We both attended a church activity where we were mashing sauerkraut for Swiss Days. I remember that he was in the navy, was wearing a Charleston, SC shirt, and he made a joke I thought wasn’t funny. He remembers that I was wearing a white shirt and that I was the girl who did the backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail.

We had been working together planning activities for church for a few months. After a temple activity we all went out to eat and as we were walking to our cars Michael walked up to me. He said my name and the way he said it I knew he was not about to discuss an upcoming activity, he was about to ask me on a date. He asked me to see a production of A Christmas Carol with him a few days before Christmas. I said “sure” then spent my whole drive home feeling happy.

I jumped the gun & asked Michael to come over & watch a movie with me. We watched 14 Peaks because we both like mountain climbing so even if it didn’t go well I knew we’d at least enjoy the movie. We did, and then we talked until past 1am.

At church we sat together in the chapel and Michael asked if he could put his arm around me. I said yes and we both felt like it was pretty causal. We were sitting front & center and were blissfully unaware that the whole ward was texting each other. Our bishopric was grinning on the stand. In Sunday school one of our church leaders snapped a photo of us together and sent it around. After church we each got two phone calls from church leaders telling us how excited they were. Someone asked at an activity that night when we became official, the answer, “we’re not. 😬”

We went to see A Christmas Carol down in Orem and held hands for the first time. We also got dinner at a crepe place. We enjoyed it enough that instead of going home we decided to watch “The Princess Bride Home Movie”. (worth the watch if you haven’t seen it)

We made dinner together and ate with my parents. Coconut chicken curry with creme brulee and meringues. I gave Michael a chocolate bar and he gave me tickets to see my favorite band. We both said “I love you” for the first time.

We drove down to St. George for President’s Day weekend. We stopped in Parowan, UT to hike Valentine Peak and I gave Michael a quick tour of my favorite town. Then we drove to St. George and stayed with my grandparents. My grandma loved Michael because he does the dishes. We had lunch with Michael’s sister & her husband who were also visiting St. George. There was a snowstorm on the way home so instead of the expected 4 hour drive it took us 7 hours. We ate pistachios, sang along to 90s music, and had a pretty great time.

We discussed marriage for a couple of weeks. Then I spent a week at Yellowstone Nat’l Park with my family. I missed Michael the whole time. When I got home on March 1st we decided we were ready to make it official. We set a date for August 5th and scheduled it with the temple the next day. We didn’t tell anyone.

After almost two weeks we decided to tell our families about our engagement. My Mom is a leader on our temple shift and has access to the scheduling. I had her show me how it works and then when she wasn’t looking I casually typed in August 5th to show plans for that day. When she got back I said she needed to see this page and after taking a moment to process she understood and was overjoyed. We called in my Dad to read it too and it was all hugs & smiles. Then my Mom proceeded to call everyone in the family. Michael was much less dramatic, he just pulled me into the kitchen and said, “Mom and Dad, we’ve decided to get married.”

Michael tried to sneakily ask me on a hike up one of my favorite hills. I saw through the plan. There’s no trail up the hill so we found our own path up until we reached the stacked stone bench at the top. It was a beautiful, clear day and the view of Deer Creek Reservoir was spectacular. (A photo from the same spot hangs in my parents kitchen) He gave me the ring and we went out to dinner to celebrate.