Big Things!

Well, the first night Tanner and I arrived in California, my mom wanted to show me all of her big changes around the house. We got to bed pretty late. I slept on the couch and Tanner slept on the huge LoveSac.

On Thursday we were supposed to get our hair cut and do pictures, but my cousin/hair stylist's house got flooded, and it just didn't work out. It was pretty awful. So I decided to look at potential reception locations, after having lunch at In-N-Out. We went to one ghetto place in Monrovia--no thanks. We went by this other house in Azusa, but it was closed, and they require you to use their catering, so that's pretty lame. I wanted to go to this place in Pasadena called the Pasadena Historical Museum, but we didn't have time to visit it, and my mom says it's too expensive. So as far as accomplishing reception places, I was out of luck. That night we went to Lotus Garden Chinese restaurant. So good. I love that place.

The next day was Friday. We went and got donuts at Donut Man. We were supposed to do our hair and get pictures taken that day, but we had forgotten about traffic headed to Vegas. And I'd like to take this opportunity to send a shout out to those lovely highway patrolmen who were blocking off the left lane of the freeway and causing horrible traffic for no apparent reason. Thanks guys! So we finally got there. I did an awful job communicating how I wanted my hair cut. I was thinking that she would remember. It was just a shag, and I didn't want a lot taken off the bottom. But after I realized that my layers weren't very short, I just had her take more off all around, and it ended up being a little shorter than I was expecting. Plus she styled it in what might have been a cute way, but I thought I looked like a member of the Partridge family with my little 70s hair-do. So I freaked out because it was not what I was expecting, and I wanted my hair to be how it was in December for our pictures. I fixed it, and it still doesn't look much like a shag, but it's better now, and I have finished freaking out. So we decided to forgo the pictures on Friday because we had to get to Medieval Times around 7 PM.

We arrived at Medieval Times with Mom's VIP pass and whatnot. We had our usual strawberry daiquiris with delicious whipped cream. We looked at the horses and walked around some. Apparently a lot of things were going on when I wasn't looking. When the knighting ceremony was going on before the games in the arena, we went out to watch. Then they called "Sir Phillips Tanner," which was funny to begin with. My parents do that kind of stuff all the time--pay to get announcements made and embarrassing cute things done. So I figured they were just doing that for Tanner for his first trip to Medieval Times. He was totally surprised. They asked if he wanted anyone to join him up there, and he asked that I join him. He was on his knees, and the king knighted both of us. They asked me to step out in front of him for a picture. I still was thinking my parents were silly, not thinking much of the whole thing. I was surprisingly calm in spite of the tons of onlookers and was completely oblivious to the fact that they don't normally invite girls onto the knighting stage, and to the fact that Tanner was on his knees. Yep. Oblivious. I'm really dumb and easy to surprise. So the herald guy asks Sir Phillips if he has anything else that he'd like to say, and suddenly I look down and there is the ring box in Tanner's shaking hand, and he says, "Janae, will you marry me?" I just looked at him and smiled and said yes twice I think, and hugged and kissed him. The crowd cheered. It was cute :) Then they let us go into the arena before everyone else, announcing us as just having gotten engaged. A girl looked at me and said, "Congratulations!" and it was really sweet. We sat down in the middle of the first row in the black and white knight's section. We were given champagne glasses with metal bases that line up to make a heart. We were also given Martinelli's because my mom told them that we don't drink. It was so cute and darling. We got lots of pictures, too. And I was given the knight's sash thing to be the Queen of Love and Beauty. I drove home with my ring on my hand. It's still so strange to see it there--in a good way! Tanner planned this whole thing (and my parents added the surprise element) because he wanted to surprise me. He sure did! :)

Tanner spent the rest of the night editing this video of the event that my dad took. It's darling:



So on Saturday my dad made us breakfast. My brothers, Tanner, and I all got ready and went to hang out in my really cool old people car. We got done with that around 2 or so. Tanner and I went to get In-N-Out again. I took money to the bank for Mom and got something for her and Jared at Wendy's. Tanner and I hung out, just looking at websites and me looking at dresses and stuff. We left for Corona Del Mar around 4. My cousins were there, camera in hand, and we took lots and lots of pictures. I'm very happy with how they turned out. Here they are:



After we got pictures taken, we went home. Tanner wanted pizza and to watch a movie. So while Jason was at his gig in Hollywood, we watched a movie in his room. We got Papa John's and also bought ice cream at Stater Bros. I slept through most of the movie. Good thing, too, because Tanner was pretty disappointed with it. We went to bed, and I had my alarm set on my phone for 9:45 to get up for church at 11 AM.

I realized while I was getting ready on Sunday that I had gone to church at 11 in December, and they had announced a time change to early church. Great. I had missed sacrament. Tanner still wasn't awake (and he isn't that good at hurrying ;)) so we stayed home. I was really sad to have missed church. We watched October Sky and kind of laid around doing nothing. Mom made a delicious dinner of lemon-marinated chicken, pasta shells and white cheddar, rice, salad, baked beans, and rolls. She's so cute. It was so good. We learned how to use some things in my "new" car. Tanner took the crow bar out of the trunk and put it on the steering wheel, very concerned that someone would steal it. I organized and packed some stuff to the best of my ability. I put some things out in the car, too. I made chocolate chip cookies, and my mom fixed both Tanner's and my jeans. She took care of all sorts of stuff for me--put air in my tires, radiator and windshield wiper fluid, and bought us some stuff at the store. I got a text that night on my phone from Rachel saying it was the last text she'd send and was turning her phone off--the next time I'd hear from her she'd be in England. I got it two hours after she sent it, so I was a little sad :(

Monday morning I woke up at 7:30--my phone had somehow turned off so my alarm didn't go off. Anyway, it was fine. Tanner and I got ready, packed, put our stuff in the car, went to Stater Bros. to get ice and drinks, and stopped at Jack in the Box for breakfast. I miss their breakfast! We hit the road at around 9:15 in the morning. I drove through Vegas, and we stopped and got gas. Then we stopped in St. George for about 40 minutes to see my friend Shivani and her mom. Tanner drove from St. George to Fillmore, where we stopped again for gas, and then on through to Provo. It was a really good drive, and my super cool car behaved very well.
















The whole way, we listened to Dr. John Lund's For All Eternity, which Tanner's mom bought us. We came to some resolves, had some good conversations, agreed on what might be good things to try, and what the best ways were to go about things. It was really a great experience listening to those. We have one CD left to listen to. We got to my apartment around 8 PM Utah time (7 California time--10 hours of driving) I unpacked my things. We drove to Tanner's parents' house for s'mores. We talked about some wedding things and whatnot.

And here I am back at work with lots of things to do. Yippee!

But I do have a beautiful ring on my finger and also a great fiancee. It's weird to look down at my ring and go, "oh wow, I have a diamond ring on my wedding ring finger," and realize repeatedly that I am engaged. I wish I could never get used to it being there!

Comments

April said…
Congrats Janae! I love that you had video of the whole thing! That will be a great keepsake! I love how he asked you...I wish I could have been there to see it live! So cute!

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