Toward the end of February, Brad and I were quickly coming to the realization that working opposite shifts and trying to work overtime meant that our time together was few and far between. Brad called one day toward the end of the week and asked what my schedule was for the upcoming week which would be the first week of March. We soon decided that Thursday March 5th would be the only day we could see each other that week. He said, "lets go somewhere Wednesday night and hang out Thursday then." I rarely turn down a get-a-way, so I jumped on the opportunity. He then asked if I wanted to help him plan it, or if I wanted it to be a surprise. I tell him all the time that I love surprises, so of course I wanted it to be a surprise! Next, he asked if I just wanted him to surprise me with telling me our destination, or if I wanted to be blindfolded for the drive and be surprised when we got there. Of course I chose the second option...it sounded way more fun!! He told me Monday that I needed to pack a bag by Tuesday night because he knew I had to work all day Wednesday and he wanted to leave as soon as I could get home from work Wednesday night.
At this point I was pretty sure he had something big up his sleeve. I thought FOR SURE it was the engagement, but I didn't want to spoil the fun, and I wanted him to know how excited I was!
By Wednesday I think my excitement was overly apparent and he found a way to calm me down. He called me at work and said, "so where did you want to go tomorrow?" I was crushed! I said "I thought you were planning a surprise?" He said "I was, but I can't find anything to do. Any suggestions?" I couldn't believe I had my hopes up so high and he SO wasn't on the same page I was! Once I thought about it, I convinced myself that he had just called and said that because he wanted to throw me off. I figured that if I got home from work and he was acting funny (like nervous, or anxious) I would know that SOMETHING was still up. To say the least, I got home from work and he was as calm as I have ever seen him! My mom had made dinner and he told me to sit down and eat, and we could just go whenever I was ready! What the heck??? I was so baffled!
When we finally decided to leave, he asked again if I was sure I wanted to wear a blindfold, or if I wanted him to just tell me where we were going. I again opted for the blindfold just for the humor of the situation. We stopped at the gas station by my house (he was kind enough to let me use the restroom before I had to attempt it blind folded later) to get gas and drinks and off we went! These are some pictures of the initial part of the drive:
In Brad's defense, this wasn't illegal yet...
He drove in circles for long enough that I was totally turned around when we were finally making progress toward the destination. I stayed awake for about an hour talking with him, but then I dozed off. When I finally woke up it was about 10:00pm and he said we still had 20 min before we got there. He started saying he thought we were lost and all he could see was tractors! Next thing I knew we were on turning onto a dirt road! I actually asked him at that point if this was going to turn out like a bad nightmare! All I could think of is how we were hours away and down some dirt road and NOBODY knew where we were! (One too many scary movies)
Next thing I knew he stopped and said "I'm going to go check in, you stay here." I sat in the car wondering where in the world we could be. He came back out and said "I'm ticked! They gave our reservation away! Since it's so late they didn't think we were coming, so they gave it away!" I was almost speechless! What do we do? He then piped up and said "they have one more room available, but the guy at the desk wants us to look at it before we reserve it because it might not be what we are looking for. He wants us to drive down to the room and he will walk down and unlock it for us." I was scared and confused and I really didn't know what to think! Brad parked the car again and said "I'll go in and check it out. Oh and by the way, this guy said we are not supposed to drink the tap water. If we need drinking water, drink out of the small blue taps next to the main faucets. He said he would leave us some directions though, so I think we can figure it out." So, there I sat in the car... again...wondering what in the world was going on!
Brad finally came out and got me. He told me this room was just going to have to do. He led me into the room and sat me on one of the beds and said, "ok, I'm going to go pay for the room. You stay here. When I close the door, you can take off your blindfold and see if you can figure out those instructions he was talking about." I heard the door close and I took off my blind fold. There in front of me was my laptop with a note on it that said "JUST PUSH PLAY!"
I hit the play button and this is what I saw:
At the end of the video, he said "don't answer that yet, I have to bribe you some more..." He left and came back with a huge beautiful bouquet of red roses! It was GORGEOUS! Then, he said "one more thing... " and left again. He came back with a little black box and got down on one knee and SAID as he opened the box to show me the most beautiful diamond ring EVER, "so, will you??" I THOUGHT he said, "I love you!" So I said, "I love YOU!" He looked at me with a VERY CONFUSED LOOK! He thought a "but" was coming out next. I couldn't tell what was going on till he said, "IT WAS A YES OR NO QUESTION, CALLIE!!! YES OR NO???" I said, "well YES!! OF COURSE!!" He was relieved!! Slight confusion at a very inopportune time!!! But it made for a funny story!!
These are some pics of us the next morning. We were in Moab at the Red Cliffs Lodge. A place the two of us had stayed just over two years ago for a Valentines Day trip. It was perfect! I couldn't ask for anything more! Thanks to my sweetheart who I LOVE SO MUCH!
Seth, Aunt Callie, Nike
Aunt Callie, Nike, Austin
