5 Years Ago... (With the old pics added)

5 Years ago, today, was one of the greatest days of my life. Stephen and I got engaged. I never really recorded the story, so here it is...

We had met the summer of 2003 and became good friends during the next school year (my junior year at BYU.) My roommates and his hung out daily and eventually we just clicked and started dating seriously.

Meanwhile my sister, Rachel, was already engaged to Aaron and they were busy planning a wedding for April of 2004. Stephen felt like he should wait until they were married before he asked me. He had the ring and kept it quite a secret for some time. In fact, one night in the car we were talking about marriage and (the tricker in him!!) he kept saying that it was going to have to be a while before we even talked about marrying. Well, the night of April 23rd came around, My sisters beautiful wedding and reception were over and we were cleaning up.

He got in the elevator with my mom and dad and told them he was going to ask me that night- he couldn't wait any longer. (I guess the wedding made him too excited:) So after we cleaned up the reception we got home exhausted. He told me he wanted to go for a drive.

We drove around Provo after midnight for a while, going no where in particular, which was a normal thing for us to do. We picked up some slurpees at 7-11 and kept driving and talking. Then he told me he wanted to go to a place special to both of us.

(I know this is totally "small town" of us, but during the early days of us dating, we were driving around one night and came to this hidden old train yard in south provo. We were somewhat of adventurers and thought it would be fun to get out and climb around and explore. (Shhh, don't tell about our trespassing!) We laughed a lot and he tried scaring me a few times saying that someone was right around the corner or something. We sat up on this platform at the front of the train and just talked for a long time. We also had our 2nd kiss ever there. It felt like we were in a movie under the starry sky. I came home all giddy and woke up my roomate to tell her about our random and totally fun night. We came back to this place every now and again just to reminisce. One night we went back, and Steve (with the romantic in him) turned on his music from his car and asked me to dance up on the same platform. (Funny- a guy who worked on the train yard drove passed, stopped, and asked "Hey! What are you doing up there?" Stephen, a loss for words, said..." Oh, just....dancing." The guy laughed, told us to be careful and then drove on.)

So, to make a long story even longer- this was a special place for us. The night of the 23rd of April, 2004, we drove to this place, got out and climbed up to the platform under the stars. I totally did not expect it, but after a few minutes he started telling me how he wanted to be with me forever and I was the girl of his dreams. He couldn't imagine his life without me. He got down on his knee and pulled out the most beautiful ring. He asked me to marry him. I started laughing and crying at the same time, of course, and said yes with the biggest hug ever! It wasn't a huge production. There were not violin players behind the train, or thousands of roses everywhere, but it was just the two of us and absolutely perfect. I love you, Stephen, and ever so much more than on that day.

We took this the morning after we got engaged.  We look SO young!