it's been 5 years, little shrub

March 25, 2006 was an exciting day of firsts: my first road trip with a non-relative and my first time visiting gorgeous Moab.
It was two weeks before my 19th birthday and I wanted to do something awesome to celebrate: camp. Because April is not the best month for camping anywhere in northern Utah, I decided we should go to Moab. The only real problem: I had never been, and didn't know where any campgrounds were, or how much it would cost. So, my dashing, darling Mr. Boss suggested we take a day trip to do some scouting.
We left early in the morning, excited to spend a whole day by ourselves! As we traveled south we talked and joked and flirted, it was perfect. As we got farther south, out of the more developed regions, we began to see some of the glorious natural beauty that our state has to offer. I'm pretty sure I looked like a dog, with my head hanging out the window, tongue flapping in the wind....OK, that didn't really happen....but I felt as though my eyes weren't possibly big enough to take in the gorgeous scenery. I was so very grateful at that point that I was not driving. (It is so much more difficult to admire these sorts of things when you have to focus on the road, you know? Poor Mr. Boss!)
We arrived in Moab around 12:30 and, first things first, found a quaint diner where we could eat lunch. As we ate we talked about the overwhelming beauty of the red rock and the thrill of being by ourselves, so far away from everyone we knew.
After lunch we made our way to the car, and then drove around aimlessly for a while, not sure where to go and distracted by our new surroundings. Eventually we passed a sign that pointed the way to Dead Horse Point. That sounded like a place to begin our campground search.

As we followed the road towards the Point, our conversation became less playful and more serious as we began discussing religion and our similar, yet somewhat differing beliefs. When we arrived we climbed out of the car and made our way into the visitors center to find out if they had any information for potential campers. As we looked around, we continued our conversation, keeping our voices down, so as not to annoy the two other people in the building. Finally, Mr. Boss suggested we take our chat to the car, so that we could have some privacy. It was the most interesting talk, as we shared our thoughts and ideas, I began to realize that my beliefs were stronger than I thought they were.

A light storm rolled in, and the pressure on top of the warmth made sitting in a car uncomfortable, so we got out and walked around the grounds. As we walked I looked around me. The view was amazing, and the plant life was different than what I was used to seeing. I thought the colorful, little shrubs were so cute.
Suddenly, as I admired these cute shrubs, a scene from the movie Charly, when they're on their first date at the park, popped into my head. My heart began to pound as I asked Mr. Boss to pick a shrub, any shrub would do. He motioned towards a small, yellow one, and I led him over to it. Then, looking at the shrub (and avoiding Mr. Boss's surely confused gaze) I said: "Hello, little Shrub, we have just gotten engaged, and you're the first one we've told!"Next thing I knew, Mr. Boss had whipped me around towards him, with a somewhat confused, somewhat nervous look on his face. After moment he spoke, "Cris, will you marry me?" Everything else melted away. It was just me, Mr. Boss, and the shrub. Even after what I had just said to the shrub, his question surprised me, but my answer was immediate. Of course I said "yes!"
At this point, we no longer cared about finding a campground. That plan was dead. Suddenly there was this new, overwhelmingly great reality. Then Mr. Boss hit me with another big one: "Can we keep this secret for a while?" I agreed.
He hadn't intended to ask me to marry him that day. We had discussed the matter before, and had both agreed that it would be best to wait, to not even think about marriage, until we'd been dating at least one year, so to be a week shy of our 3 month anniversary was so different from our plan. Plus, he wanted to ask my dad before we told anyone.
As we made our way home that evening there was a newness in the air. We had the memory of this amazing trip, and an exciting secret that had us a little bit bubbly and a lot nervous. Most of all, I was reeling at the fact that I'd just gotten engaged at 18! But when it's right, it's right and when you know, you know!

Unfortunately, we were so caught up
in the moment that there are
no photographs of our time
at Dead Horse Point.
All images via google image search.