Please come celebrate with us!

I (Tori) first noticed Clayton in the cafeteria at NICC. I immediately started working up the courage to talk to him when he got up to go to class. Total missed opportunity, right? Imagine my surprise when he strolls into Dairy Queen where I was working with his friend Gage (Best Man). Turns out my friend and coworker Jack knew my mystery guy. Jack introduced us and arranged for us to meet up after work to go for a jog. I am not a runner but I was going to just to talk to the insanely cute mystery guy. Jack and Clayton met up with me in front of my house Earlville and then we met up every night after to walk, talk, star gaze, picnic, or just be together.

Clayton and I decided to take a trip out to YellowStone to get away for a while. On the first day in YellowStone we decided to take in as much as possible. We traveled through the gates and made our was to the Prismatic Spring, Ole Faithful, and several other stops along the way. It was a little cloudy, a bit foggy, and it was a bit of a chilly start to the morning. Clayton drove us along, getting a bit more impatient until we found ourselves in the upper loop. We pulled off and found the Upper Falls. Clayton and I decided to walk down the trail and then make our own way to the rock platform we could see from the trail. I was rushing around taking photos and video of the amazing views, taking in the sounds and smells of being that close to the falls when Clayton pulled me back from the edge of the rock and held me while we watched the water rush by. He pressed a kiss to my temple and said, "I wish we could stay here forever, but we can't." I agreed with him immediately, "I know, I wish we could though." "Would you spend the rest of your life with me?" He asked, and I answered immediately, turning to look into his eyes for a moment, "Of course. I love you." Then I went back to watching the falls. Clayton turned my chin back to face him again, and then looked down at his hand clutching a small ring box that he had been hiding in his pocket. My brain could not comprehend what I was seeing until he asked me, "Will you marry me?" I was so surprised all I said was, "Ring!" Then my brain started working and I said, "I mean, yes! Yes, oh my god." He pushed the ring on my finger and that waterfall became my new favorite place in the world. I had no idea it was coming but apparently everyone else did!

When Clayton and I first met we were both just young people with extremely busy lives and little to no time to spend on a budding relationship. It became part of our daily routine that Clayton would come to the house in Earlville and we would sit in one of our cars with the radio on, sit in the driveway and watch the stars or we would take my fluffy dog Jasmine for a walk together. Quiet dates after the day had ended where it was just us and the stars and the quiet world around us while we learned more about each other. On a particularly clear night we chose to walk all the way out to Conrad Park in Earlville. Wandering around the play equipment, getting lost in each others stories and goofing around like kids again. I climbed up on top of the monkey bars and was swinging my legs when Clayton pulled himself up to join me. Holding hands and watching the stars with only the crickets and the breeze around to listen to the whispers we shared. Clayton turned to me and said quietly, "Can I kiss you?" I was leaning in before he even had a chance to finish the sentence. It was clumsy and awkward and wonderful. I remember thinking he would be so easy to fall in love with as he kissed my forehead after my lips. As it turns out, it was even easier than I thought to fall for him completely.

With the specific intentions, I set up a beautiful candle lit dinner of Casey's Pizza and canned soda in the back yard of the Earlville house. Broke college students do the best they can. I asked Clayton to meet me at my house, and led him to a small card table with a dollar store tablecloth and three pillar candles lighting up the area. Folding chairs and paper plates and shaking hands from how nervous I was about confessing the new feelings to the guy I'd been dating for a month at this point. And despite the practiced speech I wound up chickening out and playing off my romantic gesture as a celebration for Clayton's new job. I spent the next two weeks kicking myself for getting scared and looking for another opportunity. Then, I didn't have to. Clayton came to visit me after work. I'd had a particularly difficult day between my college class workload and my job stress I simply wanted to eat my blizzard and think about anything else. I had a mouth full of blizzard when Clayton said without inflection, "I love you." I paused, mid chew and waited. I don't know what I was waiting for, but I knew I was not expecting that. I don't even think I was breathing when he repeated himself with deliberate inflection. I tried to swallow my ice cream quickly to respond when he beat me to it saying, "And I know you love me." Apparently, I wasn't convincing when I tried to play off the candle lit dinner as a celebration, and he saw right through me. He still likes to say he said it first, but my intentions were clear enough he knew without me having to say a word. So, now I'll let you decide. Who said, "I love you" first?