Put a ring on it!

This weekend my niece Kaylee is getting married and it got me thinking about what I was doing last year. About this time last year I made the BIGGEST (and best) decision of my life. I decided to marry my soul mate, Nate. We went about things a little backwards and decided to get married (even scheduled the sealing at the temple) before we told friends/family or had a ring. Nate and I were hanging out on the couch late one evening when he drowsily said, "I wish I could stay here forever." Nothing more was said on the matter until we spoke on the phone the next evening.

Nate: "Do you remember what I said last night?"
Me: "You mean about wanting to stay here forever?"
Nate: "Yeah. What do you think about that?"
Me: "I think I like that idea"

Later followed by many mutual shocked and exhilerated exclamations of "holy crap we're getting married...wow this is really happening...did we really just decide what I think we decided, etc."

In the few weeks that followed, Nate took on the arduous (and sneaky) process of procurring a ring and I started scouring the internet brainstorming ideas for our wedding. As the days and weeks ticked by I admitedly got a bit antsy. The time of Nate's departure for two months of rotations out of the valley was fast approaching and our scheduled wedding date was 4 months away yet we hadn't made our enagement public.

As our last hurrah before Nate's 2 month hiatus we previously planned a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. I had never been before but had always wanted to go. Unfortunately the camera batteries died right as we got to the theme park but the day was filled with fun, thrills, lines, lemonade, screams of fear/delight, and ended with nausea (apparently 3 immediate back-to-back rides don't agree with me). For the rest of the evening everytime I closed my eyes the world pitched and rolled.

The next morning, before beginning the journey home we stopped at Santa Monica beach. After all you can't go to California, be that close to the water, and not go to the beach. We walked along the water, sat on the sand and people watched, then returned to the car to get our picnic lunch that we ate while watching a small group of people doing some sort of break dance acrobatics. After lunch we walked along the pier and decided to take a ride on the ferris wheel.


Now I want to pause here to say I had thought that our trip to California would be an opportune time for him to propose, to the point that during our morning on the beach I had been carefully scoping out his pockets for any incling of a box (I should have known he wouldn't be so obvious). When I saw none I figured it wouldn't happen that day and decided to just enjoy our time together. So in this picture I was....

I turned back to see him trying to get on one knee in the little gondola as he fished a little pouch out of his pocket, and pulled out my beautiful ring. Shocked and thrilled I started kissing him immediately, interupting whatever words he had prepared. I still remember the little sign in our gondola that warned against any "inappropriate" activity because everything was on camera, and I felt slightly embarrassed as we traveled to the bottom of the ferris wheel tightly embraced and kissing in front of the whole audience of people waiting in line. Nevertheless I wasn't going to stop for a group of strangers. That little ferris wheel on the pier will always have a special place in our hearts!