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We’re taking the plunge! We look forward to sharing this special time with all of you. Be sure to check back frequently as we get everything planned out.
The Proposal
His Side:
My proposal to Kelsey does not start in Sun Valley. It starts weeks before in every ring store in the state of Idaho. Everytime I closed my eyes I saw engagement rings. After countless rings, I finally found ”the one.” Step one was complete.
For the next step, I flew up to Seattle in July to formally ask Kelsey’s parents for their permission to marry their daughter. Everyone knew why I was flying up there, including her parents. I arrived very early in the morning at the Seattle airport, and texted Mr. Bates to let him know where I was to be picked up. 
This picture is the actual screen shot of our conversation. Apparently, the three Bloody Marys I had on the flight were affecting my motor skills.
Of all of the things I could possibly mistype? It is calling the bridge a bride? Seriously?
When they picked me up, I realized that I was going to be spending the entire day with them and had planned on waiting until dinner to pop the question. I can deal with a few hours of a giant elephant in the room, but not 10 hours. I decided I would bring the subject up at lunch.
After a fantastic day driving around Seattle, lunch had finally arrived. I mustered up the courage to get the ball rolling. The conversation was great, and quickly turned into how I had planned on asking Kelsey.
Next step was putting my plan into effect. I hinted at going to Sun Valley for the day, and got Kelsey to agree to it. She didn’t know however, that we already had reservations for a night’s stay at the lodge and her parents and sister were going to meet us there.
After pulling Kelsey out of bed that morning, we drove to Sun Valley and started our day on the ice rink. I found a lady to hold the video camera. And then I waited for Kelsey’s family to walk down towards the ice rink. I saw Kelsey see them and then look at me, and I got on one knee to ask if she would marry me. I am not sure if she said yes or not, but I assume by the wedding we are planning that she is okay with it.
Her Side:
So I could pretend like it was all a complete surprise and that I had no idea that Marshall was going to ask me to marry him this past summer, but that would be a lie. He flew to Seattle to ask my parents and being as that we live together that may have been a teensy giveaway. However, even with that knowledge, he still managed to do a pretty good job of surprising me.
See, Marshall’s job can kind of be a pain in the summer time. He rarely gets weekends off so when he got his schedule with a Saturday off we figured we had to do something with it. Therefore, we decided to head out to Sun Valley. We had plans to skate, take the gondola up to eat lunch at the top of Baldy, walk around, etc, etc. However, the week prior, I was feeling a little too budget-conscious. I didn’t feel like we should go because it was just too expensive for a single day. Marshall insisted and offered to treat me to our little day trip so that I wouldn’t feel stressed. That was sweet and all, but it also made me a little suspicious. Afterall, Marshall is usually always game for blowing off plans to “do something” in order to just sleep in and watch movies all day long.
Even the night before we were supposed to leave, I kept begging him to just let us stay home. The more he insisted, I will admit, the more I got suspicious. One other tidbit of information I had was that I knew my parents wanted to be at least in the same state as us when we got engaged and they had quite a bit on their plates at the time so I knew there was no way the proposal could go down. Needless to say, I was very conflicted. I knew it was a possibility, but had to continuously talk myself out of it for fear of being disappointed.
Once we got into Sun Valley the next morning, Marshall was just not himself. He screwed up our normal schedule of breakfast then skating by skipping straight to the skating. And then he kept glancing at his phone and was talking to a stranger at the rink. Something had to be up and my stomach was definitely full of butterflies. As I skated around, I noticed my sister walking down the steps from the lodge, followed by my mom and dad. I turned around to find Marshall going down on one knee and pulling out the most beautiful ring I can imagine. Through the tears of joy, I’m not even sure if he asked me to marry him, but that is what I assumed so we’ll just go with it. Besides, if he hasn’t stopped me from planning yet, I guess we must be on the same page!
Oh and that stranger…happened to get it all on tape!
