The Proposal

So, several people have asked about the proposal story, so here goes. It is actually quite humorous, we think.

So after shopping and buying a ring, Camshaft was trying to think of a memorable way to propose.

Incidentally, for any of you locals, don't go to Cassar Jewelry in the Newgate Mall. Talk about hard salesman!! Our goal was to go to a bunch of stores, have Mandee pick out her favorite ring at each store, and then decide which one from all the stores she liked best. So Mandee picked out a ring there that was marked at $3700. Well, that's when the show started. We kept telling the guy that we were shopping around and weren't ready to make a decision that night, but he kept trying to talk us into it and kept lowering the price.

When it got down to $3000, he called for the manager, and the manager started on the same thing. He had us go out into the mall to talk about it, ring in hand, and kept telling Camshaft that if he didn't buy it then and there that Mandee would be upset with him. Well, after the talk, we decided that we really didn't like the ring that much and told the manager. But he kept going. Pretty soon it was down to $2500 plus a Bahamas cruise! We still didn't crack, and left the store. We ended up getting a ring that we both really liked at Farr's.

So back to the story. Camshaft debated rather to propose at the fireworks in Logan or the fireworks at Rommer Park in Washington Terrace. He eventually decided on Rommer park, because he figured that since Logan was so busy the 3rd of July and Rommer so peaceful on the 4th, he would wait 'til the 4th. Just the opposite turned out to be true...

We found a lovely spot in Logan, far away from everyone, close to the stadium, and had a large piece of grass left all to ourselves. Camshaft kicked h imself mentally all night. Rommer ended up being a disaster.

So we sit down in a semi-isolated spot in Rommer park. We aren't there for 10 minutes when a family, complete with crying babies and a mountainload of kids, sets their blanket down like 2 feet away from us. So Camshaft decides he has to move. No sooner do we do that, when some yokel parks his truck RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, completely obscuring our view of the fireworks. So we move again, our view of the fireworks unobstructed. But it's like the whole park just turns into a madhouse. Kids biking and rollerblading. Babies crying. Fire and police driving by. And the people... they were driving in and shining lights onto the crowd continually throughout the display and literally 15 minutes after the fireworks had ended. A romantic moment just wasn't to be had.

But eventually, the madness stopped and most of the people left. We had a nice view of Riverdale and the surrounding communities, some of which were still shooting off fireworks into the distance. We finally had some peace and Camshaft popped the question.



TLDR version: Mandee said yes and we're scheduled to get married the 3rd of October.

Our Seattle Trip

This past month, we took a trip to see Mandee's parents. They live in Snohomish, a little town outside of Seattle. We had a great time. It was Camshaft's first time to the Pacific Northwest and he really enjoyed it.



Our main activity while there was an excursion to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. It's beautiful country. Lots of little rocky islands covered with pine trees. The light mist that surrounded everything that day make it very beautiful and mysterious.



Friday Harbor is a little touristy place on the islands between Washington and British Columbia. We walked around and shopped, took pictures, and ate fresh seafood. Good times.





The town's symbol is a one-eyed seal named Popeye. We took a picture next to Popeye's statue there in the harbor.



After getting back to the mainland, we took a trip to a place called Deception Pass along the Puget Sound. It's called this because early explorers thought it was a peninsula instead of an island. Over the pass is a 1487 foot bridge connecting the mainland to the island.



But sadly, this was a quick trip to the area, and we only stayed there about 48 hours. We're excited to get back up there this next weekend and take a few more days to explore.

Pictures of Us Dating

We're going to use this post to keep track of some of the pictures that were taken during our courtship, but we're still in the process of gathering them, scanning some of them, and posting them.

Here's what we got so far:


This us us from this last spring. For a ward activity, we had to make a Pinewood Derby car. It's a little hard to tell, but ours is supposed to be one of the cars from "The Game of Life." Incidentally, that's why Mandee's dressed in all pink and Camshaft in all Blue. We did pretty OK, and had a time in the top 5 or so, but we got knocked out by the car that would eventually win the whole thing.


This is a picture of us taken at a ward activity early this summer.


Here we are at a 50s murder party that we were in last fall. Camshaft was actually the murderer, oh noes!


This one is at the baby blessing of Camshaft's niece Heidi. Included are Heidi, as well as the nephews Decker and Brennan.


Here we are at the Warner family reunion. Camshaft's brother Sean, his dad Bill, and his sister Hilary, along with baby Heidi complete the picture.


This one was taken at Decker's birthday party earlier this summer.

Our Story

Hi,

Well, to start out, we thought we'd just tell the story about how we met and how our relationship developed over the last 3 years.

When Camshaft was in Logan at Utah State University, he became friends with a girl named Amy. As with a lot of friends from USU, Amy came and went and he thought little of it. Last he heard she was going on an LDS mission to Guatemala.

Well, this same Amy would drift into the life of a girl named Mandee. As fate would have it, they were both called on missions to Guatemala and would be companions in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

So Mandee served her mission and when she was finished she and Amy became roommates along with Mandee's sister, Chelle. In a strange coincidence, Mandee would end up in the same student ward as Amy's old friend Camshaft, and they are introduced.




Time went on, Amy came and left, but by now, Camshaft had become fast friends with Mandee. For 2 years, they would run in the same circles, with people coming and going, but with their frendship continuing and strengthening.




Then, on one boring weekend in July, Mandee would plan an activity for this group of friends. However, the only one that showed up was Camshaft. He decided that as long as they were both there, they might as well enjoy the evening together.

After a great evening of mini-golfing and lime rickeys, Mandee did the unthinkable, and asked Camshaft out on another date. And the rest is history.