3 years ago today...

I drove 4+ hours to Minneapolis to surprise a girl I was dating named Leah DeBoef with a simple little (BIG!) question. She was meeting with some friends for the weekend and had recently given up hope that we would get married that summer--it was getting pretty late to plan a wedding.

I left at 7 am and arrived at an outdoor sculpture garden just after 11. I had heard about this place from somebody and decided it would be the place I'd propose. Strangely, I kept having a mental image of a certain part of the park in my head leading up to April 1. One of the cool things about that day was coming into the garden nervously, guitar in hand, and walking right by a part of the park that was exactly like I'd been picturing in my head.

Anyway, I found a bench, pulled out my guitar, and waited. Leah's friends Angie and Diane had convinced Leah they needed to walk through the park to pass the time before their lunch reservations. Leah had no idea! Meanwhile, I was dressed as close to a bum as I could possibly be. Old pants. Hat. Hooded sweatshirt pulled up over my head.

I saw them arrive from across the garden and felt a little shot of adrenaline go through me. Deep breath. Don't screw it up. I had already checked on having the ring in my pocket about ten times, so no worries there. Just nerves.

They got closer and I started to strum the guitar and play a song I thought she would recognize. Long story short: for Valentine's Day, Leah got me a balloon that played the song, "Hey, I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of...?" every time you touched it. Subtle lyrics for someone who hadn't proposed yet, no?

Now only a few feet away, I kept at the "balloon" song and tried not to look up too much. Here she comes, and... She walked right past me.

I guess Leah was too caught up in conversation to notice me there. Plan B: thankfully, before I left I had grabbed the plastic part from the balloon that actually played the song. I quickly pushed that before she got too far away.

"Hey, I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of?"

That stopped her. Leah turned around to see some guy on the bench playing a guitar that kinda looked like me. She was a little confused at first, but once she realized it was me, she laughed and said, "What the heck? What the heck?" over and over. As she started walking toward me, I put my guitar down, pulled out an old rose (different story for another time), and reached into my hooded sweatshirt pocket. Yep, the ring was still there. I pulled it out. Yep, I dropped it. Smooth. Which Angie managed to photo, of course. Grrrrr.

I managed to pick it up and stumble out the words while Leah continued to scream, "What the heck? What the heck?" repeatedly. Eventually, reality hit, the shock subsided, and she agreed to become Mrs. Garland. And we planned a wedding in 3 1/2 months. And now, almost 1000 days later, here we are. Still in love. And parents to an amazing little 18-month-old baby girl. Cayla, some day Daddy will tell you about the day he drove 9 hours to ask your Mommy one question.