Jarom for the weekend

Jarom came home a couple of weekends ago. This is him off the airplane! We went to one of his good friends wedding, partly the reason for him coming home (I would be the other part).

We went on a hike and were able to hear a concert at Red Butte Gardens. It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday my mom's family came over. We were happy to see all of them!

Mike stopped through town just to see us!

We somehow all got off the couches and decided to make a pyramid, like what most families do on a Sunday afternoon.

A little bit of DC here at home

Janet and Pattie came to Salt Lake for Hatch's annual visit in August and I was able to go to dinner with them. We had a lot of fun! They were my supervisors while I interned in Hatch's office. They know health and health policy like the back of their hands. Even though Pattie doesn't live in Utah she probably knows more people here than I do, and I lived most of my life here! Laurie and I were so happy to see them especially since their schedules are jam packed. We went to Settebello's which has the best Itallian pizza. It was choosen partly because of their great taste and partly tradition since we would always eat Itallian while in DC.

Laurie enjoyed the food so much she had to get it in for the picture.

Prom

Kate was nominated for prom queen so all of us girls decided to go to the event! I never got to have my prom at the Capitol and I got to see what it would be like. These pictures should have been posted in May when prom actually was. Kate and my mom. She looked beautiful. Her date was also nominated for prom king.

All the girls excited to be there to cheer her on. Who else wouldn't want their whole family there for the grand event!

Waiting for Katelyn to promenade down the staircase.

We all had to dress up for the event, and Tish, Stacy, and my mom all dressed alike!

My Summer

Jarom flying helicopters this summer.

Becky writing on wall sized whiteboards this summer.

The adventures just never end! Well OK, at least they did for me. I finished my finals last week and am very excited to start my two weeks of summer! Jarom is still flying helicopters.

Ok so here's our story...

It has been a long time coming!
Lets start from the beginning for those that haven't heard, or would like to hear again, the story of Jarom and I up to this point.
**If you just want to hear just of the engagement story scroll down until you see a picture of me with a ring!
There are many different places that I could start from, but I will start from my internship!

I went on an internship to Washington D.C. from January until May. I have the best roommates (Shannon you are included in this), had top of the notch co-workers, and interned in the best place in the world, the Capitol. I loved working on Senator Hatch's health staff with my supervisor Pattie Deloatche, among with all the other amazing health team including Paul, Karen, Jay, and Janet. Mindy Chidester was one of the interns I worked with and was dating George White (now fiance). George White is going to the Naval Academy, which for us girl interns translates to many guy friends, not to mention hot and smart guy friends! Mindy decided to throw a party for us and asked George if he would bring some of his friends to the party.

We made Cafe Rio salads (which was delicious and I would love that recipe!) and I was in charge of making tortillas and the guys were in charge of flattening the tortillas. This is where Jarom comes into the picture (he literally jumped into the picture)! He tolds us about a dance the Midshipmen were putting on and invited us all to come.

I had a lot of fun at the dance and Mindy told me later that he wanted to ask me out. I was very excited when he finally called (good thing Mindy gave me a heads up about it!) and we went to the National Geographic to see a documentary, we ate shish kabob's, and saw the Pentagon memorial. I had a great time with him and he was bold enough to ask me out again, for a date in three weeks! He asked me to go to the OAR concert at the Naval Academy. We hung out every weekend after that with the exception of him going to Utah and me going to Shannon's cabin for conference.

A week before we were going to go to the OAR concert Jarom asked if I wanted to go to the Navy Army Lacrosse game. He mentioned that his family would be coming out to it as well. We had a lot of fun despite the constant drizzle of rain (Jarom's dad, Ken, was nice enough to give me his raincoat). Jarom's family is pretty funny especially when I was introduced to their Uncle who never was their Uncle. They had me going for months on that joke. They were very nice to get me a ticket to the LAX game and I was very happy to meet them! Thanks Ken and Mary! Rachel and Kellen, thanks for riding in the car with us!

We went to the OAR concert that night and had a blast! We went to many more fun things while I was in D.C. including the I-Ball, the D.C. Temple, the Great Falls National Park, and of course the Ring Dance.

After I came home from D.C. and Jarom was done at the Naval Academy, we were able to spend 7 weeks together. It was great to be able to spend time together. It was also nice to be with both of our families and hang out with them. We went to Bear Lake, Heber, a couple of concerts among other things and got engaged!!!!!!!

We got engaged on the 4th of July!

Jarom and I went to a breakfast that morning with our ward and went on a bike ride up the Temple Quarry trail. We didn't have any set plans for the day, but we planned our day together (I thought if he were to ever ask me to marry him #1 he would be nervous and I would be able to see him shaking and #2 he would be on a tight schedule to get where we needed to be going and a little anxious about it).

After our bike ride we watched a little of the Tour de France. He let me pick where we were going to go eat dinner and where we were going to see fireworks (I thought if it was going to happen that night he might have had a more ridged schedule...thought wrong). Right before the fireworks were coming on he asked me if I would like my own ring. Now mind you, I was wearing his class ring from the Ring Dance that we went to. I would wear it from time to time. I told him yes I would like my own ring (I still didn't think he had a ring by this point)! His next question was if I would marry him! I said yes of course, not that anyone was wondering, but I had to put it in there. He took his class ring off my finger and put on my own! I couldn't believe it! I am engaged! YEAH!!!!!

I am so happy to be engaged to Jarom, the love of my life!

Now about the date-next summer. We don't have an exact date yet since Jarom goes to the Naval Academy and they are not allowed to get married until they graduate. This means we will both graduate next spring and in between now and that time we will be able to see each other about once a month until school ends.

Jarom and I are engaged!!!

Day Before:Afternoon of:Engaged!

My fiance (boy is fiance girl is fiancee) and I:Day After:

Jarom proposed on the Fourth of July right before the fireworks came on- it was perfect (there will be details to come, but this will have to do for now, I am off to bed)!

Message to Jarom: I love you!

Biking and Baltimore

We went tandem biking for Jarom's b-day. I decided that tandem biking would be the best since he is a bike professional and I knew there would be no keeping up (plus he could do the pulling for the both of us).

This is the inner harbor of Baltimore. Pretty place, but not water you would want to swim in.

This is the kind of boat Jarom drives in the Navy. We always knew the 1800's was the Golden Age.

Ring Dance

Jarom flew me back to Annapolis to go to the Ring Dance. We both had a ton of fun! We had people stopping us in the street telling us how dashing we look (some would say it was magical). Its a good thing too, because I had to match his outfit and I'll tell you black and white was harder to match than you would think!

So a little about the facts for those who don't know about the Navy and their ways, this dance is just for second classmen at the Naval Academy. The dance is symbolic of becoming a senior (aka firsty) and having the privilege of wearing their 2010 class ring. Tradition for the dance is to dip the ring in the seven (Jarom...Severn) seas. After that, there is a giant ring to stand in where they put the ring around the girls neck and give a traditional kiss. Owww! (I personally think the midshipmen just made up that last tradition! I did see this tradition in writing...but not from the USNA website)

They had hors d’oeuvres and a cake the size of six desks put together. The chocolate fountain was probably my favorite treat! During the last part of the dance they had a firework show on the river. When the finale came the whole town could be heard cheering. It was not only a party at the Academy, but for all of Annapolis!
The ridiculously huge size ring. Girls get life size barbie, boys get life size ring!

Canon Rebel XTi Commercial

Now that I am home I have had a lot of free time, so you may ask what do I do with all of this free time? Well, Walmart of course. You can spend hours there. In my countless hours that I spent there yesterday I passed by the media center with the two dozen tv's blaring. I payed no attention to them because I was on a mission to find some frames until I heard this...these beautiful chords of music that sang together and I knew I had to find it! I quickly jotted down, "cannon- football" hoping I would remember the short phrase when I got home. Luckily I did, and now I am sharing this bit o' sunshine with all- Go Cannon and Go Football!