A proposal, the zoo, and Topaz Mountain

Okay.  I'm sorry that I haven't posted the story of my engagement yet.  In my defense, I've been busy.  Phil went back home on Monday and I've been catching up on my sleep and moping around.  Well, not really moping around.  Adelle and I had a sleepover the other day, which was a lot of fun.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So...a few months back I told Phil that I'd never been to Outback steak house and that I wanted to go.  So he promised we would sometime while he was here.  After seeing an ad on the television about a steak and lobster tail special, he promised we would go...but things just kept getting in the way.  Finally we were able to go without anyone else going with us (which is quite the feat when you have a family the size of mine) and we went off to the nearest Outback on the 31 of May.  And we got there an hour before the restaurant opened.  I forgot to look at the hours of operation on the site.  Which meant we spent time wandering around a Macy's and Downeast store until it opened.  I had a feeling he wanted to propose when we went to Outback, so I was glad when we finally got in the restaurant.  It was nice because we were alone in there for a while.

Phil likes to claim he was asking me if I wanted dessert or not instead of actually proposing, but don't believe him.  Once we'd finished our meals (which were delicious) and were waiting for the dessert sampler to come out (which had huge portions), he finally asked me if I'd marry him after I coaxed him a bit.  And I said yes.  There was no getting down on one knee and no ring, but that's okay.  After eating, we went home and I started looking for a ring.  Which you saw on my last post.  I chose a blue topaz because I love the color blue and diamonds are too expensive in my opinion.  So there you have it.  That's the story.

On Saturday we went to mail in the lovely forms that will have to be approved by some kind government official for his fiance visa.  So until we get the green light, I have no idea when we'll be getting married.  I'll let you know when I do.  Anyway, after visiting the post office, we went to the zoo with Wes, Liz, and the girls.

The Hogle Zoo is a lot better than I remember it being.  Violet was adorable at the zoo.  She really likes animals.  Lydia was very quiet.  I gave Adelle my camera and she went to town getting pictures of animals.  And people.  Except for Liz.  She didn't take any pictures of Liz.

I think this is one of like four pictures of the two of us together.  I like how Phil didn't realize Adelle was taking our picture.

Lydia avoiding the camera.  Per usual.

Wes seems to be having fun in this picture.  Liz was showing Violet the gorillas.

Here's the cutest photographer in town!  Maybe I'll have her take my wedding pictures.

We found dinosaurs at the zoo!  Scary!  This one liked to spit.

You can't really see this here, but Violet was signing the ASL word carrot when she watched these little guys eat their lunch.  It was adorable.

Violet definitely loves her daddy.  And the zoo.

Now for the even more fun bit. Topaz Mountain.  I love Topaz Mountain.  My family has been going there for years and years.  Even though it's in the middle of nowhere and there are no bathrooms (all my experience with squat toilets in China has come in handy) or water, it's so peaceful I really enjoy going.  Around the time Phil said he was going to come and visit, I talked to Lexie and Devin about going to Topaz Mountain.  It's been a plan of ours for a while.  Devin loves going too.  And, fortunately, he has a Jeep.  I was a little anxious about going so late in the year, but since the weather has been so wet (I think Phil brought the rain from the UK), it wasn't bad at all.  We got the Jeep all packed up.  And then got in the car.  And realized that there wouldn't be enough ground clearance to go off-roading.  So we threw everything into the trailer.

Seriously.  Everything fit in here.

Yay!

The trip started out a bit...inauspiciously.  To put it lightly.  We had no idea what was in store for us.  But it was a fun adventure!  The Pony Express was fun.  But everything was so...green.  It was weird.  And it looked possibly rainy.

It looked a lot greener in person.

After the ride (which seemed a lot shorter than it did the last time we went to Topaz Mountain), we started out by setting up camp.  It was really windy and a bit difficult, but before long the Jeep tent (which we had been unable to find for our trip to Craters of the Moon) was up and Phil and I went off to do some sifting to find pretty topaz rocks.  We had gone a few hundred feet away from camp when we heard a terrible and loud noise from the campsite as a huge gust of wind hit.  Jeff, who was further away, heard it too.  And we came back to find this.

Poor Devin and Lexie were inside when it fell down.  I bet it was scary.The rainfly, which had been on top, was ripped.

It seemed pretty hopeless.  We hadn't brought an extra tent.  But Devin, the ever resourceful handy man, happened to have a lot of duct tape, rope, and extra tent stakes at hand.  He used the stakes on the metal poles that had bent like a splint with the duct tape.  One of the fiberglass poles was absolutely shattered, so he decided to tie the tent to the Jeep and the trailer.  They were also going to be our windbreaks.

Devin is amazing.  What can I say?  Les Stroud should eat his heart out.  Anyway, once that was fixed, we started making dinner.  Which was delicious.  Not only can Devin fix a tent in a pickle, but he can cook delicious food in dutch ovens.  Which is another reason I asked him to come along.  It was when it started getting dark that we realized we'd forgotten a few key items--the hatchet, chocolate for s'mores, Sprite for the peach cobbler (it's still in the back of my car), and a few other things I can't remember.  Jeff and Devin enterprisingly used shovels in the place of the hatchet.

The following day, Jeff went off hiking (I didn't take any pictures of him, sadly.  His hair looks a lot nicer now that I helped him dye it a second time), Devin and Lexie went looking for Topaz, and Phil and I went off in search of the elusive big topaz that all first-timers are supposed to find.  He wasn't all that lucky.  We were camped up near the amphitheater where my family usually goes and there wasn't all that much...

On our way back home, we stopped down where we used to camp, and went sifting for a bit.  There were so many topaz!  I found part of a garnet, too.

They're so concentrated.

Sifting for topaz is very addictive.  It's hard to stop.

Well, we made our way back home.  Devin has his tent on life support at the moment.  My sunburns have finally healed and stopped peeling.  And Phil is now gone.  I don't know the next time I'll be updating, but I'll try to do it in the nearish future.  This is Erica signing out!