My First, and Not Last, Post ... Ever

Everyone probably already knows, but this is a blog shared by Brooke and myself. However, I do more of the viewing (with the occasional adding of a zebra jumping through the grass) and Brooke does more of the writing. Here is my attempt to change this, although momentarily, and let Brooke have a moment of viewing while I have a moment of writing.

The biggest problem that I have had, when it comes to blogging, is knowing exactly what it is that I can write about. That is when I had this following moment of realization -- it doesn't matter. It is my blog and it is Brooke's blog. We can write about whatever we want and other people can choose to read it or not. For this blog I decided to write about our engagement story though, as I know that is a question that a lot of people have been asking about and wondering about.

So, here it goes.

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It was the 19th of May, 2012 -- which just so happened to be my mother's birthday. The day started off with a very nervous Kevin and a very unexpecting Brooke. I woke up quite early that morning and as my roommates could testify, paced. Never had I been more excited but never had I been more nervous as well. The biggest question on my mind was "How can I get this day started or how can I get this ball rolling?"

That is when Brooke provided me with the most perfect of opportunities. She texted me "Good morning" and as a joke asked for me to bring her a brownie as well as her favorite soda. So that is when I started to go to work. I went and grabbed her a brownie and her favorite soda, from a mini-mart, as well as a few of her favorite flowers from a local flower shop.

When I arrived and Brooke opened her door. Not only was she surprised to see me with the specified goods that she had asked for but she was also surprised to see me with flowers. In fact, at this moment I could tell that she started to suspect something and she announced her suspicions to me. Luckily I was able to put on a straight face and lead her away from guessing what it was that I had planned on doing. For those that know me, know that I'm not very good at putting on a straight face when I'm trying to hide something. Somehow I pulled it off this time though.

Now, as a side note, the night before I had asked her on a date. I suggested that we should do a "Chopped" date, rent a tandem bike, and go on a bike ride. Now I'm assuming that all of you know what a tandem bike is so I won't go into detail on that but for those that don't know what Chopped is, let me give you a brief rundown. Chopped is a television show on the Food channel that Brooke and I watched almost every Sunday. There is a group of contestants each of which is given three mysterious ingredients that they have to cook into a food and serve to a panel of judges.

As such, for our "Chopped" date we decided that we would run to the store, pick out a few ingredients for each other, and cook it into a meal for lunch. So from there we headed out to the store. On the way to the store though we found out that one of our good friends had gotten engaged the night before. Brooke, being extremely excited for her friend called her friend up and told her to come over. Gah!! Luckily, when we went in the store and went our different ways to get mystery ingredients I called up her friend and let her know my plan. She got excited as well and let me know that she would just come over for a minute or two and then leave. Talk about a real life saver!

So after we had gathered our mystery ingredients for each other we went back to the apartment and cooked it into a meal, although it was more of an appetizer. While there I joked with Brooke about how I needed to get on the ball and propose to her. Turns out I had actually gotten a ring pop the day before, to help me throw her off the track if she started to sense something, and right there I got down and proposed to her with the ring pop. She accepted the ring pop but not the proposal -- she said that I needed to propose with the real ring. I told her I would get around to it one day.

Right around this point her friend came over and we all talked for a short moment before her friend said that she had some things to get done before work and headed out.

Now it was time to head to the area that I had planned, and set up with my aunt, to propose. Once again though, I need to add another side note. A few days earlier, in fact the Monday before, my aunt had come over to my apartment and we had made a few things. We melted down different types of chocolate and made little chocolate molds of cupcakes -- another idea centering two other television shows that we often watched on the food channel called "Cupcake Wars" and "Sweet Genius". We numbered each of the cupcakes and inside each of the cupcakes we placed various candies as well as various pieces of a poem, that when read in order, made a full poem. In the last one, we placed the ring.

Now, back to where we were before this last paragraph. After talking to her friend and eating our lunch / appetizer -- which actually turned out to taste alright, not great, but alright (although my nerves may have had something to do with it) -- we went to the Outdoor Recreation Center, at BYU-Idaho, and rented a tandem bike. Something that Brooke and I had always wanted to try out. Turned out to be a lot harder than we thought it would be. It was extremely hard to start but easy to keep going once it was actually going.

Being in the front and therefore having the most control over the bike we biked around town and eventually went to a park that was and is a not very well known park in town. Therefore there wasn't really anybody there, except for my aunt who was hiding behind some trees to take pictures. This is the point that I really think Brooke started to figure out what was going on.

I took her down to a picnic table, watched her go through each of the chocolate mold cupcakes in order (occasionally grabbing a piece of candy to eat), very quickly I might add, and finally opening the last cupcake to find the ring in the center of it. She was definitely surprised but I took the ring, knelt down beside her, and asked, "Will you marry me?".

She very quickly said "Yes" and that was the start of our journey towards our "Happily Ever After"!

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Now, I'm sure that there were details left out and no black and white text can fully describe the emotions of that day. However it was one of the best days of my life ... and every day since then, with Brooke, has been the best day of my life.

I look forward to sharing this blog with her and especially look forward to marrying her on the 21st of December -- less than two months away!