Fabulous fun with the Fitz's

So I was determined to finally post all those Christmas break pictures I've been promising. But alas, I realized that I don't have my computer with me. See, Royce and I came down to Vegas for the weekend since we don't have school tomorrow. (Hallelujah!) So yet again, I am postponing that particular post. In the meantime I will tell you about the incredible, random, experience we had this morning.

Part of the reason we came to Vegas was to see our friends Ryan and Amy (who most of you know--Amy is actually the one who set us up). And sometime during the course of our evening last night, Ryan mentioned that a mission buddy of his had called up wondering if he could fill in for him to help this guy get his hot air balloon up in the morning. Ryan didn't know if we would want to go, seeing as it is Sunday and he wasn't sure how long it would take. But we were all up for it, especially because of the possibility of getting to ride in it. I think I said something along the lines of, "I think that'd be worth missing church for." Can you believe what a heathen I am?

So early this morning (to be exact, at around 6:00 am), we headed out to South? Las Vegas. The directions were something like, "Turn at the first paved road after such-and-such place, and then go to the first dirt lot . . . " There were several dirt lots. But eventually we found the guy (we got there too soon and drove around for a little bit).

Here we are doing a whole lot of nothing. It was a pretty tiny basket. We helped lay out all those blue tarps though!

This is the balloon. It was really, really long.

We had to step on part of the balloon, and hold the other part while they filled it up with air. My hands got really cold. It made me kind of nervous too because the balloon started lifting my foot up, but they told me I had to keep it down.

Here's Ryan holding the balloon.

It's almost all the way filled here.

We were all hoping to have a chance to ride, but he (Ron) was supposed to be taking out a couple who were celebrating their anniversary or something. When the thing was about ready to go, he got a call saying they were running late, so he asked if we wanted to go. I definitely wasn't going to refuse.

Royce and I got to go first. It made me a little bit nervous because we're both pretty tall and that fire wasn't very high above my head (and even closer to Royce's!) Plus, I'm usually afraid of heights, but this was incredible. You just floated up (obviously . . . ), but it wasn't really what I expected. You didn't really feel like you were moving. The way I described it (which is really cheesy) is it feels like you're a cloud.


Here we are, about to take off.

Ryan and Amy, from the air.

Here's the view with two other balloons in the background.

Houses.

Anyway, it was pretty snug in there, so I had my back to Royce so I could see out and so I could talk to the guy and ask my millions of questions. Royce started to get restless (I was worried that he was getting sick or something), and pretty soon I heard/felt him crouch down behind me, so I turned around. And all at once I hear him say "Heather, I love you so much, will you marry me?" and see him kneeling with a ring box extended toward me. I was in shock--in a half seconds time I was trying to figure out when he had picked up the ring (he kept telling me we would have to pick it up next Friday when we were in Salt Lake for my mom's birthday), and how long he had been carrying it around waiting for the right moment to propose--so I blurted out something like, "Are you kidding me?!" I don't know what else I said, but then Royce queried, "Are you going to say yes?" And so then, not knowing what else to say, I said, "Yes!" And then he put the ring on my finger and in those close quarters, with Ron half a foot away, we kissed and told each other how much we loved each other! And Royce cried (sorry for telling on you, but it was so sweet). I didn't cry, mostly I think because I was so surprised.

And then Ron said, "All of this was planned." To which I said, "Really? Really?!" I think I asked Royce too, "Did you really plan all of this?" And he confirmed that he had, and then I was finally convinced. You think I would have caught on sooner. You think I would have realized that it was way too weird that some random guy would need help getting his hot air balloon up, especially when his crew of like 4 or 5 other people showed up. But I didn't suspect a thing. I totally thought Royce had just seized the opportunity. Apparently I'm totally trusting and maybe even a little bit gullible. Thank goodness--it makes for much better surprises.

On the ground.

They handed me a flower when we landed. After we finished packing up the balloon, they set up a tablecloth on the tailgate, had sparkling cider for us, and a mini wedding-looking cake, with a fancy cake-cutter!

A toast--to love! (Ha! Cheesy)

Our celebration dinner--with the Dr. Thunder as the honorary drink (which no one drank).

I do have to apologize for announcing our engagement this way on my blog (and this is for real this time). I just thought it would be more fun for you all to be surprised too (unless you're opposite of me and were suspicious throughout). So save the date--April 26th! I can't wait. I seriously feel like the luckiest girl alive. I've been waiting 26 years for this guy to come along, and everything has really happened just like it was meant to be! If you haven't met him yet, I can't wait for you to. I may convince him to post his version of the story on his blog, so stay tuned.