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.