This is the story of how the events unfolded leading up to the engagement of Shawn and Katie on Sunday, December 30th, 2001.
Flew to Breckenridge, Colorado with engagement ring box stuffed in a sock in case she or her family looked in my bag.
Mr. Hill and I were on peak 9 at the head of Duke's Run on Columbine (1 on the map below) waiting on Katie's cousin (Robert) to come down the hill to meet us. I seized the moment of relative privacy and asked him if we could go out by ourselves one night to talk. Confused by such an odd request, he asked what the subject would be. I knew we didn't have time to discuss it at that moment, but I wanted him to know what was going on, so I smiled and said "You know, the state of the world, how to make it better, that sort of thing." He said "That's an awfully big smile to be talking about 'the state of the world'!" I could tell he understood the subject of the requested meeting, so we agreed to try and go out the next night.
That night after dinner, Mr. Hill tried to plan for he and I to go out the next night and watch some football while the others stayed in. That idea was quickly vetoed by the others.
In the afternoon, I was on the two-seater C Lift (2 on the map below) with Mr. Hill, while Katie rode with Robert. This was at least a 10 minute ride, so I asked him "So, do you think they're going to let us go out tonight?" He said "I don't think so. Why don't we just talk about it right now?" I looked around at the setting: on the chairlift on the side of a mountain with the safety bar up, and remembered my dad's warnings of doing this in any kind of dangerous place. This was the biggest "interview" of my life. I had envisioned a more formal setting (perhaps the kitchen table?) where I could clearly layout my intentions and future plans, easing any doubts or fears he may have. I knew it was "now or never", though, so I did my best to organize the thoughts in my now-swimming mind, and made my request in one long grammatical error-filled run-on sentence that covered everything I could think of at the time. I then took a deep breath as I waited for a response, and tried to focus my mind which was going through it's checklist of things to say and correcting my previous ramblings. He responded with "Well, I'll ask you the same thing my father-in-law asked me when I asked to marry his daughter, how do you plan to support her?" I sighed with relief, first because I was still sitting in the chairlift, and second because like a good interviewee I had prepared for certain questions, and this was one of them! I responded with my vision of the future and how I planned to support Katie and I as a family. We continued to talk, and like an onion the conversation lost it's tough outer layers and became more genuine, fresh, and spontaneous, losing it's planned structure that I started it with. He gave me his permission and blessing in asking Katie to marry me, and suggested that I speak to her mother also. At the top of the lift, I had a peace about the whole thing with an excitement at the same time, but I had to keep it bottled because Katie was right behind us.
I got very little sleep the night before, first because I couldn't get to sleep due to my mind running in a thousand different directions, and second because when I did finally get to sleep I kept waking up from these nightmares where the plan had gone all wrong. Some of these nightmares included me getting hurt and not being able to go out, Katie refusing to go back out after lunch, or not having the right song on my MP3 player. Somehow I did get a little sleep that night. Katie's mom is an early riser and usually up before everyone else, so I had hoped to catch her in the morning before everyone else was up to talk to her about my plans. But on that morning, everyone else was up first, so I used my backup plan. Upon leaving for the slopes, I had conveniently left my keys in the room, and I had to go back and get them. As Katie and the rest of the group went downstairs, I rushed back into the room (3 on the map below) and spoke with her mother. Mr. Hill had already talked with her about it, so she knew why I came back and she gave me her permission and blessing. I quickly showed her the ring and then made my way back downstairs with my keys.
At the top of the first lift Mr. Hill asked me "When do you want me to disappear?" I told him it would be in the afternoon, so in order to get Katie back out after lunch we both knew we had to take an early lunch. During lunch I was so excited, but I had to act like it was any normal day, so I laid in a chair and closed my eyes like I was taking a nap. I used the time to think things over and pray for everything to work out and for the right words to say.
As we began to get ready to go back out, I put my MP3 player and the ring in the pocket of my jacket while no one was paying attention. We somehow talked Katie into going up the Falcon lift which services only blue diamonds (advanced intermediate) and above trails, but we thought it would be best to do a couple of runs on a blue (intermediate) course first. Robert wanted to do a black diamond (advanced) before he left, so Mr. Hill and I agreed that they would go right at the top of the Falcon lift and go down Crystal (blue diamond) and then Grits (black diamond), and Katie and I would go left at the top of the Falcon lift and go down Centennial (blue diamond), and meet them at the bottom of the lift. As we approached the base of the Falcon lift after the intermediate runs, Mr. Hill and I were far enough ahead of Robert and Katie to stop and talk it over briefly. Robert approached next and wanted to know what we were talking about. Mr. Hill said "We are going to go right at the top of the lift, Katie and Shawn are going to go left. Katie doesn't know." He looked at me confused, as if to say "Katie doesn't know what?" Katie approached, and Mr. Hill and Robert took off toward the lift line. Mr. Hill filled Robert in as Katie and I made our way to the lift line. I was unusually calm at this moment of waiting in the lift line. I was a little nervous, but I have been more nervous about in-class presentations that I've given, and this was a much bigger deal than that! Of course, I never prayed about in-class presentations as I had for this. On the way to the lift, Katie was nearly run over by a snowboarder, so she was a little frustrated with things, especially since we were about to go down a blue diamond. On the lift ride up Mr. Hill commented that he thought this run was going to be a great one. I agreed, but Katie didn't seem to be too excited about it. I scanned the side of the mountain to find the perfect place to stop, but it all looked good.
At the top of the lift, Mr. Hill and Robert went right, and Katie and I went left. Katie went down the hill a little and waited for me there. I strapped on my board and slid down to her. I said "I'm going to show you something very special in a second, but I need you to be patient and do what I ask." I felt like I needed to say this first because if she didn't know I was up to something, she would have probably thought I had lost my mind asking her to stop in the middle of a blue diamond slope. She agreed and we were on our way. My eyes scanned and scanned for a spot that was a bit secluded, but with a great view of the surrounding mountains and village below. I finally settled on a spot on the left hand side of the trail (see ring on the map below) where the snow was very lose, so there was less of a chance of tumbling down the mountain. I sat in the snow and looked at the grand view as I waited for her to catch up. When she arrived, I invited her to sit down next to me, which she was very hesitant to do because the slope would make it very hard to stand back up. I repeated my request until she discovered I wasn't going to take no for an answer. We sat together looking at the beauty of the setting for a short time, then I took off my gloves and got out my MP3 player. She said "What are you doing??" I believe she thought I had gone crazy when I took off my gloves. I told her that I wanted her to listen to a song that reminded me of us when I heard it. I asked her to pay close attention to the words. We sat and she listened to "A Page is Turned" by Bebo Norman. The lyrics are as follows:
A Page is Turned - Click here to buy the CD by Bebo Norman A page is turned by the wind to a boy in curly grin With a world to conquer at the age of ten But as history unfolds and the storybook is told He finds salvation but not at the hands of man And the God of second chance Picked him up and He let him dance Through a world that is not kind And all this time, preparing him, the one To hold him up when he comes undone Beneath the storm, beneath the sun And now a man, here you stand Your day has come A page is turned in this world to reveal a little girl With a heart that's bigger, as it is unfurled By the language in her soul, that's teaching her to grow With a careful cover of love that will not fail And the God of second chance Picked her up and He let her dance Through a world that isn't kind And all this time, preparing her the one To hold her up when she comes undone Beneath the storm, beneath the sun And grown up tall, here you are Your day has come Beneath the air of autumn, she took him by his hand And warm within the ardor, she took his heart instead And high upon the mountain, he asked her for her hand Just for her hand A page is turned in this life, he's making her his wife And there is no secret to the source of this much life When the grace that falls like rain is washing them again Just a chance to somehow rise above this land Where the God of second chance Will pick them up and he'll let them dance Through a world that is not kind And all this time, they're sharing with the one That holds them up when they come undone Beneath the storm, beneath the sun And once again, here you stand And once again, here you stand Your day has come
I pressed my ear against hers to hear the song with her. As the song ended I stuffed the MP3 player back into my pocket and flipped the awkward snowboard around so that I could bend down on one knee. "Stand up please" I said as I helped her to her feet. I then helped her remove her glove and glove liner, which happened to be more of a task than I had initially thought. I held her hand with one of my hands and had my other hand on the ring box inside my jacket. I won't include the details of that moment. You can ask Katie or me if you want, but the important thing is that I asked her to marry me, and she said yes!
There was a skier stopped near us looking up the hill for his friend, and we called him over to us. We asked him if he could take our picture, and he seemed a bit frustrated at the request. I explained to him that we had just gotten engaged, and he was then much obliged to do us this service. After a few shots, the helpful skiers were on their way, and Katie immediately tried to call her sister to tell her the news, but couldn't get her phone to work. We put our gloves back on, I strapped on my board, and we went down the mountain to meet her dad and cousin. We spotted them far off and they waved, we waved back as we made our way back and forth down the steep slope. When we got to the bottom Mr. Hill said "What took you guys so long?" Katie responded by removing her glove to reveal the ring. As we got back from skiing, Katie walked into the room and immediately asked her mom to help her take her gloves off, which she did, and she found the ring. Everyone was excited, and so were we. That night we went out and celebrated.
I hope that gives you an idea of how it happened. I obviously can't put what happened into words, but I can report some of the events.
Map of Breckenridge
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