Happiest Day in the World (at least thus far)
Well I did it (actually I did it a long time ago, but between wedding planning, school, and attempting to fit 20 hours a week in work blogging has taken a slightly lower priority). I proposed to the beautiful Miss Bree! It surprisingly wasn’t an even remotely scary thing – in fact it all felt quite natural. It did, however, take me a good deal of time to come up with the perfect way to propose.
Breeanne has long since been considered a “common-law fiance” by my family. They absolutely adore her. In fact, one of my aunts told her that even if she and I went our separate ways, she would still be a part of the family. That being said, they have long since tried to get me to propose. For months, actually. Well, finally, on August 23rd, 2008, I mustered the courage to finally go ahead and do it.
That night Breeanne got back from Europe, I was going to surprise her with the whole ordeal. So I picked her up from the airport, and convinced her to go on a hike to Elephant Rock. Not having all the things necessary to do so, however, I told her I had to run a quick errand. This quick errand turned into an hour long venture, as I was unaware of the fact there exists a juice aisle distinct from the soda aisle. With that in mind, I wandered all over the entire store looking for sparkling Catawba. Luckily enough I ran into my mother to help me find the other items that apparently I’m too manly to find. By the time this errand was done, the sun was already setting. Considering the fact that Elephant Rock is a 4 hour round-trip hike, we would have arrive back home aroun 12:45 AM, and about the safest thing in the world isn’t hanging out on a rock in the dark, surrounded by 600 foot dropoffs in ever direction. Go figure.
So I waited. Another day came, and I decided that this was the day. I packed up my backpack full of the 
goods, and then following church I dragged Breeanne up the side of that blessed mountain. It flew by, with us just talking about whatever crossed our minds. We finally reached the rock around 7:30 or 7:45, and as customs require, we made our way down the steep hill to the base of the rock, and then climbed up to our spot. So why Elephant Rock? I guess I forgot to mention, that the rock is sort of Breeanne and my place. The first time we ever went on a “date” was up that trail at night. The day before I left on my mission as well was spent on that rock. It has just tied us together – past and present – in a way that is somewhat indescribable. I suppose, in a sense, that rock defines our relationship.
I couldn’t have timed it more perfectly. Actually, to be honest, I couldn’t have gotten luckier. We perched ourself up on the rock just as the sun began to set. It wasn’t the best sunset I have ever seen, but then again it wasn’t too bad. Because it was so late in the day, there were not many poeple on the trail. In fact, after about 15 minutes at the rock we were completely on our own. Perfect. I whipped out my beautiful Mexican blanket and layed it down on the lower tier of Elephant Rock. I then proceeded to set up my little picnic. I like to think that Breeanne was at least somewhat surprised by my selection. We had a high quality flavored bread with brie cheese (thank goodness my dad reminded me to take a knife. I have never had brie cheese before and it would have been a little bit…intimidating…to eat without a knife.) I also packed a finely aged sparkling pear juice to supplement the bread and cheese. Thankfully my goblets survived (yes, I managed to hike two wine goblets up a four mile trail). And last but not least, a boquet of flowers. The flowers were a little bit tricky to transport. I ended up cutting a hole in a gladware container and sticking the stems through it so that the actual flowers themselves would have a protective case. It worked beautifully.
After eating our scrumptious meal, we went up to the top of the rock to watch the sunset. It was at that point that I whipped out the ring and asked her to marry me. Thank goodness she agreed. It was a really happy moment. One of the best in my life to this point. We stayed up there for a little while longer, both a little bit shaky (to the point where I had to go down to the safer part of the rock for fear of us falling off), and realized that it was going to be getting dark quick. So we packed up and started trucking on home.
The night was really dark. There was no moon. Thankfully my drug-lord telephone
had quite an impressive flashlight as one of its odd array of features. I had also remembered another flashlight for Bree to use. We got down safely, with my family eagerly awaiting our arrival at my house, in spite of the fact that it was already 11:30 or 12. I guess my mom didn’t appreciate my humor in telling her that Bree “decided to go in a different direction”. Oh well.
Since then, things have been hectic, but for as miserably busy as
they have been, things are good. I get to spend forever with the most beautiful girl in the world. I guess simply put, I’m pretty excited.
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