Ryan and Lauren Nelson: May 2008

WELL, its been a busy few days for the Nelson Boys, I'll tell ya what. We are all about bringin' new girls into the family! I'll let Eric tell you all about his cute girl and I'll get going and tell you guys all about mine!!

So I've been dating Lauren for about 9 months (since about September of last year) and I've known and dated her on and off (lets be honest, mostly on) since late March of last year. She has been in love since our first date (no matter what she says, and if not in love than at least in lust...haha) and I played along at first. Ok, well, before I get beat down I'll just say we both had a ton of fun together and didn't really take each other too seriously at first. We were all about takin it easy and havin a good time and not over thinking things...just being good friends, benefits included of course. But she left for a couple of months and by the end of that summer I was missin my best friend, so it was fun to just to have her back in Utah and see how dating "seriously" (cause we are such serious people) would go. And it's been fun ever since.

So I waited for Lauren's friends and relatives to start askin all the "what's the deal" questions, and then waited even longer to finally hear her say "well we need to start at least thinking of what marriage would be like" before I even said a dang thing. Haa I'm a jerk I know but I figured I'm only gunna have one go at this so I might as well enjoy all parts of it. But I had been thinking about it for a long time and was lovin every minute of it as I waited until everything was right.

And so about a month ago I took her ring shopping and got an idea of what she liked. And being the terd that I am, I didn't really say anything to her about the ring after that...I just let her think "Ryan better be gettin his butt in gear and buy me a ring". And I was. But I wanted to get one made... so as she wondered why I was always late picking her up, I would just tell her I was at the FedEx store (located conveniently next to Goldesign Jewelers haha). So last Monday I went back to Arizona with her and her sister. They were done with school and I had to be at an auction in Scottsdale on Wednesday so I thought it was the best time to get engaged. The plan was to have the ring the Friday before I left and either propose at the auction, or on a hike that I had Chad scope out while he was down there. But the ring wasn't done of Friday...or Saturday...or Monday (the day we left to Arizona)...or Tuesday...but on Wednesday guess what?! Nope, still not on Wednesday...or Thursday. So finally a freakin week after it was due they shipped me the ring in Arizona on Friday morning. It turned out very nice...it better have! And they even paid for the shipping and took off a hundred bucks, how thoughtful. I mean, all I had to do was delay my flight home and mix up my plans and make her wait. No biggie.

Anywho, that Tuesday I was at the mall with Lauren and her cousin and I could overhear Lauren saying, "Well I can't look at dresses til I have a ring", and I overheard her cause she said it loud enough for the old deaf lady walking next to us to hear. So I said, "Well hun, maybe if you'd let me know what you like I could have an idea and finally get you one!" Then came the "ARE YOU KIDDING ME's" and "YOU ARE NOT SERIOUSes" and so on and so forth. So I said, "Well lets go look right now". And after going into 4 or 5 ring stores and acting all excited so as to not make the sales people feel too bad as we walked out without buying a ring, she asked if I finally "got the idea", and I said I did hahaha. I'm so freakin funny and tricky that I can't help but to think I'm hilarious.

Friday morning was the tricky part. Thats when I asked Big Daddy Davis the big question. I wanted to talk with him earlier in the week but whenever I was about to, someone, as if on cue, walked in the room and sat down. So I got up at 5:12 a.m. Friday morning and sat in the family room and read my scriptures until he came out... since that was the quiet time in the Davis house. So sure enough he came out and I said, "So uh, what would you think about me marrying your daughter?" And he looked straight ahead and said, "Ryan, are you sure you want to wish that upon yourself?" And we laughed and had a good talk. He said it would be a great thing and approved, so now all I had to do was pop the question to Lauren.

So on Saturday morning Lauren and I (both of us destroyed our legs in this BodyPump class the day before that her aunt teaches) got up to hike Piestewa Peak (also known as Squaw peak...can you believe it) in the middle of Phoenix. Both of us knew we were going to die but I thought it'd be extra funny if we got tore up as we hiked 1.2 miles up the steep peak on our busted legs. Sure enough, we were hurtin, but I loved it cause I knew what it was for. So as we hiked I stopped about a quarter way up the trail and got on a knee and said, "Lauren, will you..." and she cut me off and said, "Oh stop it and get up". So I finished and said, "will you...wait for me as I tie my shoe?!" A swift "You're retarded!" came back at me. So about halfway up the trail I stopped, got on a knee and said, "Lauren, will you...take a look at this cool rock i found?!" "Ahhh, so DUMB" is what I heard as I looked up and saw her back as she had already started back up the trail 10 feet away from me. I hurried and caught up only to hear her say, " I already know you don't have a ring so quit tryin to be funny." Oh, but I was funny. Very funny. Witty even. Plus I'm an Office fan and took that cue from Jim, even though I already wanted to do it before I heard Jim say that on the show...it just made it that much better cause it made Lauren even more bugged cause she knew the joke from the show. So, three-quarters up it was time for the last joke and I took a knee and said, "Lauren, will you...wait for me for a sec, I'm so tired." She belted out a "You're so retarted! Not even funny at all!" But a guy who was hiking by us heard the whole fake proposal and her response and laughed his head off...so contrare mofrare, I was funny.

Anyway, we got to the top only to find twenty other people up there and I was so bummed. There was no real place to be alone. So I looked around and to the left I saw a peak that was a little higher, but you had to do some actual climbing to get there. I convinced Lauren to come up with me and there was just one little spot for one person to sit. So I had her sit and I knelt next to her cause that was the only real option. It was perfect. We looked out over the valley and had that peak all to ourselves, just us. I looked at her and was so excited. I was so happy that I had to pull out the ring before I let some tears out cause they were on their way... I had been waiting for this, and even though I had no idea how I was going to do it once we got to the top, it was perfect. So on May 3rd at 10:30 a.m. I pulled out the ring, and asked her to be my wife. She looked and the ring, then me, then at the ring, then me, and then said, "Are you serious?!?! YES!" It was a feeling I won't forget anytime soon. So we put on the ring only to find out it was a little tight and cut off all circulation and turned her finger purple immediately haaa. So after lots of tugging, some spit, and some tore off skin, it came off and the finger was saved. Luckily it ended up fitting just fine later.

So there you have it, I'm a lucky man. Only took 26 years to find my wife...the exact amount that I needed. I couldn't think of a better reason to wait that long than to find her. I love you Lauren! So for all you reading this, keep the weekend of August 8th or 9th open! Cause thats when this couple is gettin hitched!! Oh and PS... For all you who think this was sappy or whatever, what'd you think was gunna happen at the end of a blog entiltled, "ENGAGED!!!"