July 19, 2004
the proposal
After dating over a year and a half, Michelle and I have decided to make it official. Here's how it went down:
We'd gone and looked at rings a couple times, and in the process were able to narrow it down to three. So a couple Saturdays ago, I went back to the store and voted two of the three off the island. I found the perfect one for Michelle. Between credit mixups, faxes to Mom and Dad, and the goldsmith coming down with the flu, it wasn't until Thursday that I finally got the precious.
Not knowing exactly how I was going to present it, I grabbed the ring and headed over to Michelle's Saturday afternoon. I'd originally thought about going on a hike so that I could propose on top of a mountain, but she wasn't feeling up for a climb, so that was out.
We ended up going to South Fork Park and having a picnic of pizza and Martinelli's. It was great, except for the fact that everybody else in Utah was having a family reunion at that same park that afternoon. Scratch the park idea.
Driving back towards Provo, my third idea came to me. So I took a left on Squaw Peak Road. Rather than go up to the overlook, we went left toward Rock Canyon. I'd done a bit of hiking there, so I knew the area pretty well, and I remembered one really cool view of the canyon.
Things were going great as we drove along the the dusty dirt road, until something happened that I hadn't planned for. Michelle asked if I had any Tylenol, and proceeded to open the center console, which is where I had stashed the ring. It was in its box, but I figured that she would recognize it for what it was and the jig would be up. But amazingly she didn't and was completely unfazed.
We finally reached the overlook, and although I was a bit jumpy from the close call, I pulled myself together and was able to grab the ring without her noticing. We got out of the car, and the view was spectacular. It was a little before sunset, and the sky had a slight orange glow to the west. There was a thunderstorm to the north and rain to the south, but the sun shone down on us and the canyon below.
I didn't have any pockets, so it was a bit tricky keeping it out of sight as we walked along. I then suggested we go south a little ways off the road where the view was even better. Which it was.
We stood there taking in the view, and Michelle remarked about how beatiful it was. I replied that while it was in fact breathtaking, that wasn't why I had brought her there. She asked what I meant by that, at which point I pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. She said of course she would. And the rest is history.
Posted by jon at July 19, 2004 10:39 PM