So at the beginning of the week, I started to put the plans into motion.
Lucky for me, my family helped a ton. If it wasn't for them, I never would have been able to pull it off. They got all of the supplies ready, including the food, the firewood, the lights, and everything in between.
This is how it happened. Mimmy has been wanting to go camping for weeks, but we've never been able to make it happen. So we planned to go Thursday night, before she left on Friday. So after I got off of work, we grabbed a picnic of fruit, pasta salad, and rotisserie chicken, and headed up Mueller Park Canyon. Once we got into the woods, I noticed that she was wearing sandals, and while we were bringing our supplies from the car to our fire pit site, one of them broke! It wouldn't have been a big deal, but because of what I had planned for later that night, it was the first thing to go wrong. Once we were all set up, I started making the fire. I set up the perfect teepee style fire, with the small branches and tinder on the inside and the big logs on the outside, just like my grandpa always taught. Believe it or not, I do know what I'm doing, and so when the fire would not light, I knew it must have been because the tinder just wasn't dry enough. This is where the second blunder of the night happened. In a panicked rush to get a fire going, I ran to the car and drove to the store to buy some lighter fluid. But not thinking, I left my woman up the canyon! I thought I would be fast so I told Mim to just wait, and afterwards I felt terrible about it. But lucky for me she is awesome and didn't complain a bit. So after a drive to the store, multiple searches for dry twigs, and about a half a can of lighter fluid later, we had a roaring fire going and were ready to eat.
After that fiasco, I was in a bit of a freak out thinking about the rest of the evening because I was a lil nervous. So when we finally sat down to eat, I just started shoveling down the food without even thinking. Mim probably thought there was something seriously wrong with me, but she didn't say anything. The highlight of the meal was the dessert. We started with roasted Starburst, which I have never had but Mim insisted that they were delish. Before eating it she described the soft, gooey inside with an almost crispy outside. The experience was exactly that, but I couldn't tell if the crispiness was the Starburst or the pieces of charcoal from the stick we roasted them on.
Now little did Mim know, but while we were eating, my parents were just up the canyon setting up the spot where I would ask her to marry me. When they had finished, my dad texted me to say that I should get going before it got too dark. Not only was it getting dark, but while we were roasting our Starburst it started to rain! I was freaking out but tried not let on that anything was wrong. I had my guitar in the backseat of my car and suggested to Miri that we grab it and head for somewhere in the trees where it wouldn't get wet while I play. We quickly put out the big flames and left all of our supplies at the picnic table. She probably got suspicious after I had grabbed the guitar and was headed for a small, steep trail up the hill through dense forestation. This is why I was upset the whole time about her shoe. What kind of boyfriend makes his girl hike up a mountain in broken sandals?! But once again, she didn't complain.
After a short hike up the hill, the lights came into view. About twenty yards off the trail and down the hill, was a small opening in the trees next to the stream. The surrounding trees were decked out with hanging lights, and candles circled the ground. A trail of rose pedals led to a log bench in the middle of the opening.
We made our way to the bench, sat down, and I asked Mimmy if I could play my song for her. Now, I'm not an expert. I'm not even that good. But even though it was cheesy, I felt like this song could say more than I could. I knew Mim liked the song "Marry Me" by Train, and so late the night before I quickly learned the guitar part and the words. After a few seconds of hesitation, I started playing. I sang the beginning words, even though my voice was shaky. Thoughts of how I felt about my Mim were running through my head and by the time I was getting to the chorus, lets just say I was getting a little...emotional. My concentration on the lyrics was dwindling and I started forgetting most of the words. Luckily, the two most important words I did not forget, because they have been running through my mind every time I've seen her beautiful face, since I first saw her in the library at the U. Slight embarrassment was setting in but when I looked up and saw the expression on her face and the tears in her eyes I knew that she was listening to my heart and not the song. When I finished, I set the guitar down and we hugged tightly for a long time. I told her that I love her more than anything. And that I want and need her forever, and never will let her go. I asked her to stand up and we continued to hold each other. I reached into my pocket for the ring which, luckily, had arrived in the mail just hours before (thanks to Jonathan who had over-nighted it to me from Boise!). With the ring in my hand, my heart pounding, and my knees shaking, I knelt down and and looked up into her beautiful eyes. I asked Miriam, the love of my life, the most amazing, caring, beautiful, fun, sensitive, funny, loving person I have ever met to be my eternal companion. I wasn't on my knee for more than a split second when she crouched down to hug me again and said, "Of course I will!!" By this time it was dark, and the only light was coming from the surrounding candles. I stood and held my fiancee for the longest time. I didn't even know what to think! I was too excited to comprehend what had just happened. After returning to the bench to talk and look at the ring, we decided we had better get going back down to our campsite.
Luckily, the rain had ceased and there were still enough coals in our fire pit to roast some s'mores. Because we have been raised eating s'mores in different ways, we brought the supplies for how we both like them. But it didn't really matter because I ended up eating all of them and Mims only had a couple bites.
We had planned on watching Beauty and the Beast on the laptop, but the park ranger informed us that we needed to clean up and get out because he wanted to close the gate. So we just grabbed our things, got in the car, and headed home to watch the movie there.
Now that I am engaged and know that I will have Miriam forever, it makes her being away in California that much more difficult. But what is one week compared to an eternity, right? I am so grateful to have ever met her. She is truly wonderful. I am lucky to know her, and blessed to be the man she will marry. I look forward to the day when we can sit down with our kids and tell them our story.
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