ashley explains it all.: Happy Engagement Day!

Mike decided to surprise me and propose 4 years ago today. He always gets mad when I say I was completely surprised by the proposal. He reminds me that we had been talking about getting married for a while and we had even gone ring shopping. When we went "ring shopping" I thought he was just introducing me to his aunt, who happened to work at a jewelry store. Ok..I guess we had been talking about marriage but I thought I still had a good 3 months to make up my mind about who I would spend the rest of my life with. Apparently Mike had already made up his mind and was ready to make some life changing plans.

Mike and I met on my birthday, December 31 2007. He was 23 and I had just turned 20. We met through some mutual friends. Mike thought I was a CSU cheerleader the night he met me because I came with my friend, Kristal, who actually was a CSU cheerleader. When he found out that I wasn't Kristal's cheerleader friend but that I had met her through church, he was stoked. He always tells me that he loved me the night we met. I believe it because he told me he wanted to marry me the same night we met. (I told him that I was a twin and he said he wanted twins so we should get married and increase his chances of having them)

We spent New Years Eve at a church dance then we headed to Mike's sister's house and had a crazy Guess Who tournament with some friends. (where did we come up with this idea?) It was so much fun though. By the end of the night I had given Mike my phone number. He texted me early that morning and told me he wanted to take me snowshoeing when I got to Utah. I still remember being so excited when I opened the text on my pink razor phone.

I was flying out to Utah to visit family on New Years day with Britt (my sissy). Mike was headed back to Utah too to get ready to go back to school after winter break at BYU. Instead of spending time with my family that week I spent every day with Mike. Britt was in Utah with me and she came along for every adventure, including our first date. (love you sister!)

Well some people think it took us way too long to get engaged but Mike proposed almost exactly a year later on January 9th. Mike and I had spent 2 semesters dating long distance. I was going to school at Colorado State and he was going to BYU. We saw each other nearly once a month. He would either drive out to see me or I would fly or drive out to Utah to see him. We spent the first summer together in Highlands Ranch. (we're so grateful for the Shubins, Deb, and the Rossbergs for letting me live with them that summer!) By the end of the summer Mike was trying to get me to commit to marrying him. I still wasn't ready. So we kind of broke up. I called Mike two weeks later and told him I was moving to Utah at the end of the semester and that I knew I wanted to marry him. So what did he do? He proposed a few days after I moved to Utah. Here's how it happened..

We decided to take a spontaneous road trip to San Diego and Mike thought it would be the perfect place to propose since I grew up there. We were headed to dinner at the Chart House. We parked the car and I wanted to walk down by the beach and take some pictures before dinner. Mike was totally ok with this idea (I was really surprised because usually he hates taking pictures) As we were walking down the beach I saw a big heart made out of rocks and rose petals. We walked toward it to look at it and as we got closer, Mike got on his knee and started telling me how much he loved me. So what did I do? I started pulling him up back on his feet! I had no idea he was actually proposing. For the past two months Mike had been "practice" proposing and dropping to his knee the minute we walked into a store. I thought he was just doing this again. But no, this was for real. After about 20 or 30 minutes I finally said yes. I knew how much I loved him but I was just so shocked that it took me a minute...or 30 to get my thoughts straight.

I'm so glad everything worked out the way it did. I love this guy more than anything. I'm so glad Mike was so persistent about marrying me even though I was a chicken and it took me forever to commit. Love you forever babe!

Mike setting the ground rules for the Guess Who tournament.

It got intense

Best sister ever. This was right before we met Mike. Look at how baby she is.

The beautiful set up. Thanks to Ashley and Jeremy Smith for going to the restaurant early and setting all this up. I had no idea what was going on.

Part of the reason why it took me so long to say yes was because Mike didn't even know where the ring was. His friends had set up the whole thing before we got there. I totally thought he was faking this proposal. Who proposes without a ring?