Elliot and I share a lot of interests and hobbies but we have a lot of differences. Just look at our backgrounds and where we came from. Elliot is from the dry, hot, almost unbearable Arizona desert, where the teams have mascots like The Sundevils. I hail from the green paradise known as the Oregon coast. GO BEAVS! We like to celebrate our differences and rejoice in our similarities, we pretty much just like to party.
I love Elliot.
We first talked about getting married while under the starlit skies of Lake Powell last summer. We were both caught up in the setting. I can still remember watching the boats speed by as the sun set behind the red cliffs along the lakeshore. We were joking about what our life “could” be like “if” something happened. It might have been a little pre-mature but the topic just kept popping up during those picturesque sunsets.
Lake Powell was our heaven and after the trip we were swiftly thrown back down to earth and were forced to date long distance for 5 months. Elliot left first. London was her destination and she embarked on her study abroad in late August. My adventures lied on an internship in our nation’s capital a month later. We had months to practice our communication skills. We talked on the phone, Skyped, wrote emails, and passed letters back and forth. I still have, saved on my computer, hundreds of these memories. We figured that if we could spend so long on separate continents and still be in love, we had something substantial.
During the first few months I had flirted with the idea of visiting her. I had, time and time again, weighed the advantages of going to London vs. the disadvantages. The decision turned out to be entirely about money and an uninterrupted five months apart seemed to be our fate… But two things changed my mind.
One, I had always told Elliot I wanted my life to be adventurous, kind of like one of my heroes, Grandpa Meldrum. Grandpa fought in wars and hopped trains when he was my age. Now he’s almost ninety and loves to tell those stories. I want to have stories to tell! I want to take the road less traveled! And two, on the 14th of October I woke up in the middle of the night and a voice from high above said, “Cross the sea and be happy with Elli!” JK, there was no voice, but Elliot was free from classes for a week, which would be an opportunity too good to pass up.
With a desire to go I began crunching the numbers, without any source of income in DC I had to make the trip within my budget. After doing some math magic, I discovered if I didn’t eat for the last two months of my internship, and watched my pennies, I would be able to have a dream week with Ell and walk away from DC with six dollars in my pocket. Knowing I would be in the black gave me a great deal of confidence so I bought the ticket.
Funny story. The night I told Ell that I had bought a plane ticket, she in her exuberance posted on her facebook status something like this: “My boyfriend is coming to London!” I woke up the next morning to read a comment under the post that read, “No he’s not! Tell him to save his money and to come to Tucson in December- Love Dad.” How quickly I got on the naughty list of my future father-in-law!
Elliot wrote more about my vacation to London on her blog. Check it out if you want! But what she didn’t tell you is that we bought an engagement ring while we were there! Here is a little about how the engagement story went down.
I had asked Elliot’s Dad for her hand in marriage on Christmas Eve, I figured it would be less likely for him to say no with so much Christmas cheer around. The talk turned out to be less terrifying than I thought and by the end of the evening I was all but engaged.
So when we were heading up the white mountains for a weekend of snowboarding all I had left was to pop the question to her. HOW WAS I GOING TO DO IT? It was a stressful time in my life. I had her fooled into thinking it wasn’t going to be until February, but I wanted to do it soon.
I saw them on the way up to the lifts on the first day. The Clysdales came storming around the corner of the old barn stirring up a cloud of snow and neighing as the sleigh effortlessly glided through the snow behind them. Upon closer inspection it turned out that my majestic Clydesdales were fairly unfortunate looking ponies no taller me, but don’t worry its still the most romantic proposal ever!
It was that night behind Elliot’s back that I revealed to Alexa and Elliot’s mom my vision of a sleigh ride, winter wonderland setting. They were encouraging and said they would look into it for me. We had the whole thing planned by the third day, the trap was set, and Elliot was completely oblivious.
I have to be honest, Elliot’s parents did the real work setting up the whole production, and I was merely the architect. Ell and I had been attached at the hip throughout the week and she might have grown suspicious if I kept disappearing. But to set the scene, we had just finished boarding and it had been snowing all day. There was a fresh layer of pure white covering the ground and the skies didn’t show any signs of stopping. I actually think the flakes were getting bigger.
Susan, Elliot’s mom, picked us up and asked if we all wanted to go on a sleigh ride that was offered to guests just down the road. I, of course, was extra excited and made it known that I really wanted to go. Elliot seemed happy enough to come along and when we had worked out the details Elliot and I were in a sleigh and the rest of her family was following on horseback.
Our guide, BoBo, was a three hundred pound Indian and was privileged to share our special moment with us. We rode in the perfect stillness of the forest chatting and taking in the beauty of it all for about ten minutes. I was facing Elliot and knew my time had come when her eyes lit up, her jaw dropped and the sleigh stopped. I turned to see the banner that was planted there earlier in the day. It read, Elliot will you marry me?
I jumped out of the sleigh and tromped 50 feet through the knee-deep snow to gather up the dozen roses waiting behind the sign. As I made my way back to Elliot I could tell she was in shock by the way her mouth was covered and her eyes were tearing up. Her family had dropped behind and were out of site around the last corner.
It was just me Elliot… and BoBo.
I kneeled down in the snow and presented the ring to her. I asked asked her if she would be mine. She didn’t say anything for about 3 minutes but I wasn’t worried because she had her arms so tightly wrapped around my neck I thought that she would never let go.
Then she said yes.
That was one of the best moments of my life. I love Elliot.
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