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We attended our pre-marriage counseling last night. I know it’s not a competition, but the counselor said we had more 100% ratings from our evaluation than any couple she’d seen in some time. We rock!

The counseling got me thinking about our engagement. Not many of you know the story, so I thought I’d share. After only a few weeks, we knew we wanted to get married. That may sound a bit impulsive, but we just knew. I remember talking to Debra about how long we should wait to get engaged to avoid making family and friends…..uncomfortable. We waited just over two months.

I knew I’d be proposing before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t have a ring. Debra was emphatic she didn’t want a diamond or really a new ring of any kind. So what was I to do? I told my Mom about the dilemma. She offered me her Mom’s engagement ring. It was perfect. Early on Debra and I had a wonderful conversation about our maternal grandmothers. She even wears her grandmother’s engagement ring on her right hand. So I had my ring.

I didn’t know how I’d propose, but Debra gave me a perfect opportunity. On November 11 she took me on her favorite hike up Spruce Mountain just outside of Prescott. It was a great hike, brisk afternoon. I practiced the speech in my head all the way up the mountain. We reached the summit just beneath the fire lookout tower. There was a rock outcropping that overlooked the entire Prescott valley. I had my spot. We sat down and I was immediately terrified. What if I flub my lines? What if she says no?

We talked and I waited for my moment. I made some comment about our future and Debra joked, “We should just get married….”. I couldn’t believe it. She stepped on my lines!! She could see the shock in my face and knew what I was up to. I told her I had a whole speech prepared, but she thought I was joking. I reached into my pocket and took out the ring. She was genuinely surprised. I told her it was the ring Earl gave my grandmother, Dovie. Then I asked her to be my wife.

As we prepared to hike back down the mountain, the fire tower attendant, Susan, invited us up to her lookout. We told her we’d just gotten engaged beneath her tower. She was so excited and wanted to give us something to commemorate the event. We each got Smokey the Bear engagement pins!

Well, yesterday we had a wonderful adventure. We were supposed to meet my friend, Kathy, for a hike up North Mountain, but she couldn’t find her phone, so Bryan and I went by ourselves. Bryan’s back had been hurting, so we decided to do the nice, level basin hike around the park instead of climbing any mountains. So much for best-laid plans!

We started out on the Shaw Butte trail from the Visitor Center across from the Pointe. (That’s where we’re staying for our wedding night.) I was thinking we would end up at Shadow Rock (where we’re getting hitched), but where the wider, steeper Shaw Butte trail intersects with the trail we were traveling on, we took a left-hand turn… straight up the mountain! So much for nice or level.

I’m not sure how Bryan does it, but he can climb the steepest grade and not get winded. I was at the back, huffing and puffing, while he and Dulce were practically skipping up the mountain. (He did actually run at one point.) This hike did offer us spectacular views of the valley and once we got to the top, it was all worth it. 360° views of the entire valley surrounded us. It was incredible.

Of course, every good has its bad, every yin has its yang, every rose has its thorn, or so that 80′s hair band says. On the way back down, I suddenly slid on some loose gravel and landed on my knee. While that hurt, it wasn’t half as bad as my favorite track pants that were now sporting a major rip in the knee. Curse you, Shaw Butte! Check out the video of me checking out my boo boo. It’s quite entertaining. I swear it didn’t start hurting until I saw the blood.

Anyway, it was a good day all in all. Dulce stayed in her bed the rest of the evening, which in itself was worth all that work to climb the mountain. A tired dog is a good dog!

Check back with us tomorrow to see how the paper making went for our invitations. We may end up sending a very nice e-mail instead!