The day he proposed <3

Wow! Ok so, while I was in Virginia, I would talk to Bryant on a daily basis and he kept telling me that he had a surprise for me when I got home. This is not an uncommon statement to hear from him. He ALWAYS has something up his sleeve and I ALWAYS try to guess what it is. He told me that it was something we'll always have so my next question was "Is it decor for the house?". He responded that it was in fact decor but wouldn't say anything else about it no matter how much I tried to pry it out of him. Everytime we talked about "the surprise" I always refered to it as wall decor. I couldn't wait to see it!

Finally the day came to fly home to Utah and FINALLY see Bryant. I had pulled an all-nighter in Virginia because we had to get up @ 4 and to the airport for our flights @ 6. I got to Utah around noon but I still couldn't see Bryant (because he had to work) until later that night at the Brad Paisley concert. Which was amazing BTW (love that Dierks Bently)! We left the concert a little early because Bryant told me that we only had until 1 a.m. to see the decor. That threw me off! 1 a.m.? Now I was super curious about what he had planned. I was also exhausted!!! We got in the car and he put a blindfold on me and by the time we got back to Roy, I was practically asleep. I got out of the car and he took the blindfold off and we were at a miniature golf course! I woke right up and completely forgot about "the decor". GOLF! Sweet!

It was about midnight and the place was all lit up for us. In the first hole, there was a clue that said to look by the water. I walked over and picked up a bottle with a note and another clue in it. He read the letter to me and it was the sweetest thing EVER! He typed it up on some nice paper and he even burned the edges to give it the whole effect. The next clue said "go to hole 9". It crossed my mind for a split second that he might be proposing but I knew the ring wouldn't be ready for a few more weeks so I just assumed he was doing something super sweet cause I had been in Viginia for a week :). When we got to the 9th hole, I went first and missed. I waited for him to go and he missed to so I took my turn again. The ball went in the hole and I went to pick it up so he could take his turn but....there was something else in the hole! I bent down and took out my ball to get to the little white box. I looked at Bryant with a huge grin but at the same time, in disbelief! "Are you serious?!". I opened the box and he walked over and got down on his knee!!! I couldn't believe it was happening...NOW! Of course I said "YES!!!!!" :). To the side of the course, he had set up a little table and chairs with some sparkling cider and glasses so we could celebrate. What a sweetheart, huh? I love him and I can't wait for that day to kneel at the alter with him! <3>

That one time, in Virginia...

A few months ago, one of my really good friends, Natalie, came back to the U.S. from her mission in the Philippines. She lives in Virginia and came out to Utah in 2003 to go to Snow College where we were roommates and have been besties ever since :).

I decided to fly out to Virginia for a week with another one of our friends, Brian Shriver, who served his mission there. It was a pretty laid back vacation but at the beginning of our trip, 6 of us drove to West Virginia and went white water rafting on the Gauley River. I didn't think too much about rafting on this river because I'd been white water rafting several times and I love white water rafting! I got even more exciting when I heard the statistics of this river from the guides...a 23 mile "marathon", 8 class 5 rapids, and a 14 foot waterfall, not to mention all the other class 3 and 4 rapids to go through :). "The Beast of the East" they call it. It was such a blast but I'm not gonna lie, I got pretty nervous during some of the rapids and especially on the 14 foot water fall. We had a pretty good guide though and although several other rafts flipped, ours never did....on the first half at least. We pulled off the river right after the 14 foot drop and had a BBQ lunch while watching all the other rafts go down the water fall. After lunch, we all piled back in our raft and headed to the first class 5 rapid of the second half of the river. They called this rapid "Fluffy Box of Kittens". Sounds innocent, right? WRONG! I think we only saw one raft go through this rapid and not flip. We were one of the first rafts and with a name like "Fluffy Box of Kittens", we thought it would be harmless. So we paddled straight for the fierce rapids with confidence and in a split second, the left side of the raft was straight up in the air! Everyone got dumped except the guide. A few of us even got stuck under the raft but they got out pretty fast. I must have been in the middle of the 16 ft boat though because it took me a little bit to find my way over to the edge. I usually have to plug my nose when I'm under water but everything happened so fast that I didn't even have time. I learned how to hold my breath really fast though! LOL. I panicked for a few seconds and then remembered the safety speech the guides gave about what to do if you get trapped under the raft. So I put my hands and feet up to the raft and moved like hell until I was out from under that thing. I came up coughing like mad! I looked around and saw everyone bobbing around in the river and saw some more rafts flip. It was a crazy adventure! That whole river trip was! We were all so exhausted by the time we got out of the river and back into the bus. We figured after 8 hours on the river, we would be able to sleep on the way back but I think the bus driver felt left out because he didn't get to go through the rapids so he made his own little wild adventure bus ride to go along with it! Our group was in the back of the bus near the rear wheels and we were down in a deep holler so we were driving up a dirt road with huge tree roots and lots of winding switchbacks. When we weren't getting a foot of air between our butts and the seats, I swear, we were going to go off the edge. Especially when he would turn up one of the switchbacks! It was pretty funny though. The whole bus would moan whenever we went over roots or huge bumps. We were so sore from sitting on the raft all day that those bumps meant a sore arse for the rest of the week LOL.

We did all kinds of random stuff in Virginia. We went to the Roanoke star one night, and to "mini Graceland" where we became giants! They took me to the "millionaires club" and told me if we didn't dress up really nice, they might not seat us. I saw right through that though because they ended up taking me to this hole-in-the-wall burger place. hahaha! We even did some civil war site seeing. I LOVE learning the history behind the old town and buildings. It's humbling to know that such great leaders (and not so great ones) once stood in that very spot and changed the country!

Overall, Virginia was AWESOME! But I'm not going to lie. Utah is my home and it was so nice to fly into the Salt Lake valley and see the majestic mountains and Great Salt Lake. What a beautiful site! :) I would finallly get to see Bryant after 8 days too! That was by far the hardest part about this trip. Being deprived of my Love. :) Little did I know, he had a surprise in store for me.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!