Engagement Day

Wow!  I’m officially engaged to the love of my life and my sweetheart, Sara Roxanne Lowery.  It’s been in the works since November of 2006 and finally the day came to put a ring on her finger.

Yesterday started out quite early when the alarm went off at around 6:00 A.M. but I didn’t roll out of bed until around 30 minutes later.  I had to get up and ready for the day as it was going to be a big day for me.  I took an inventory of everything that I needed to bring for the big day and left the house around 8:45 A.M.  I was headed over to Sara’s apartment to pick her up for our big adventurous day.

Sara looked gorgeous when she opened the door to let me in.  She had sent me a text earlier that morning asking me if I could help her with doing her hair.  I thought, “no big problem, she just wants me to brush it.”  Nope, she wanted me to help her braid it.  As you know, I’m a guy and didn’t grow up with any sisters, so you can imagine that braiding hair is not in my bag of knowledge.  Just because I’m an Eagle Scout and had to learn how to tie knots doesn’t mean I can braid hair.  After the failed hair-braiding attempt Sara decided just to leave it the way it was after we brushed it again.

We left Sara’s apartment and headed up towards Draper for the Draper LDS Temple open house.  We had tickets for 11:00 A.M. and halfway there realized we were going to be about and hour early so we decided to see which parking lot we were meeting at to get on the shuttle bus and then were going to go get Sara something to snack on.  As we were driving towards the parking lot we noticed a police vehicle with its lights flashing in front of a car wash.  As we drove past we witnessed a Toyota truck that had somehow managed to smash its front end into the change machine and through the brick wall.  Crazy!

We found the chapel parking lot and drove to a nearby convenience store and got Sara a blueberry muffin.  She made quite the mess in the front seat of my truck but I didn’t mind because I love her and proceeded to tease her about it.  We drove back to the parking lot where a parking attendant directed us where to park probably noticing the mess of crumbs on Sara’s dress as he was talking to us.

Tickets were scheduled in 20 minute increments and we were able to sneak in at the 10:20 A.M. timeslot as there were not many people at that particular time.  After watching a 12 minute video about temples, introduced to us by 3 Sister Missionaries, we then boarded a bus that would take us on the short 6 minute drive up the hillside to where the temple was located.  Sara likes to sit at the back of the bus and I don’t know why but that’s okay because I love her and I would have wanted to sit back there for a long trip anyway.

We got to the temple and took the short tour and it was amazing and very beautiful.  The last room we visited was one of the sealing rooms where we and the group were able to sit down and listen to a missionary couple talk to us.  I started to tear up because I knew that in a few months I would be kneeling across an alter, just like the one in front of us, and being sealed to Sara for time and eternity only if she would say “yes” of course.

After we left the Draper Temple we drove to Logan to spend the rest of the day together.  At that time I think that Sara knew that something was going on and she was getting a little restless.  She even admitted to me later that she thought that I was going to propose to her at the Draper Temple.  I had some other plans, though, that would be more meaningful.

We arrived in Logan just before 2:00 P.M. and we went directly to the Logan LDS Temple.  We walked around the temple grounds for a little while as I was trying to get the strength up to ask the big question.  I kept fumbling with the ring in my pocket until finally, on the east side of the temple, near the water fountains, it all happened.  After freezing ourselves outside for about 30 minutes I finally got down on one knee, looking into her eyes, and asked the question: “Sara Roxanne Lowery, will you marry me in this temple, for time and all eternity?”  Before I could even finish the question or get the single solitaire diamond ring on her finger she said, YES!

I got back up and gave her a kiss as I held her in my arms.  We stood there for a few minutes in the embrace of each others arms as tears were filling both of our eyes.  At that moment we were the happiest couple in the universe and I was the luckiest man on the face of the planet having the most beautiful fiancé I could ever imagine.

We stopped a younger couple coming out of the temple and politely asked them to take our picture as we were just recently engaged.  They asked us when we got engaged and we told them that it was only moments ago.  That’s when they told us that they were engaged in almost the same location just shy of a year ago.  Both couples thought that it was kind of funny.

The rest of the day consisted of calling family members and showing off the ring to family and friends in the Cache Valley area.  We also went to the jewelers and decided on a men’s band as well.  It was a glorious day and we are extremely happy to be engaged.  I am very happy to be a part of Sara’s life and I love her family very much.