12 years ago today...

On Wednesday, November 27, 1996, Peter drove me to the beach. We'd flown to San Jose to spend the Thanksgiving break with his family. I'd met his 2 brothers, but I had yet to meet his parents, and as it turned out, I also met his grandparents. I was excited to get to the beach again. (If you don't understand the reason for that, then you need to get to know me better.) :) The drive to the beach in that part of CA, I discovered, is bee-u-tiful. Over the mountains and through the woods... Well, actually wind & twist along the scenic highway--and, in my case, try not to get car-sick. :) I don't usually do, but I started to feel that way probably because I was reading a play for my drama class; I was quite the studious student, and I was/am (or try to be anyways) a multi-tasker. (I know, most of you already knew those things 'bout me...) So, partway along the drive, we stopped to take a break and to look out over the green trees (that was another thing I was missin'; the part of Idaho I was in for college doesn't have a lot of green or trees). Peter had been acting strangely all day. Not way out of the ordinary, but enough that I suspected something was up. I tried not to dwell on that suspicion because I LOVE surprises but it kept rearing its head back into my stream of consciousness, so thus began a vicious cycle. While out enjoying the scenery, Peter in his 'strangeness' asked me, "Are we more the beach or the mountains?" I knew what he meant. And if I had answered with, "the mountains", he would've proposed right then & there. I actually felt my heart jump into my throat for a moment or two. We got back into the car and continued to the beach. We finally arrived at Natural Bridges State Park. It happens to be a winter nesting ground for Monarch Butterflies, so we saw a bunch of them up close along the path to the beach. For whatever reason, they make the present second (or two or three) seem magical to me. As soon as I could smell the beach and see the ocean, I was nearly giddy. It was perfect weather. Though cool, I'd come from about 3 feet of snow on the ground, so it felt heavenly. We wandered around the tide pools; I'd never before seen some of the anemones I saw that day. Fascinating. We basically had the whole beach to ourselves. Well, I can't remember exactly on the side closest to the trail to the beach, but once we maneuvered over the rest of the tide pools and rocks, we arrived at the most exquisite, secluded piece of beach I've ever laid feet on. I frolicked. We partook of some snacks. We did plenty of kissing. :) We even had a little siesta on the blanket. All this time I was wrestling with my vicious cycle, which meant I too was probably acting peculiar--keeping my distance at times, maybe dodging eye contact... I knew the moment was going to happen at any moment! That heart in my throat feeling kept growing... Then, just as the sun set, I found Peter kneeling (on both knees) in the sand in front of me, pulling a ring out of his pocket, reaching out with it in my direction--and in that same breath, I saw it in all its GLORY and I felt my heart pounding almost out of my chest, my head slightly spinning and my stomach fluttering like some of those butterflies we'd seen somehow had gotten into it...the ring was AMAZING!! (Peter and I had done a little bit of "window shopping" so he'd gotten a taste of what I liked/didn't like, and then he designed one and had it made, using some diamonds from a ring his Grandma had given him. Oh, by the way, Peter's ring is actually his late Papa Ralph's...) It was super-sparkly and it seemed HUGE!! Well, I guess whatever look I had on my face freaked Peter out enough that instead of saying what he was originally going to say (to this day I still don't know), he just blurted out, "Say yes!" And, of course, I did. :) I was simply beside myself...! Sorta unsteady yet so completely happy, we reveled in the moment and eventually floated (at least I did) back to the car and took the more direct windy/twisty road home to tell the tale and show off my ring......

exploring around the tide pools

me in a calmer moment of my giddy frolicking :)

at the end of the next day, Thanksgiving...you can tell how happy we were

		the day after that, we went Christmas tree shopping in our cutesy, kinda-matchin' (gag) shirts :)...I had his brother Jeff's help with tricking Peter into getting a couple of 'kissy picture' of us that I really wanted; hee!