Last night Bade proposed to me, and I enthusiastically said “YES!” with a kiss… immediately followed by “are you serious?” I am so blessed to be engaged to such a loyal and caring man. He really is one of the best things that has happened to me in my life.
Since I started dating Bade I have gained more confidence in myself and my actions, become more ambitious, and had more fun than I can remember. You can see in his daily actions that he is dedicated to his family; he is so helpful in all situations without being asked or even thanked. He is relaxed yet productive; he doesn’t give off the vibe of a ‘go go go’ person, but he is always working on something, bettering something, or getting the most out of moments. He doesn’t judge, even if I’m upset and have mascara lines for no good reason. He is also a bigger kid than the majority of kids that I know. He isn’t afraid to make a fool of himself just to get a laugh or smile out of someone else. He makes me feel like I am loved unconditionally, which is way more empowering than I would have guessed.
I love that we can share every moment together, feel similar emotions, enjoy similar reactions, and still not get bored or need space. Instead, because he makes me feel like we are always on the same page, I feel even closer to him, and I always know that we will both crave the same adventures in life.
I look forward to spending forever with him, going on fun adventures, soaking in optimistic attitudes, and building a happy and supportive life together!
How Bade Proposed
Bade lives in a canyon and loves to ride dirt bikes. Since he lives near many aspens I have been wanting to take some pictures of the aspens to blow up and hang in his house. He suggested that we go on an evening dirt bike ride to take pictures. He packed a dinner, his fishing pole (in case we came across any good fishing spots), my camera and we took off.
We rode through patches of cows, up dirt roads, and enjoyed the amazing area up the Right Fork of Hobble Creek. It was starting to get late, and we didn’t want to ride home in the dark, so we started heading back, but before we were all the way back, Bade took a side trail that he loves because of the narrow track and roller-coaster like grade and turns. It led to a grassy meadow valley with a big oak tree in the middle. The sun was on its way down so we stopped under the oak and ate the dinner Bade had packed.
After dinner, since we had carried the camera all this way, and since the sun was just getting ready to fall behind the mountain Bade suggested that we take some photos. We moved his dirt bike around the tree until we found the angle that we wanted. It’s my camera and Bade doesn’t know how to work it well so I set up the shot and the timer while Bade returned to the tree to move our belongings out of the frame.
I set the timer for 20 seconds, and had it take 3 pictures that were each a second apart because if I am going to all the trouble of setting up the camera on a tripod, on top of the dirt bike, then I was at least going to get a few photos to choose from to pick the best one. I then ran back to where Bade was.
20 seconds was way too long, so we kissed, then Bade crouched down. I’m thinking to myself “Bade must think that our heads are too close to the branches … Bade, we can’t crouch down for this photo, we will be hidden behind the grass!” But when I turned to tell him not to crouch, there he was, kneeling, holding a blue velvet box containing the most beautiful ring <shutter click>. He grabbed my hand; he was shaking so bad it made my heart get all jittery <shutter click>. Then without any more hesitation he asked if I would marry him <shutter click>. I wanted him to ask me this; of course I was going to say yes! So I said “Yes” and placed my hands on his jaw-line/neck and bent down and gave him a kiss.
Sometime during burst of kisses (no crazy big ones, we are keeping it PG) and me requesting that he put the ring on, I think I said (and Bade will make sure I admit this) “Are you serious!?” twice… oops :-/. Also during lots of kisses Bade pulled out his fishing rod case, and from within it, produced a red rose. Just the cherry on top of this perfect ring he picked out (without any help from me).
After the sun set, on our ride back down, Bade cut the engine on the bike while still coasting down our dirt roller-coaster, and from the mountain top (mountain side, same thing) yelled that he is in love with the prettiest girl!
Bade’s Version
Last week I was able to work with a family friend on getting a diamond and a ring. I picked out a beautiful .80 carat diamond that has a really nice color and just a few minor infractions. He showed me a bunch of bands and one really stood out. It was simple, but elegant. It had several small diamonds going down the side of the platinum band. Once I saw it, I thought it’d fit Lauren’s style perfectly. About a month ago, she happened to try on Dacia’s ring which is a size 6. Well, the band I picked out was a 5.75 so I thought it’d still fit perfectly. We took the ring in today to get it resized because it was too big. Apparently Lauren is a 4.5. Small dainty fingers!
So I got the ring on the 18th of June. After seeing the stone set in the band and all polished up, I couldn’t wait to give it to her. I was entertaining the idea of proposing while we were paragliding (a birthday gift certificate I gave her in April). Then we decided to go up to Bloomington Lake this weekend, and so I’d propose where I was baptized. But… I couldn’t wait. I weighed the pro’s and con’s of all and decided I wanted it to just be the two of us. Somewhere close where we could visit often. Somewhere we could motorcycle ride to as an excuse to go riding in the future ;). haha
So I asked her on Tuesday the 18th if she wanted to go for a motorcycle ride after work on Thursday the 20th. We were going to take her nice Nikon camera and get some good photos to blow up and hang in my (our) house. So, I left work an hour early and headed to the flower shop and got really pretty bouquet of flowers and 1 long stem rose that I planned on hiding in my fly-rod case that’s about 3 feet long. Unbeknownst to me, she was wanting to head up to my house and surprise me by doing dishes and cleaning up my place… luckily her day got busy and she couldn’t make it up there!
So I left the flower shop and went and picked up sandwiches from “The Sensuous Sandwich”. I headed up to my house and started to get things ready. I hid the ring in a GoPro baggie inside my backpack. I took out my fly-rod and replaced it with the long-stem rose. I loaded up some snack packs (can’t go riding with out them), some fruit smiles, gatorades and sandwiches. I then loaded up the motorcycle and she soon arrived.
We headed up the right fork of Hobblecreek canyon and parked at the Kirkman Hollow trailhead. We unloaded and took dirt road up for quite a while. We had a really nice ride. The weather was perfect. Everything was green and just so pleasant. We stopped at a little beaver pond and watched some small fish jumping out of the water. Lauren asked if I wanted to try fishing it… but I knowingly had only a rose in my fly-rod case… so I declined.
We continued on the road (me looking for possibly spots to propose) for quite a while. I was hoping to make it to a high peak that overlooked Strawberry Reservoir, but it ended up being a lot further than I was thinking. We eventually decided to turn around. I noticed we didn’t have a whole lot of daylight left, so I went pretty fast on our way back to the trail I had originally planned on going.
We came to the Packard Creek trail (Trail 091 I think). We went up the trail and it was awesome. It’s the type of trails everyone loves. Smooth, green, rolling, grassy meadows, tunnels through the trees, just awesome. Earlier in the day I had a prayer in my heart that I’d find a suitable spot to propose to such a beautiful woman. We went up the trail and it eventually opens up to a beautiful meadow with 1 lone, BIG, oak tree in the middle. It was PERFECT! The sun was in the perfect spot. It wasn’t too hot and not too cold.
We rode under the tree and took off our helmets and backpack. We ate some delicious sandwiches and basked in the beauty of God’s creations. (Lauren being the most beautiful creation). I told Lauren that we should get a picture of this awesome oak tree. So we moved the motorcycle around a few times trying to find the best angle to set the camera on a tripod and take a picture. We found a great spot.
While she was setting up the camera and figuring out the timer and all, I obviously needed to move the backpack out of the picture. So I moved the backpack out of her viewing angle and prepared the ring. She set the time and started running to me underneath the tree. As she ran, I bent down and grabbed the ring from the backpack and hid it behind my back. She stood next to me and I waited for a second or two… and then got down on my knee. She was VERY surprised and happily said, “Are you serious?!”
I nodded and said, “Lauren Hills, will you marry me?”
She said “YES!”
The camera took 3 photos and we embraced and kissed for a few minutes. I didn’t feel nervous at all, but I got a little emotional and apparently I was a little jittery. But I felt great and a lot of stress/nerves was gone. After we kissed her next words were… “I wish I wore something nice!”. Hahaha
I then pulled the rose out of the fishing case (to her pleasant surprise) and we hugged and kissed some more.
She looked beautiful and we just enjoyed the moment. The meadow was so green with tall grass. The sunset was gorgeous. The moon was white against the blue sky. It was all super amazing. We took some more pictures to remember the moment (so glad we did) and then loaded up the backpack and rode back down. I turned off the motorcycle and coasted most the way with a feeling of excitement, joy and optimism for the future.
We loaded up the bike and headed back to my place where I gave her the other bouquet of flowers. And then we headed to her parents to tell them the good news.
I’m so thrilled I found such an amazing woman. She has already brought so much happiness to my life. She is so helpful, funny, strong, caring, selfless, supportive, sweet, beautiful, adventurous, silly, easy going, refreshing, positive, happy and a perfect fit for me. I look forward to spending the rest of my life and the eternities with such an amazing daughter of God.
I’m a blessed and fortunate man.
Life is good.
On my last wakeboarding run, I majorly twisted my wrist. I was wearing gloves and the gloves got caught when I fell and half way ripped the gloves (cinched at the wrist) off my hand. I got some wicked bruises up my arm and wrist, and it took me out of the game for the rest of the day. However, I have such an awesome fiance that he said he would pull both of us up on the surf board behind the boat so that I could still have fun without using my wrist at all. This was way impressive to all the people in our group, and was the highlight of the trip for me :).
Livin' Hard 
You must be logged in to post a comment.