it until he sat down and pulled my laptop out of his backpack instead of a card game. After a minute, he came and sat by me and we started to watch a slideshow that he had put together that day. It was really sweet and went over pictures of when we had first started dating up until the previous weekend when we had been in Washington. It was perfect. And then at the end there were some slides that said he loved me and felt so lucky to know me....first as his friend....and then as his girlfriend.....and now hopefully as his fiance. At that point he got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. He said some things to me, expressed some of his feelings, and then told me it would be his great honor if I were to be his wife and asked me to marry him. To which I said.....OF COURSE! :) And so he slipped the ring on my finger and it became officially official :) Shortly thereafter I found out that the girls had not gone with their mom, but were in fact with his mom who was watching them so that he could take me up the canyon to propose :) Apparently Eric had been a little scatterbrained throughout the day as he was running around stressed trying to get everyting ready for that evening. Halee and Kennedy had been excited to find out that Eric was going to ask me to marry him and Halee told Eric that she has to let her know, as soon as he knew, if I said yes or not, because she really wanted me to. When we got to Eric's mom's house the girls came running up to see what the result was and when Halee found out, she turned to Eric and exclaimed, "I can't believe she said yes!" Haha it was so cute.

Since that day we have been finally officially planning what we have been talking about for months. And the wedding excitement begins as well as a new and thrilling chapter of our lives! :)

Raime's Big Shin Dig Wedding

Raime's big day was something special indeed and super fun to be a part of! There were LOTS of pictures, but that's no surprise to anyone that knows that newly hitched couple ;) It was a gorgeous day and perfect for seeing my BFF marry her sweetheart. Being in the bridal party, I stuck around for all the picture taking and all that. Eric was an absolute star with his patience and willingness to wait around. The girls did a great job as well of keeping good attitudes. I think the girls especially liked the reception and the candy bar that was available there :) Who knew they would love gummy blue sharks so much? haha. In the end, it was a long day, but we had fun, we had laughs, we danced a bit and we enjoyed spending the time together. Raime's reception was definitely done in signature Raime style and loaded with lots of good times :)

Washington-ho!!!

In Twin Falls on the way back from our trip. I didn't expect to find something gorgeous like this in Twin Falls haha.

Finally reaching the Columbia Gorge on the way to Washington. Almost home! :)

Kennedy in Washington up at Long Beach.

Halee at Long Beach. It was a great day for the beach, absolutely gorgeous!

On July 7th after I got off work we all set off together for Washington. It was actually a bit of a miracle that we were all making the trip, because for most of that day I had supposed that I would very likely be making the trip alone since Eric had been having some health issues and had looked like he was about ready to die that morning. However, Eric is very stubborn and very persistently insisted that he make the trip as well for the chance to spend time together, spend time with my family and make it for Raime's wedding. So I gave in, but mostly due to the fact that by the time we left, he was looking much better. We had decided to drive through the night, and the only con to that was the difficulty in entertaining myself while the girls were asleep at the same time that Eric was in a drug-induced coma. In the past in such circumstances, making a long drive at night, I would open all the windows, turn the radio way up, put the car on cruise control, and sit up on my seat to put my head through the sunroof to drive. But this just wouldn't work with Eric and the girls sleeping for one simple reason....the car had no sunroof. And so I vaguely recall (and don't recall at all) portions of the trip. But in the end, we all made it safe and sound Thursday morning. Oh thank heaven.

Thursday we spent the day with my family, as Eric met the rest of the clan. Thursday night proved to be Eric's motivation in his dire insistance in making the trip, regardless of his state of health. That was the time he had determined to approach my dad to have "The Talk"....you know, that one talk that all boyfriends that hope to be fiances have to have with their girlfriends' dad haha :) A later post will show the result of that talk. Friday we had a great day at the Long Beach up in Ilwaco, Washington and I think it was the most perfect day I've ever seen along the Washington or Oregon coast. It was great!!!! Friday night we were able to spend some time with Branden and Kehaulani since we spent the night at her house in order to be close to the temple the next morning for Raime's wedding. And what a great wedding that was!! It was a perfectly sunny day out for taking pictures outside the temple, and you best believe there was plenty of that going on! haha. It was so fun to see my best friend so happy and getting married and all the activities associated with that made for a busy day. Sunday was more family time until late late that night we made the decision to start heading home.

Seventeen hours later we made it home safe to Pleasant Grove, UT. Yes, traditionally that trip is a 12 hour drive, but we made things interesting by slowing it down, taking a rest in Twin Falls, ID and doing a little inadvertent detour through Pocatello. But we made the most of it and enjoyed absolutely every mile of the trip!!

4th of July in Pleasant Grove

The Fourth of July for us was one that was fun, food, fireworks and more fun! After spending the day playing and barbecueing, we spent the evening lighting up some fireworks and relaxing a little later with the Stadium of Fire fireworks going off in the distance. It was a great day and night with a lot of fun going on!!!