His:
As Shannon's tour came to end, I went on R&R and accompanied her as she departed Post. We first went to Albuquerque and joined my family to attend the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival. Shannon met my mom when I was off parking the rental car, so by the time I caught up, they had already introduced themselves. After making further introductions to the rest of the family, we went to dinner. Over the following few days, we went to the festival, rode in a ballon over the city, then drove up to Santa Fe.
We continued our tour to Arizona, where we drove all around Phoenix, visited Sedona, and Shannon met some more friends.
Next, we flew up to Utah, where Shannon's parents were visiting from DC for the BYU homecoming game. The timing likely was not ideal, but at the game, I asked Shannon's dad for permission to ask her to marry me. After a 30 minute chat, and me turning several shades whiter from anxiety, he agreed.
Shannon believed I was going to propose the following morning, so naturally, I couldn't propose then. I schemed with my brother and sister-in-law to propose at their home after the game, when she would not be expecting it. My brother made our favorite dessert from Venezuela, Pot de Creme (not actually Venezuelan, but we discovered it there), and my sister-in-law bought some beautiful roses, and spread the petals on the floor. Frank Sinatra, who we both love, was playing in the background, along with candles and fresh raspberries from their garden. Homemade grape juice was served in wine glasses.
As we got home, Shannon was nearly asleep. As I was getting out of the car, I fumbled and dropped the ring box, quickly picking it up without her noticing. Approaching the door, I told her to go in while I secretly got the ring out. She walked in, and without noticing the music, candles, and rose petals, started putting her bags down and looking for my brother and sister-in-law. Meanwhile, I was down on my knee in the doorway, and after a suggestion that she turn around, to her complete surprise, popped the question. Previously, I had put together a short speech for the proposal, but my mind went completely blank. So instead, I said, "Shannon Mollie Epps, will you marry me." The best part was she said yes! I put on the ring, made of three princess cut (certified conflict free) diamonds in a platinum setting. Very nice! Only then did she notice the entire scene that was put together for the proposal. We enjoyed the dessert, had imported French hot chocolate, and enjoyed some fresh-picked raspberries.
Hers:
My 2 year tour in Venezuela ended on October 1st, and Mike took his R&R to coincide with my trip home. We visited New Mexico (the land of my birth!), and met up with his family in Albuquerque for the annual hot air balloon festival. We spent a day in Santa Fe, then flew to Phoenix (where Mike is from) to spend time with his family and see the sights! Mike is an ASU grad, so we spent some time in Tempe, ate way too much good American (and Mexican) food, saw downtown Phoenix, the Capitol, a desert botanical garden, and lots more. Then we drove up to Sedona and saw more beautiful desert scenery.
Then we headed to Utah. The original plan was to go to DC for him to be able to meet my family, but my parents were out in Utah for BYU's homecoming events (of course!). We went to the homecoming football game, and Mike pulled my Dad aside to ask his permission to marry me.......I think I was more nervous than Mike! But they had a good chat while Mom and I waited in the stands. Our schedule was so packed in Utah, meeting siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on both sides, that the only time available for a proposal was Sunday morning (I told Mike I'd set aside a few hours for him).
So.......we were both so exhausted from all of our travels, that when Mike kept saying at the football game "I'm about ready to go," I didn't think anything of it (even though we were only up by 10 at that point, and I shouldn't have felt comfortable leaving with so small a difference in scores). Even though we left a little early, we got up to his brother's place in Salt Lake pretty late. I worked on getting my giant duffel bag out of the trunk while Mike was fumbling around in his backpack (he says he dropped the ring box, but luckily I was too tired to notice). We get to the front door, and he drops my bag and starts fumbling around in his jacket pocket. I think he's getting his phone out to call his brother, so as not to wake his niece up. But then he says "go ahead, I think it's open." So I open the door, knock a little, call out "hello?" Hm, no one's there. But there were candles lit on the table, and Frank Sinatra playing.....what a nice home! Haha, Mike calls out "turn around...." So I turn around, and there he is on one knee, and he proposed to me right there on the doorstep. I said yes! And then about passed out from the shock. Not from saying yes, that was a given. But I was SO SURE it was going to be the next day. There just wasn't any other time that would have worked! Mike's brother and sister in law had, under Mike's direction, set up this beautiful romantic scene that I only saw after saying yes (I was pretty oblivious). They made our favorite dessert from Venezuela, an amazing butterscotch pudding, and had out lots of other favorites of mine, like hot chocolate, and bread and cheese, and raspberries (and lots of flowers! And rose petals scattered all over the ground!). Amazing. Not to mention the ring, that's probably another reason why I almost passed out.
