7.12.2009

Engaged Life Thus Far

We have had a pretty busy life since we got engaged. We spent the weekend after we got engaged in Boise. The weekend after that we headed down to Utah. We stopped in Logan first for Mark's family reunion. We had dinner and celebrated his dad's birthday, which included delicious cheese cake. We also played the Newly Wed game with his parents and married siblings that were there. Kirk got to MC. Mark and I won! His parents were next closest to winning.

On Saturday morning we went ring shopping because Kirk works at the Diamond Gallery in Logan (during the school year.) We found a ring that I quite liked so we went ahead and ordered it.

Then we went and took family pictures. It decided to rain on us so it made things a little interesting, but things turned out pretty well.


















After that we took off and headed for South Jordan to visit my family since Grammy and Kadie and her family were there. When we got to South Jordan we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was nice to go through with family, it is a very beautiful, peaceful place. Mark and I decided that it would be our first pick for where to get married. That night the girls went to Maddie's dance recital. Mark and Pete stayed home with the kids. Sunday we spent relaxing and enjoying one another. On Monday I attempted to work from home, then the girls went dress shopping. It was fun to try on some very pretty dresses. We also celebrated Mom's birthday with trifle and presents. After that it was time to head back to Boise.

The next weekend we went on trek with our singles ward. We went a couple hours north of Boise, a little past McCall. We were split into "families" (of about 7-8 people.) Mark and I were in the same "family" which was nice. We made dinner in dutch ovens that night (which didn't get done until about 10:30.) The next morning we got up, put on our most attractive pioneer outfits, loaded up our hand carts and we were off. Another addition that we got to our family was a rice baby (which we named Jasmine, as in Jasmine rice) which someone always had to be holding, no putting the baby down. We ended up going 16+ miles that day, it was a lot of walking and handcart pulling/pushing. We were happy when we got to our destination. It definitely gave me a new appreciation or what the pioneers went through to make it to Salt Lake.

On Tuesday the 30th we went on a bike ride. This was not just any bike ride, this was my first attempt at mountain biking. I was a pretty wussy. We will have to try again, hopefully I will get better.

The next weekend we went back down to Utah. This time we went to South Jordan first. On Friday we went to the temple open house again, and then to the museum at Hill Air Force Base with my Mom, Maddie, Kadie, Pete, Nate, Ella and Grammy. It was fun to look at everything (lots of engineering in there), Mark had never been either, so I think he especially enjoyed it.

















Next on the agenda was more dress shopping. We also did some fireworks and had s'mores in the back yard. Kadie and her family headed back home super early the next morning (July 4th.) It was fun to see them. The kids are definitely growing up!

Mark, Mom, Maddie, and I went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and hiked to Donut falls and then we went to Solitude to play a round of disc golf. It was fun to be out in the woods. Mark beat us all by a long shot, but Maddie did improve quite a bit during the game. I think the favorite hole was the last one, it was something like 1028 feet long (it was pretty steep.) Mark got to the bottom in two throws, it took Maddie and I about ten. After golfing Mark and I went to Mark's Aunt's house in Herriman for his Grandpa's 80th. There was food and story telling. I also got initiated into the family (his grandpa likes to nibble on ears.) While we were at the party I also got my new ring, I was very excited to get it. It is very pretty. I love it (and Mark :) .) (And don't worry, we had already taken the other one back. So no, I do not have two rings.)



We stopped in Huntsville on our way up to Logan to watch fireworks with Mary and Isaac.




Sunday morning we took engagement pictures up Logan canyon. There are lots of good pictures. (Thanks Clark!) Then we went to church and ate dinner (complete with strawberry shakes), and headed back to Boise.





I also did some dress shopping in Boise. I found a dress that I super like. I would post a picture, but then Mark would see it, and that is not allowed.
This weekend Mary, Isaac and Lincoln came to visit. On Friday we made yummy Thai food, played a game (Carcassone), and watched a movie (Knowing). On Saturday we played disc golf down town, had a picnic and floated the Boise river. Lincoln did pretty good floating the river. We invited Peter and Anne and their boys over for dinner and games that night. We had Mark's specialty, pizza, and played power grid which Mark won.

6.09.2009

The Story According to Amanda

Mark told me that I had to write my version of the story before I was allowed to read his, and I am anxious to read his so here it goes (long though it may be.)

About three weeks ago Mark hinted that he was going to ask me to marry him and that he wouldn't make me wait too long. Waiting a few weeks was ok, but I admit that I was a little antsy sometimes, but I really tried to be good and patient. I knew it was coming I just had to wait.

On Friday at work Mark IM'd me and said "I think that we should go take pictures together sometime, where would be a good spot to go?" I was busy so I didn't write back, but while we were at lunch I told him that we could take pictures basically anywhere: Leslie Gulch, Table Rock, downtown, the farmer's market, etc. We also decided that we would go picture taking at Table Rock the next day, and that the best time (lighting wise) would be in the evening (or early in the morning, but we were not going to get up that early on a Saturday.)

After work that night neither one of us really felt like cooking and Mark has been wanting to go to P.F. Chang's for the last several months, so he called to see if we could get a reservation. The earliest they had was 8:15, so he made the reservation. I said that that sounded good but I would have to eat a snack before then. So for lack of anything better we made an easy favorite - pizza sandwiches. While we were in the process of cooking/eating we decided that it would be good to do something with the Olsen's instead. So Mark called and changed our reservation to Saturday at 6:30. A little while later we went over to the Olsen's and watched a movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and ate ice cream...mmmm.

That night when I got home my roommates, Jenny and Shalise, were up so I talked to them for awhile. There was some discussion about getting engaged, if I would say yes, what Mark and I were doing the next day, things like that. They established that going out for a nice dinner and to Table Rock would be an ideal time for Mark to propose. I thought, that yes it could be but that I didn't want to tell myself that because what if he didn't? It ended up being 2 o'clock before I got to bed. Needless to say I slept in a little (at least compared to work days.)

On Saturday I got up about 9:30 and did some things around the house like put away laundry, iron, and clean the bathroom. In the midst of that I called Mark at about 10:30 to see what he was up to. He said that he was out running errands. He said that he had been to Fred Meyer's (later I would learn that that meant ring shopping) and things like that. I didn't pry much because I didn't want to ruin anything that he might have up his sleeve. I told him what I was up to and that it would be a few hours before I was ready for the day (after he asked how long I would be.)

I had breakfast (waffles with buttermilk syrup) with my roommates at 11:30ish. My favorite comment of the conversation was when Shalise said "But you can't get engaged in the mud!" (It was a rainy day.) I finished things around the house and got ready for the day, then went to Mark's around 12:30, where I was greeted with a "hello gorgeous." We were kind of boring, Mark mowed the lawn, during which he ran out of garbage bags and had to go to the store to get more. I asked if he wanted me to come with, he said no (because really he was picking up the ring too.) I stayed there and picked up the house a little because he wouldn't allow me to help with the lawn. After that I worked on my sewing and he played with some computer programming. Soon it was time to go to dinner.


We gathered up our cameras and jackets and went downtown. When we drove into the parking garage it wasn't raining, but by the time we got out it was, so we ran the block to the restaurant, so we didn't get too wet. Dinner was nice, I had never really eaten there (only chocolate cake). We had lettuce wraps, Mongolian Beef and some kind of spicy chicken (I don't remember what it is called.) I was a little indecisive on what to order so Mark tried to get them to let me have half and half, but it was a no go. But it was sweet of him to try. At the end of dinner we had fortune cookies of course. My fortune said something to the effect of " you will receive an unusual gift soon." I wondered if it would be true, turns out it was.


We finished dinner and headed back to the car (this time it was not raining even though it had been pouring while we were in the restaurant.) We headed up to Table Rock which is right by down town. We got there, parked the car, grabbed our cameras and started up. Since it had been raining quite a bit recently the trail was muddy so it was much easier to walk in the grass on the edge of the trail. We stopped a couple of times on the way up to take pictures. Mark prodded me along once saying that we needed to get to the top before it was too late.

We got to the top a little bit after nine. I proceeded to get out my camera and take pictures. Mark did the same. After a few minutes Mark said "hey, you know how sometimes people write on the rocks up here, I think it says something over here, you should come take a picture and see what it says." At that point I was suspicious as to what was coming. I went over to where he pointed (the top of a big boulder that was down below the ledge/outcropping we were on) and tried to take a picture. Because it was starting to get dark, it took me a few minutes to get the exposure right without blurring things (I eventually switched to his camera so I could use the tripod.) I wasn't quite sure exactly where he was wanting me to look, so I did my best. I think that Mark was starting to worry that things weren't going to go quite as planned. When I got a picture that looked good, he zoomed in to the right spot in the picture for me. Then I was able to see what I was looking for. On little rocks (the biggest being three or four inches wide) he had written "Amanda, will you marry me? Mark," one word per rock. I saw it and said "yes, sweetie." I was excited! Then he said "I have something for you," and pulled a ring box out of his jacket pocket. While he was opening it he commented on there being a lot of boxes (the real box was inside another box.) When he got it open there was a very nice, sparkly ring. I asked him if he would put it on me. He put it on most of the way, I had to help a little because it is a little small for my finger. Then we kissed and said I love you and all of that good gushy stuff. I asked him if he would love me forever and ever, and if he wanted to be with me for always. Of course he said yes. He asked if I was happy (yes.) He told me that he was happy, he said that when he was picking up the ring he was so happy and excited and wondered if he would feel that way again that night. He asked if I wanted to keep the rocks (of course), I told him if they weren't too hard to get to. They weren't so we went down and got them. While we were down there he suggested that we should get married in September. This was fine with me since that was the time frame I had been thinking of too. We went a little further down and took some pictures of us. My favorite part of this was that he held my hand up so that you could for sure see my ring in the pictures. It made me laugh.

And so we started our trek back down the trail to the car (via a slightly different route than we had taken up.) It was mostly dark by then so we had to be a little extra careful because of the mud (I managed to slip once, but I didn't get too dirty.) On the way down we talked about things like how he set things up in the morning, when he got the ring, him talking to my mom (all of this being hard to do without me knowing seeing as we are together most of the time.) In general we were just happy and excited (and I was glad that I didn't have to wait anymore.)

When we got to the car we took our shoes off and put them in the trunk (they were wet and muddy.) On the drive home he turned on the map light in the car so that I could see my diamond better, it was very sparkly. It also started raining again. I was glad that it hadn't rained on us while we were outside. We went to his house (it was 11ish) and picked up some leftover pie and then went to my house so that I could tell my roommates (and other friends from the ward that were there.) It was fun to tell them and show them my ring. They were all very excited (at least the girls were.) After that Mark and I ate pie and talked a little bit more and then he went home.

The next morning I called my mom to tell her the news, she was glad that I was happy, but wanted to know why I hadn't called her the night before. That morning I also learned that Mark had made a blog for us, I thought that that was really cute of him. I also took my ring out into the sunlight, it was even nicer to look at then (it still distracts me regularly throughout the day.) He did a good job.

I am so excited to marry Mark and that we get to spend forever together! He is a great guy.

It's Official

Saturday I asked Amanda to marry me and she said yes!

Here's my story --

For the last week or so I've been trying to think of a way I could ask her that she might enjoy remembering years down the road. I thought back to our first date when we made pizza and played croquet. Nothing related to croquet was coming to mind...

Friday morning I was thinking of things that we could do together that Amanda enjoys. Amanda loves photography. A plan started to form... I could write the question out somewhere we would go to take pictures. I'd point out the location to her. When she zoomed her camera in on the spot she'd see the question. She would be suprised and either say yes or ... well I was pretty sure she was going to say yes so I didn't worry too much about the alternative. I asked her Friday morning (via IM at work) where she might like to go to take pictures. I think we discussed it some during lunch. After work Friday I wanted to take Amanda out to dinner and I wasn't really in the mood to make anything at home. I called P.F. Changs and made reservations for 8:15. We talked to Peter and Anne and they invited us over to watch a movie after they went grocery shopping. We decided to eat at home and cancelled our P.F. Changs reservations; when I did so I moved them to the next day at 6:30 PM. (A slightly more reasonable time for dinner anyway...). We watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" that night with Peter and Anne. It was interesting and sad. Not my favorite but I enjoyed watching it with Amanda. We always enjoy hanging out with Peter and Anne.

Saturday morning my plan got more detailed. We were going to Table Rock to take pictures. Table Rock is a flat outcropping of rock that is visible from nearly all of Boise and has a beatiful view of Boise. http://boiseguardian.com/2006/05/29/take-a-trip-to-table-rock/. I've hiked it a few times but have never tried mountain biking up it... that would be a challenge. I wanted to make it so Amanda wouldn't be able to see the question until she zoomed in with the camera. Being scientific about things, I printed out a piece of paper with different size fonts and did a little eye test to see how far away the words became unreadable.

Armed with my data sheet on font size and distance, I headed out to Table Rock, probably around 9 AM. I was pretty happy that Amanda hadn't called me yet. I didn't want to spoil what I was doing and I didn't have any good cover stories. My plan was either to not answer my phone or tell her I was out running errands. I stopped at Fred Meyer and purchased some sharpies and crayons -- I wasn't sure which would work better for my task. I drove up the back road to Table Rock. The road was blocked off part way so I hoofed it up the hill -- it might have been raining then, it has been raining all morning off and on. From the top of the rock I picked out a couple of places below where I could write "Amanda, will you marry me? Mark". I climbed off the rock and found some dry stones protected from the rain underneath some of the boulders around Table Rock. I wrote one word on each stone (sandstone), then carefully set them up on the rock. I jumped up onto the rock (it is tall but some foot holds have been work into the rock over the years).

I placed the stones at angle they would be visible at from above. Then I climbed around back onto table rock and pulled out my camera. I wanted to make sure that if I zoomed in I could read my writing. The words were definitely not legible -- or even visible -- to the unaided eye.

I was happy with where they were placed and just hoped that the rain wouldn't blur the words or the rocks wouldn't move out of position. I left Table Rock and headed back towards home.

I wanted to have a ring when I asked the question. I stopped back at Fred Meyer's to see if I could find a relatively inexpensive ring to be replaced by the real thing once Amanda had a chance to decide what she liked. I was surprised to find out that Fred Meyer's has a no hassle return policy even on rings, so I went ahead and purchased the real thing. The sales lady asked me how I planned to propose so I told her my plan. She was very excited, she thought it was very romantic. I believe T.J. purchased Sara's ring at Fred Meyer's. They told me they had a goldsmith in town that could set the diamond in the ring that afternoon. I was very excited to have the ring that day.

I came back home and Amanda came over. Fortunately she didn't quiz me too hard on what I had been up to. I just told her I had been running errands, going to stores. Later on I found out her roommates pointed out that it would be a good time for me to propose, so I think perhaps she was careful not to be too nosey. Once we got a break from the rain I mowed the lawn. Part way through I ran out of garbage bags and I had just got a call from Fred Meyer's that I could pick up the ring. I told Amanda I was going to pick up garbage bags. She asked if I wanted her to come with me, and I'd normally say yes but I told her I'd be quick, she could keep working on what she was doing. I need to mention how wonderful she is -- she offered to help clean the house inside while I was mowing the lawn outside. I got the ring and the sales lady said she couldn't believe how beatiful it was. (They've got to say that about all the rings they sale, I'm sure, but it's nice to hear anyway). She made me promise to tell her how things went that night.

That afternoon Amanda finished a bonnet she is going to wear for the Trek our ward is doing later this month. I played around with the Google Data Blogger API and figured out how to update a blog from a program. (For more info on that type of stuff I should probably make a separate blog...).

We went to P.F. Changs for dinner at 6:30. We both enjoyed it. The service was good. We had lettuce wraps for an appetizer, and I had Changs Spicy Chicken and Amanda ordered Mongolian Beef for entrees. It rained hard while we ate.

Around 8 PM we drove over to the Old Idaho Penitentiary. We parked there. I waited for Amanda to get out of the car and get her stuff out of the trunk so I could pull the ring out of a compartment in the car and put it in my coat pocket. I was pretty sure she didn't see anything... Then we proceeded up the Table Rock Trail. Along the way we took some fun pictures.


There were some bikers who tried to ride their bikes up in the mud too. Because it was so muddy we walked along the side of the trail, doing our best not to slip in the mud on the steeper inclines. Bikes were no aid in terms of speed on this night; we walked faster than the bikers who eventually turned around. Around 8:45 PM we found ourselves standing alone on Table Rock overlooking Boise (in retrospect the mud and rain was a good thing because I'm sure it deterred other people from visiting the popular location on a Saturday night) . Amanda snapped away with her camera, and I tried to see if the stones I had laid earlier in the day were still in the same position and still readable. They hadn't moved but I had difficulty seeing if they were still readable. There wasn't as much light as before and I couldn't get a good picture of them. Hoping things would work as planned anyway, with a little lump in my throat, I said to Amanda -- "You know, sometimes people write things on the rocks. Can you see what's written down there?"

Amanda (later I confirmed she was suspicious at this point) did her best to get a picture of the stones on the rock below to see what they said. She couldn't even see the stones I was talking about, but eventually she got a good picture. I helped her zoom in to the right spot and let her read the words I had written. She didn't hesitate in saying "Yes, sweetie" once she had read the words from the image on the camera.



Not exactly easy to read, I know...


She gave me a kiss and a hug. I almost forgot that I had purchased a ring and that right then would be a good time to pull it out. Then my brain switched back on and I said "I've got something for you" and pulled the ring out of my pocket and gave it to her. She was very happy with the ring.







We took some more pictures and proceeded to try and make it back before it was completely dark. We didn't succeed -- it became completely dark pretty quickly once we started down. We had a good conversation on the way down. I remember she asked me if I would love her forever. I told her about talking with her mother about the kinds of things that I could do to make sure to make her happy.

... the view was very romantic.

Amanda slipped once in the mud but did not complain. Our shoes were quite messy and wet so we took them off and left them in the trunk. Once back at my house we grabbed a peach pie and bannana creme pie I had made on Thursday and took them back to Amanda's house, planning to surprise her roommates with the news. They were watching a movie at Stephanie Pike's house so we went over there and broke the news.

I love how sweet Amanda is. She is kind to everyone. She is concerned about the things that really matter and doesn't stress much about the things that don't. She is always ready to help get things done. She has pretty eyes and a beatiful smile. She loves to laugh and she makes me happy. I think she will be a wonderful mother and a good wife. She reads her scriptures often. I think being with her encourages me to be a better person. She is enthusiastic about doing different things, playing games, etc. I love her and am happy that we can be married.

I got to call my parents Sunday morning and tell them the news. Sunday was very busy with meetings and church so I didn't get to talk to my siblings till that evening. My family really likes Amanda and is excited for us.