Engagement Story:
I woke up Saturday morning at 4:30am because we were going caving to Goshute cave in Nevada. Eroding natural limestone in the Cherry Creek Range has created Goshute Cave, an underground network of caves popular withcavers in the Wilderness. It was Russell’s first cave, and it’s his favorite cave. We were going with his parents, so I woke up thinking we were leaving at 5am but they didn’t show up till six. I took the time to sit and read my scriptures and finished 2nd Nephi. They pulled up and it was still dark outside. I cozied up to Russell in the backseat of their jeep, and I have to say their family jeep is the comfiest car to sit in. His dad was driving but got tired so they had Russell drive for a while, which was OK, but I was sad I lost my cuddle buddy. The dad sat next to me instead… I LOVE HIS DAD! We drove through the Salt Flats then we stopped at Wendover’s gas station for a potty break then we got to the cave. When we arrived I put on extra clothes for the cave, and had to grab Russell’s coat for the Dad to look for the keys in the pockets.
We got all geared up and headed up for the cave, man was it a vertical climb!!! Russell is such a trail blazer, just loping right up the trail without breaking a sweat and I’m behind him sweating & getting red-faced and feeling SO UNATTRACTIVE. J When we got up there we passed this guy the parents knew and when he saw Russell he asked, “So are you married?” His parents then introduced me, and Russell said, “nope but hoping to get to that!”
We got in the cave and geared up and started exploring. Our first stop in the cave was the ‘Dancing Hall’ where they told me a scary story of a time they had camped out & basically had spirits visit them! After the story the dad got out his flute and we turned off our lights while he played it! I love this family!
We then went exploring some more through the cave, like cavers usually do. Well there comes a time we get to a small tunnel you have to climb one at a time up through and Russell and his dad went first and told us to wait. I didn’t think anything of this, and just started chatting to his mom. As we were sitting there I hear Russell call, “OK you can come through now.”
So I started climbing through, I had forgotten knee pads so as I was climbing I was thinking; “ouch I am going to have a TON of bruises without these knee pads.”
I climb through and stand up in this small room to Russell standing there waiting for me. He takes my hand and starts to say, “I love you so much! You are a daughter of God and I love that you know that you are a daughter of God….” He keeps going and I sit there thinking, ‘O this is nice, then I was thinking wait….wait…is he proposing….oh my goodness….I think he’s proposing!!!!’
My heart starts to pound and I’m just staring at him hoping against hope that he really is proposing and I’m not getting my hopes up. He points to this little enclave of formations and says, “I want you to look in there.” I bend down and see a ring box with a ring!!! I immediately look at him excited like, ‘can I grab it?’ and he nods, then I do. He takes it from my hands and says, “This is my grandmother’s ring she gave me to give to you. Amber will you marry me?” I felt such joy and start being giggly, and say yes and hug him & kiss him! Then I notice that his dad was up above trying to film the whole thing and his mom was down below doing the same thing.
The parent’s waited, taking pictures as we basically sat embracing and kissing! After that I took a look at the ring and was just like, “…this is your grandma’s ring!?!” I just was so giggly! The parents did come up and hugged me and basically where like, we’re excited to welcome you into the family!
They told me that the day after the grandma met me she was with the mom, and his mom mentioned that Russell could see himself marrying me. Then the grandma got up left the room, and came back with her ring and said, “I want you to give this to him to give to her when he asks her.” That made the mom cry, the dad cry, and even Russell cried when he first was told that and given the ring. As they were telling me this, I was just so in awe, and so touched. A FAMILY HEIRLOOM!!!!
The sad thing was I had to take it off after and have him put it back in the box in his bag so we could continue climbing. We climbed some more than his mom left to get ready for lunch. After a while we went to meet back up with mom. She had set up a romantic lunch, there was candles lining the different rock walls, a blanket set down, a single rose & a note from Russell. We ate then we climbed some more and even did a rock climbing repelling portion that actually got me a little nervous to do it. When we were leaving the cave he turned and just used the term Fiancée, and it made me soooo happy and giggly to hear that!!!! We got out of the cave at 7pm and it took us till 8:30pm or so to hike down and roll out. I then texted like 22 of my closet friends the news, and called my siblings.
I just kept staring at him in the backseat and at the ring! I just felt sooo blissfully happy. On Sunday I was so excited to be able to go in as his fiancée!
