Who knew that waking up at 5:20am on Saturday, July 31st would change everything.

On Friday, Jason dropped me off at my house and said, “sweetie, go straight to bed because I have an adventure planned for us tomorrow, and the only catch is, I need to pick you up at 5:20am!”

Anyone who knows me, knows I only have one 5 o’clock in my day and it’s in the PM. He told me it would be worth it so I agreed; little did I know that soon he’d be making my dreams come true.

At 5:20am we jumped in the car and the adventure began. We got on the freeway and started heading North on I-15 as if we were going to Salt Lake. Keep in mind I have no idea where we are going, what we are doing, or what the plan was for the day. This never happens. Seriously. I always find out surprises and keeping one from me is a pretty tough job.

Instead of staying on I-15 going North bound, he exited the freeway and started heading East towards Parley’s Canyon. At this point Jason looked over at me and said,

“Do you want to know where we are going?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “There’s a sale up at the Park City outlets and the first people to arrive get FREE iPhones!”

I said, “Ha, yeah right! Like you’d have any idea if the outlets were having a sale!” 🙂

For someone who already has the new iPhone, I knew that this would never be the reason to get him up at 5:00am on a Saturday.

As we approached Park City we did take the Outlet exit, however, we didn’t go shopping.

Instead, we pulled into a parking lot where there was a truck with a trailer attached. Jason got out of the car and approached the truck and introduced himself. It turns out the guy he was meeting would be a big part of our adventure.

After introductions, we all jumped back into our cars and followed the truck over to a huge open field. As we pulled in, and as the trailer got unloaded, I started to realize that everything I could see looked like the makings of a hot air balloon! The only reason why I knew this was because Jason for the last 2 years has taken me to the balloon show down in Provo on the 4th of July. Just as I am putting all the pieces together he looks over at me and says,

“Do you want to know what we are doing today?” I anxiously said “yes!”

That’s when he said, we’re going on a hot air balloon ride! You can only imagine the freaking out that took place after!

With all the excitement going on, and just when I think it can’t get any better, Will (they guy taking us up in the sky) let us get in on all the action of setting up the balloon.

(Keep in mind I didn’t have time to “mentally prepare” for a balloon ride so I was really excited but a little nervous too. I mentally had to keep saying to myself, “baskets are really safe to stand in, I’m sure it’s weaved together really tight”. ” “I don’t know of anyone that has died in a hot air balloon ride, although I also don’t know of anyone that has ever been in one either!” Oh crap!

As we were getting our balloon set up, about 6 other teams arrived at the field. Summer is the peak season for balloon riding and the site we were at was a popular place for launching off. This turned out to be really cool because we got to have our own little balloon show! So fun.

Just as we were finishing getting ready, I started looking around and noticing that everyone else was going to have 6-12 people in there baskets however, our ride was only scheduled to have Jason, me, and our pilot. I honestly didn’t know if I should think that was awesome or be scared that no one else picked our pilot to take them on a ride!

Once we were were all set-up and the balloon was inflated and ready for lift off, we both climbed into the basket. Our balloon and several others began to peacefully float into the sky. As we began to ascend Jason was so excited. He was hanging over the sides, laughing, and pointing out tons of fun things on the ground.

About 300 or 400 feet off the ground he says to me,

“Sweetie come look at this, it’s amazing!”

As I look over towards the ground where he is pointing I see a huge banner that says,

“WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

I look at Jason and say,

“Cute! I wonder who is getting engaged today?”

That is when he looked back at me and said,

“It takes a little faith to climb into this hot air balloon together. We don’t really know which direction the winds will blow or where we will land. We don’t have a ton of experience and we’re not sure what to expect. But since we’re together, somehow we know it’s going to be just fine. We’re going to have a great ride.

That’s how I see our lives together. Even though I don’t know where our balloon will land, I know that wherever it does, I want you right by my side. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me!”

Then he said,

“Will you marry me?”

He pulls out the ring and I said,

“YES!”

It was seriously AMAZING! We literally were “on cloud nine!”

Then we hear a shout from one of the other balloons asking,

“What did she say?!”

Our pilot yelled back,

“She said yes!”

Just then, the whole sky erupted with cheering and clapping from everyone that had taken off. To say it was amazing, spectacular, beautiful, or perfect would be a HUGE understatement; but it was.

And so our journey begins.

Surprise, we’re going on a balloon ride!

Jason, getting in on the set-up action.

“I wonder what she’ll say when we get up there?”

Me, right after the proposal.

Pure Joy.

Cheering from the other balloons!

A view from the top looking at Jordanelle Reservoir.

Looking at Brighton Ski Resort.

The happy, happy couple.