On October 29, 2005 I asked Jade to marry me; here's the story...

I showed up at her door dressed in a suit with a single red rose in hand and wished her a happy anniversary.  (It was our third month as a couple).  We drove to Johnny Carino's, her favorite restaurant, and on the way in Jade noticed that I was carrying a bag.  She asked me what was in it and I replied, "You'll see; it's a surprise."

Once I let the hostess know we had arrived for our reservation, I asked Jade to wait by the door and excused myself to set the mood at our table.  From the bag I took three white taper candles and crystal candle holders, set them up by the rose and lit them, then returned to the front of the restaurant.  During the meal we enjoyed wonderful food, good conversation and the romantic ambience provided by the candles.

For dessert we split a lemon cream cake.  When it was nearly gone I reached into my suit coat pocket, took out her ring, dropped down to one knee and asked her to marry me in Italian, "Mi vuis sposare?"  Her answer was yes, of course.  I slipped the ring on her finger and we celebrated with a kiss.

After dinner I drove us to the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts at Boise State University, where we enjoyed an incredible performance by the Boise Philharmonic.  That evening the special guest was Naoko Takada who played the marimba both with the orchestra and as a soloist.  During the intermission we called Jade's mom to share the exciting news of our engagement.

Finally, to conclude the evening Jade and I decided to be spontaneous.  We called our friends Don and Larissa Keck to share the good news of our engagement with them.  We figured the Kecks should be the first of our friends to find out since they were primarily responsible for bringing us together.  They were so happy when they heard the news.  We hung out with them for a while and had a great time visiting over hot chocolate.

To see more pictures from this night check out the engagement section of our photo gallery.