Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

This has been a wonderful week!  On Monday afternoon, I asked Ashley A. Camargo to marry me and she said yes!  It would be impossible for me to describe just how much this beautiful woman has and does mean to me.  And I can only glimpse the smallest portion of what she will mean to me for the rest of my life and for all eternity.  But she is a kind and tender and wonderful woman whose goodness inspires me each day of my life and urges me to become better!

As Shakespeare once wrote, for me she is "more lovely and more temperate" than even the warmest and brightest summer day.  And whereas "summer's lease hath all too short a date" her "eternal summer shall not fade" (Sonnet 18).  And as Shakespeare's Henry V said of Katherine, I expect that as I spend more time with Ashley, she will "wear me, better and better."

As I contemplated my proposal, I really struggled to find the proper place.  I wanted it to be at a place that would be special and that would be something that was connected to our relationship.  For our second date, Ashley and I had gone up to Snowbird where we had ridden the Alpine Slide, so I thought that perhaps that would be the most romantic place that we could go.  But then I remembered that the Granite Quarry where the Saints had gotten the stone for the Salt Lake Temple was right at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon--where Snowbird is.  Suddenly, I had found "the right place."

I told Ashley that we were going to go to Snowbird and recreate our second date, but then stopped off at the Quarry site and told her that I wanted to show her something.  We walked down the path to where there are some large blocks of granite and I started telling her some of the history of the site.  I told her that Brigham had wanted to build the temple out of granite because he wanted it to last through the millennium and granite is big and strong and lasts forever.  I then told her that this was the kind of marriage that I wanted us to have, one that would be big, strong, and last forever, with the temple and its covenants at its core.  And then I knelt down and proposed to her in the snow.  (I was grateful to Rob for role playing the situation the night before.  He made a fantastic Ashley).

After that we went up to Snowbird and took the tram to the top of the mountain, which is where we took the picture shown above.  We visited Ashley's friend Hannah and her beautiful little boy Alvin and then we went to Sandy's amazing restaurant "Tuscany."  We capped off a perfect day by video chatting with Ashley's parents and grandparents and visiting my Mom.

It's been a wonderful week and I'm excited for a lifetime and an eternity of love and happiness with Ashley!

Brett