The Proposal

Okay, so you're probably wondering why I insisted on going to Costco, not once, but twice. One of the items I was getting (since it's MUCH cheaper at Costco) was a bundle of roses. Why, you ask? My little brother Jack was about to live the most exciting day of his life, and propose to Susan!!

 We have spent the last month planning an elaborate proposal, getting a  ring, and talking wedding. After the ND game, I finished my unpacking and tinkering, and got everyone bundled up to head to City Creek. We met up with about a dozen of Jack's friends and Susan's family. Here's some backstory.... Susan is originally from South Carolina (and YES, she DOES have an adorable southern accent!!), so, as you can imagine, her family is very traditional. Jack flew out to SC on Wednesday to ask Susan's dad for permission to marry his daughter. But, he told Susan that he was flying out to Seattle to help my dad and I with the move. She had no idea that he was spending the week with her parents and getting to know all of her family. He had a blast!!

He and I both flew in and arrived at almost the same time on Saturday. I went home to unpack and stuff, while he found a comfy chair to watch the ND game on his phone, while he waited for 4 o'clock to roll around. Susan was told that his flight got in at 4. Jack had reservations for dinner at The Roof in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, since Susan has always wanted to go. During dinner, Jack excused himself to use the restroom, and that's when he really started to freak out. He called all of us for words of wisdom and to help him calm down. According to Susan, he was acting way weird. I don't blame him!! After dinner, he took her on a carriage ride around Temple Square (another experience she'd never had). He spoke to the driver beforehand, and arranged to have him drop them off next to the temple....

 Okay, so back to our side of things. While the two lovebirds were on their carriage ride, all of Jack's friends, Ryan, and I were gathering in the food court of the City Creek mall. I gave everyone a rose (I attached tags to each of them, for us to write our names on). My plan was to present them to Susie, then I would dry them, and put them in a shadow box for her later. We had t-minus 5 minutes to hide all 12 of us amongst the trees and bushes surrounding the pedestal outside of the temple. I took off my bright, white coat, as to blend in more. It was freezing, but my adrenaline was keeping me nice and toasty. So, this is where plans started to go off course. Not in a bad way, more in a hilarious way....

When the group got to the pedestal, there was a couple embracing and kissing on it. We panicked because we thought we were too late and had missed everything. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures. Turns out, I got a ton of pictures of the wrong couple. Hey, better safe than sorry!! I ran to a choice tree and started to play with the settings of the camera, just to make sure that I'd get non-blurry pictures in the dark. That's when my phone started to ring, and it was Ryan (who was wandering around with Lilly in her stroller), to tell me that Jack and Susan had literally just walked right past him. From my perspective, I could see Ryan off in the distance, and no more than 5 feet away, were Jack and Susan, walking hand in hand, towards the pedestal. I freaked out because our whole group was still gathered in one big mass, and I was too far away to tell them that they were about to be walked up on by Jack and Susan, without screaming and ruining it all. I giggled to myself as the group quickly broke up and everyone went running in different directions when they finally noticed that they were coming.

Close call! The second "slip up" was that the couple who was currently making out on the pedestal was STILL there and not looking very close to leaving. Before Jack and Susan got there, I considered going over to talk to them to let them know that a proposal was about to happen, but I didn't want to ruin any possible proposal plans that they might have. Jack and Susan came wandering up to the pedestal and awkwardly waited, trying to make it obvious that they were waiting to use it. Secretly, all of our group was getting SUPER annoyed that they wouldn't leave. Jack was quick on his feet, and decided that the only way to get the other couple to leave was to ask them to take a picture for him. That way he and Susie could get up on the pedestal and the other couple would just walk away. It worked!

So, as Jack and Susie came walking up, I was hiding behind a tree. It occurred to me that I was maybe a bit too big to camouflage in. And I didn't have a very good angle for pictures. So, when I thought that Susan wasn't looking, I jumped down and went running across the sidewalk to hide behind a lamp post. I squatted down to have the large base block me. Still, bad angle. By this time, they were up on the pedestal, and I knew I didn't have much time. While Jack was in SC with Susan's parents, he recorded a video of them giving their blessing and telling Susan that they were happy for her and Jack. They were watching this video when I decided it was a good time to find a better spot to hide.

I went from the tree, to the lamp, and ended up jumping into a bush that gave me a shot with Jack and Susan right in front of me. Now all I had to do was wait. I could tell when they were done watching the video, and then Jack knelt down. Right as Jack knelt down, I started to cry. I felt  an overwhelming amount of love for them and was SO happy to be witnessing such a great moment. I didn't want my memory of this moment to be from behind the lens of a camera, so I made sure I focused on my feelings and paid attention to what was happening. I held down the shutter on the camera and didn't miss a moment! Every time I look at the picture of Jack down on one knee, it makes me tear up. I captured the spirit of the moment! Once they kissed and had their "moment," everyone from our group jumped out of our hiding spots and started cheering. Susan was so surprised! We all presented her with our roses and gushed and shared stories.

Jack did so good on the ring!! He's been planning this for a long time. Susan's mom gave him the diamond from her ring, and he had it made into Susan's dream ring. It's SO special! Not gonna lie, I'm in love with the ring.... So, after a long day, some tears on my part (good and bad), and some cold ninja moves, we headed home with full hearts. I am so beyond excited to have Susan as a sister. I love her so much already. Getting to see Jack this happy is worth it all.

Okay, so for some reason, no matter how many times I upload this picture, Blogger wants to make it pink. But what I love about this picture is that you can see their silhouette. Susan has her hands up to her face, crying. Seriously, this picture makes me tear up EVERY time I look at it. I'm going to print it out big and use it as the background in the shadow box with the roses we gave her.

The gang!

Jack's best friends, and, let's just be honest, my other brothers

As they all tip over

 

The ring!!

Jack's Lion King "ah zabenya!!" moment with Lilly

 

 

 

Two of Susan's brothers

 

I ran from the tree to the lamp, thinking I was being all ninja-like and secretive. Susan said she saw me, but didn't know it was me or what the heck I was doing. haha!

Giving Lilly nigh-nigh kisses