THE PROPOSAL

Let me just start out by saying, I AM WRITING THIS POST WITH A BEAUTIFUL RING ON MY FINGER BECAUSE I GOT ENGAGED TO MY SWEETHEART AND YYYYAAAAYYYY HE BECAME MY FIANCE!

Ahhhh man, life is so wonderful and love is the sweetest cherry on top.

I’ve known this happy moment was coming any day, so naturally the past few weeks I’ve been pretty skeptical of everything Kendal did. And he tricked me into thinking it was going to happen more than once. From a fancy dinner to acting weird about littlest things to kneeling by his bed while I sat in front of him (that last one occurred just seconds before we left to the place it actually DID happen… That boy, always playing with my heart strings. Gosh, I have quite the life ahead of me… hahaha).

So when Kendal asked me to pick a place to go to dinner on Thursday night, I was certain it was going to happen sometime after that because we’ve been pretty tight with our spending lately, knowing that marriage lay ahead of us. I told my mom and one of my roommates my predictions about getting engaged and they both did a pretty good job of talking me out of it because it wasn’t the first time “I thought I saw it coming” (if ya know what I mean, lolzz).

We went to a delicious dinner at HuHot Mongolian Grill and had so much fun feasting on the yummy food and enjoying each other’s company (Gah! I'm seriously so in love with that boy.) Afterword’s Kendal said he needed to go on a walk to stretch out his sore legs from playing a crazy game of flag football the prior night (or should I say claimed he needed to go on a walk…. Well, it fooled me all right).

We first went by his house to grab a jacket for me because he knows I always get cold (but the REAL reason was he needed to grab the ring and put a jacket on himself so he could have a place to hide the ring - I should have known something was up when he put a jacket on himself... he NEVER gets cold!) and then we were on our way. 

I still had my premises about a proposal and after Kendal had his laugh over the look on my face when he knelt by the bed (that dang trick I spoke about earlier) I told him there was no way he could succeed in surprising me because I'd been watching his every move for the past couple weeks… Man though, was I ever wrong! The dang irony. 

We drove to a trail just across the way from First Dam (for all you peeps not familiar with Logan, this is a fun little hike near the beginning of Logan Canyon). Kendal and I had walked up here before, but never at night… AND AH IT IS SO PRETTY UP THERE AFTER DARK. You can see all the lights of Cache Valley, including the brightest lights from the Logan Temple and the infamous “A” atop Old Main. 

After we had walked and talked a while, I saw what looked like lanterns in the distance. My stomach lurched because I thought I was finally correct about getting engaged! However, as we got closer, I saw two people together, nestled in a blanket on a bench. All I thought was “dang it, that would have been cute”. We were passing the two people just when a voice from the dark said, “Kendal? Claire?” and to my surprise it was one of Kendal’s old roommates with his cute girlfriend! I didn't even think anything of seeing them there because we are always running into those two in the most random places! Also, that is totally something they would do together because one of the other times we have stumbled upon them they were laying on a blanket stargazing in a park! So we stopped and chatted with them for a bit and I kept commenting on how cute and romantic their idea was. They had sprawled out a blanket over the bench and on each side of them were three luminaries lighting up the night. I told Kendal we needed to do something like that sometime and they offered to let us steal their spot because they planned to be leaving soon anyway. We decided to let them be a little longer and Kendal said maybe we would snag it from on our way back. So we kept on walking. After a bit Kendal suggested that maybe we should turn around and head back. I agreed and we strolled back down the way we came until we met up with Chris and Maddie again. They insisted we take their place and I happily agreed because I really couldn't get over how cute of an idea it was! 

Just after they were gone I asked Kendal if he had his phone on him because I wanted to capture such a perfect night but he told me he didn't, which I thought was crazy because I swore he had it out earlier on our walk! I’m sure he noticed the clogs in my head turning trying to remember if I had seen him with his phone and so he had no option but to act fast before I realized what had happened (little did I know he passed his phone off to Maddie so she could take pictures of what was about to take place). He asked me if I thought it would be too cheesy if we set up the luminaries in a circle that we could slow dance in the middle of and I asked him how we were supposed to do that without any music (and yes, this totally made me feel like Allie Hamilton on “The Notebook” when she and Noah dance in the middle of the street). Kendal set up the circle and I joined him in the middle, starting to sway to the rhythm of our heartbeats. 

Not long after though, I saw a light coming down the trail. I thought it must be a biker or something with crazy bright reflectors and that we were about to get run over. I tried to push Kendal out of the way saying someone was coming but he wasn’t saying anything or moving. While my attention was focused on the light, Kendal took his chance to kneel down beside me so when I looked to see why he wasn’t doing anything to get out of the way I found him on the ground, on one knee, holding a sparkly ring in his hands, grinning from ear to ear. I could not believe what I was seeing! Turns out the light coming down the trail were Chris and Maddie taking pictures of our most special moment. When Kendal said the words “Will you marry me?” all I could get out was a surprised little “Really?!”. When Kendal nodded his head that this was really happening I couldn’t say yes fast enough! OOOOHHHH GOSH. How did he manage to surprise me even when I thought I saw it coming? I had been prepared for it all night, up until I thought we were going to meet our doom with a biker racing down the trail. Hahaha it is so funny how magical moments come to be, isn’t it? I love that boy and I love that he did the one thing I asked for and made the proposal a huge surprise for me (oh and to also have someone capture it all on camera). Mmm mmm mmm I lucked out big time, ladies and gentleman. I can’t believe he is all mine FOREVER. Here’s to eternity babe! I love you Kendal King. I can’t wait to be your Queen <3

You’ll hear the wedding bells ringing on December 30^th! Come help us celebrate our mad, crazy, wild, fun, passionate, silly, magical, charmed, young, happy, incandescent LOOOOVE  (:

Kendal sliding the pretty little ring onto my happy little hands. 

WE ARE GETTING MARRIED WAHOO

The purest joy. Ah he is the best of the best.

happiest moment!

PDA

I'm a little obsessed with him...

Forever in shock

Yo, Kendy.... I LOVE YOUR FACE! Especially in this picture ;)  He did such a stellar job picking out my dream ring (even he can hardly believe it's prettiness! haha)

Trying to figure out how I scored such a smooth and clever and babelicious human being.

Happy happy (windy) joy!!!

*quick disclaimer.... the reflectors on Kendal's jacket I borrowed were making tons of the pictures super blurry (kind of a bummer) so we did a little reenacting. BUT the candid happiness and shock are definitely still here. Goodness, I sure am head over heals for this one. 

"I'm in love, I'm in love! And I don't care who knows it!" - Elf

Forget butterflies, this boy gives me the whole zoo!

Cheesin' with good reason

Save the date! 12.30.15.