Our Engagement

We ring shopped for forever! Whit was really picky :) but we ended up getting the first ring we both loved! Anyways, we had narrowed it down to two rings, but neither of us could decide which one was best. One week when Whit was at home, I went to look at both the rings with Karly. I ended up buying the ring that very day without telling whit of course. That following friday I drove down to SoJo and talked with Larry. It was one of those moments you wait for your whole life....terrifying! But Larry was awesome about it and the talk went really good! Oh and he gave me the green light :) Anyways, so the next day I wanted to go hiking with Whit so I could propose up in the mountains, but she was gone shopping with Angie all day! I was getting anxious after awhile of waiting for her to get back, so finally I drove out to the furniture store where she was to pick her up!

I told her I just wanted to get up into the mountains because it was such a beautiful day. She thought that would be fun too, so we started driving towards Millcreek Canyon. At one point during the drive I was making a joke about inviting Justin Beber to our wedding (because Whit is obsessed with him) and I said the words, "I have a surprise for you..." and before I could finish my sentence, she blurted out, "Jord! Are you gonna propose to me??" I was thinking, "Shoot! How did she know??" but I tried to be smooth so I said, "What? Why would you think that? You know I don't even have the ring yet! But I promise I'll do it...I just needed to talk to your dad this weekend to kinda get it out of the way, so that when we actually decide on one I can just do it without having to worry about talking to your dad first! Don't worry, I'll do it soon!" And I guess that was good enough because she bought my story for the time being.

When we got to the mouth of the canyon I again thought, "Shoot! it's all brown and dead still! This is not how I pictured it!" You know, when a guy is thinking about proposing, he thinks about how he's gonna do it, where he's gonna do it, and all the small details associated with it...so when I saw this dead canyon, you can imagine my disappointment. I wasn't about to delay it any longer though, so I just kept driving, secretly hoping that the farther we went up the canyon, the more evergreen trees there would be and the prettier it would look.

It didn't get prettier. There weren't more and more evergreen trees, but there was more and more snow! My beautiful plan was falling apart right in front of my eyes! I decided I was still gonna go for it though, so we pulled off at a trailhead and headed up the trail. As it got more and more snowy, Whit complained more and more...not that she was complaining a lot, but to me, who wanted to make this the perfect moment for her, it was a disaster! I was concerned about how she felt and it seemed like she would hardly be in the mood to get proposed to by the end of the trail. She was cool about it though and we kept going. When we got to the top of the trail, I saw a great spot where I could propose! I said something like, "Mmm, the sunlight! I just want to stand here for awhile!" Really i was trying to figure out how the heck I was going to do this! After just a few seconds whit said, "Well, wanna keep going?" I was thinkin', "Shoot! I NEED this spot!" But I didn't want to act suspicious, so we kept going.

Finally we got to another spot where there was a little knoll where you could tell people stood to take pictures of the canyon. The view was beautiful! The sun was shining! I couldn't let this spot get passed up! I made whit stop and just look at the view with me. She was in front of me and I had my arms wrapped around her. It was the perfect moment...but I was so dang nervous! How do I do this??? At some point Whit thought, "I wonder why he keeps wanting to stop...this seems strange...I wonder....I wonder if...he..." and she decided to feel my pocket, just in case ya know. Well, that was game over for me. She felt the ring box, got wide eyed and turned around with this look on her face that said, "Is that what I think it is!?" I couldn't delay it now...actually I was kinda grateful she found it...I could've stood there for the rest of my life trying to work up the courage to just ask her! I started, "Well, I guess you know why I brought you up here!" And before I could say anything else, Whit started freaking out! She was like, "oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" And I wanted to say what I planned on saying so I just tried to calm her down, "Hold on Whit, hear me out, hear me out." And then I just said some things neither of us will probably ever remember she said YES! Then I got down on my knee and put the ring on her finger and that was that! We kissed and hugged and laughed and she cried a little bit. She was feeling so wild and crazy she couldn't even remember that I had got down on one knee or had put the ring on her finger myself!

On the way down we talked about what our future would bring...it was the best feeling in the world! The more we talked, the more it sunk in...We were getting married! We walked back down to the car...and drove back down the canyon. As soon as our phones were back in service, Whit called everyone! We went to Asian Star to eat and sent out a mass text to all of our friends and family. Best day of my life so far!