Our Story: Chapter 4.The Proposal

Monday, May 21, 2012 and I had no idea it was coming.

Background:
Like I said, we knew it was a matter of "when" and we'd talked about getting married, but whether or not it would happen while he was here the first time wasn't totally certain. I was with him every second up until he popped the question, so there was no way he'd already bought the ring. I wasn't sure when it was happening, and if you ask my roommate, I was too excited about it to think about it. I didn't want to be living on the edge of my seat expecting it. I just knew it wasn't going to be that day. She and I even talked about when it would happen THAT morning.

The Story:

We had had plans for several days to meet his sister Bec at Boondocks for lunch. We were meeting her at 10:30, I figured we'd eat lunch at 11. I didn't want to wait until 10 ish to see him so I asked if I could meet him earlier that morning. I showed up at 9:30, he'll probably tell you I was late, I probably was. So maybe it was 9:45. We quickly got in his car and he slowed down slightly like he just had an awesome idea and said "Hey, since we're early, do you wanna walk around Draper temple for a bit?" This was totally normal and I was really excited for it! It's our temple! We've both loved it since it started going up! We started driving up, and looking back, I should have known something was up, he got really quiet. As we were going through the roundabout up near the temple, Derek began to freak out about how he forgot to call Sergeant L. about being his assistant. He calls Sgt. L right then and I thought it was weird how informal he was being, but didn't think too much of it, I don't know how formality in the Air Force works ya know? He got off the phone, we parked, and began walking. We walked along the south wall of the temple, and when we reached the back, we stopped and stared at the valley. I figured we'd continue walking around and go down the steps, but he wasn't up for that. He quickly pulled me away and made me walk back the way we came. I was so confused and then, sticking out of one of the little alcoves, was a little round thing, and at the same moment I realized it was a camera, Derek was holding both of my hands and facing me. He dropped down on one knee after pulling that little black box out of his pocket, and all I remember was him telling me he wanted to spend forever with me and I remember him asking me to marry him, I don't even remember if I said "Yes", but I must have! I did, however, have a momentary happy freak out (if you've seen the video, you know what I mean;)). Afterwards, we hugged and he explained that his phone call with Sgt. L had actually been a phone call with Bec and Bec was recording it! I'm so grateful it's on film, that moment is so surreal and your head just spins and it's so hard to remember exactly what happened! We talked to Bec for a bit, snapped a few pictures, held the niece and nephew there, and then we were headed to Boondocks while I made lots and lots of phone calls:) It was so fun talking on the phone and telling the story over and over and sending pictures and holding hands and smiling bigger than I ever have! It was the best day of my life hands down! After we ate, we made stops at both of our moms' works to show them and his mom took me around to all of her coworkers which was so great and so fun! We then made the trip to Ogden for flow rider and made it on the news, on the day we got engaged:) so great! Afterwards, we saw a few friends on our way back home and that's the end of my favorite day:)