Bethrothed: Enter Into a Formal Agreement to Marry

Alright I'm finally getting around to putting the story of how Dan and I became engaged! Here it goes!

My birthday was on Mother's Day, May 13. Dan came up and we had dinner and cake with my family, opened presents all that good stuff. Dan gave me a sun dress and that seemed like a great present to me! Dan then said the rest of my present would come on Friday, he couldn't make the reservation to where we were going any earlier. I assume a restaurant of some kind and was looking forward to Friday.

Friday, May 18 came. Dan asked me to get off work early so I could be to his house in time for our reservation. I still have absolutely no idea where we are going. Dan has been trying to throw me off the whole week, telling me to bring something to get wet in, etc. So I'm clueless as to where we are going and what is going on. We leave Dan's house and head towards West Jordan. We make a pit stop at Arby's to get a chocolate shake, just like we had for our first date. Cute moment I loved! We keep driving and where do we stop? At an airport!

My first thought was skydiving? My second thought was plane ride? My third thought was, "Is Dan trying to throw me off again and delaying our dinner reservation somewhere?" Turns out my second thought was the right one! Dan says that we are going on an airplane ride! FUN! This is a huge birthday present!
We go in and get all checked in, and have a little pow-wow with the pilot named Randy! This kid Randy is an oscar award winner in acting. He acted like he'd never seen Dan in his life, asked us why we decided to go on a plane ride, etc. We get our headsets and head out to our aiplane named, Charlie Bravo!

Randy proceeds to check everything on the plane, makes sure we have enough gas, etc. We get on the runway, and up we go! I could tell with in the first minute of being in the air, this was going to be an interesting plane ride! Charlie Bravo was a small plane, only 4 people could fit in it! Come to find out, theses little planes don't fly quite as smooth as the commercial airliners! Any slight turbulence is felt so much easier and made me quite air sick!

We fly over to downtown Salt Lake and talk about funny memories we have together at different landmarks, see the temple, etc. It was fun! However I'm starting to break out it cold sweats and I can feel my chocolate shake more than ever. We start to head back to the airport when Dan says to Randy, "Hey I hear you can do magic tricks in these planes!" Randy asks him what he has in mind and Dan replies "Let's do zero gravity!" I was like, "HECK NO!" Zero gravity is when the pilot stalls the airplane and lets it freefall for a moment, making everything float in the airplane! Super fun right? Except when you are about to ralph...

Dan persuades me to do it just once, and I agree to as long as I can hold something to throw up in. Randy then says, "just so you know, we charge $100 fine if you get any throw up in the airplane... I'm quite serious about that! If you throw up, make sure you get it in the bag!" Ha no pressure. So I'm holding the bag in my left hand, and Dan places a penny in the palm of my right hand. The idea behind this is that you can see the penny floating once zero gravity kicks in.
Randy stalls the plane and we drop! The pennies float, we get the zero gravity sensation, mission accomplished! Then Dan begs to do it just one more time! At this point I'm wondering what he's up to, I know Dan wouldn't make me go through this being so sick! I agree to one more time, what made me do it, I have no idea. I lost my penny after our first zero gravity experience when I used both hands to grab onto the barf bag. So I tell Dan I need another penny cuz I lost mine. I'm searching for something to use in the airplane, when I heard Dan say, "use this." I open my hand and he drops a ring in it!

If I wasn't sick before, I sure was then! WHAT?! I honestly couldn't really comprehend what was happening... I blurted out the question, "what is this!? I can't take this!" Dan just smiled and looked at me... so I said, " I think we need to talk about this!" Dan replied, "We can talk once we land the airplane. You can have a different ring if you want." So he drops a ring that is a lily pad with a prince charming frog on top of it in my hand. I looked at him again and he just laughed. Then Randy stalled the plane and zero gravity kicked in. I had enough time to slip the ugly frog ring on my finger, but not for the diamond ring. The diamond ring went flying in the air and all I can remember is swatting my arm through the air to grab this ring before its lost forever!

I grabbed the ring and through a tender mercy, didn't throw up through the second zero gravity experience. Come to find out later, me and Dan both admitted that we were praying so hard for me not to throw up and ruin this major event in our lives! We land the plane, and I've never been so happy to see solid ground. My legs were shaking, and I was queasy. My mind was in a whole other place for sure. Randy and Dan are parking the plane, pushing it into the parking space when I hear, "Watch your head." I hear it, but nothing registers, I'm still just thinking if Dan is trying to play a joke on me or if this whole thing was real. Then I feel a thud on the back of my head. Yup- you guessed it, I just got hit by an airplane wing on the back of the head. So at this point, I'm pretty beat up! I've got a head ache, stomach ache, and I can barely stand. Then next thing I know, Dan is next to me grabbing my hand, and kneeling on one knee, asking me to marry him!

Maybe he was afraid I would say no, so he trying to distract me with pain, I dunno! But all I could think to do was kiss him and say YES! He stands up, we hug, then start walking back with Randy. I can see a bunch of people just behind the fence of the parking lot as we were walking back and then it dawns on me, our families are here! And dear friends! Then I start to register that I actually just told Dan I would marry him! I'm engaged! I'm getting married! It's for real now!

We rejoice with our families and go out to eat with a couple of friends. Dan gets food poisoning and after everything that happened that day, he was the one that ended up throwing up!

Hands down the craziest experience of our lives, but it's an engagement story we'll never forget!