Proposal

Monday, October 4th was my birthday. For my birthday Rodney made plans to go to Boise and spend a long weekend, which I thought was the perfect present. I would much rather have birthday experiences than a present any day. So last Thursday I took an early day from work and we headed to Idaho.

We were pretty close to the Idaho border when my engine light started flashing. Feeling dejected we headed back to Brigham City to have Autozone read the computer code on the car computer. We had just had the head gaskets replaced and since then there has been a slow oil leak and it smells of burnt oil off and on but we havent had a chance to take it back to Steve to look at it. The codes read that cylinder 3 and 4 had misfired so we drove the car back home. Luckily, I have a super sweet sister who let me use her car for the umpteenth time so we could continue our birthday weekend.

We had a wonderful drive to Boise. I don't know what it is about the cynergy between Rodney and I but we just truely enjoy being together. He cracks me up. So we chatted and teased and he had me laughing almost all the way to Boise.

He had kept our accommodations a secret. So when we get into town he heads downtown. We pull up to the hotel and the first thing I think of is that it looks like Dexters apartment! Ha ha. We park in back which looks a tad sketchy and then we head through the back into a very cool and cosmoplitan courtyard. We check and head to our Suite. It was the coolest room! We stayed at the Modern Hotel and Bar and it was the perfect room for us.

We ended up getting into Idaho pretty late because of the fiasco with the car - I seem to have car fiascos a lot. So we headed downtown and picked up Indian take out. At that point Rodney told me that he had plans for Friday night and that we were going to see a Gaelic band at a downtown concert venue. We ate and fell asleep pretty quickly.

Friday morning we slept in a bit and then headed out for breakfast then spent the day shopping and seeing the city. We headed back to the room early so I could shower and get ready for our night out on the town. We ended up eating at an Irish pub just half a block from the "Knitting Factory" which is where Gaelic Storm was playing. If you remember the movie Titanic, Gaelic Storm is the group that plays when Leo takes Kate down into the belly of the ship and they dance.

Gaelic Storm was AWESOME. It may have been the best concert I have ever been to. The only reason the concert loses points is because the bar stools we sat on in the VIP section were a tad uncomfortable for a 2 1/2 hour concert. Otherwise the night was PERFECT!

We walked back to the hotel, hand in hand. It was a romantic, lovely, beautiful night and I didn't think there was anyway that the rest of the weekend could even come close to equaling that first night in Boise. Ha ha, was I wrong.

On Saturday we got up early-ish and had a continental breakfast at the hotel and then walked to the downtown farmers market. What a fun morning! We took our time wandering through all of the booths. We bought some cheese and some zebra tomatoes and some diving pine nut brittle.. mmmmm! We walked back to the hotel and decided we would check out a movie. The movie didnt pan out because without putting it anywhere they cancelled that time slot so we wasted half the day waiting for a movie to start that never started.

So we decided to head back to the hotel and relax and get ready for dinner later that night. Instead of getting off at our exit, Rodney kept heading into town. We ended up by the River at Julia Davis Park. Julia Davis Park is an 89.4-acre regional park located near downtown.

"The home of Zoo Boise, the Boise Art Museum, Idaho State Historical Museum and Idaho Black History Museum, Julia Davis Park is the cultural and historic heart of the city. The park also features a formal Rose Garden, two reservable picnic shelters, a six-court tennis complex, playground, duck pond, restrooms and a section of the Boise River Greenbelt. This beautiful park was created thanks to a donation of 43 acres of land in 1907 by Thomas Davis as a memorial to his beloved wife, Julia."

We ended up parking by the Rose Garden and decided to wander through. We got to a gazebo in the middle of the park and I wondered aloud if they permitted weddings in the gazebo. It was just perfectly located in this beautiful garden and beautiful park right by the river. I then noticed a paper hanging on the wall of the gazebo and went over to see if it was a reservation sheet. It was. I said, again aloud, "Ha ha, I am so good! They do permit weddings here!"

From behind me, I hear Rodney say, "Hey baby look at this beautiful rose." I turn around and Rodney is down on one knee holding my ring!! I started crying and at some point sat down on a bench in the gazebo. Rodney started looking concerned because I guess I hadn't answered him. Of course, YES. YES YES YES!!!

The rest of the weekend was beautiful and we had lots of fun planning the wedding but nothing came close to that moment in the Julia Davis Rose Garden!