A lot of blogs feature “Flashback Friday,” where they highlight one of their best posts from the past. Seeing as how my blog is less than a month old, a flashback would probably fail. So here’s my own twist on the Friday Flashback: a blast from my own past – the day Nate asked me to marry him.

Nate and I were both raised in Washington – he in Longview, me on Bainbridge Island – but didn’t meet until our paths crossed in college after we’d each moved to California (small world, indeed!). After graduation, we went on a pilgrimage of sorts to show each other our home towns. Since White Pass mountain is one of the only attractions between our two hometowns, we decided to be uncharacteristically active and go snowboarding. I hadn’t been on a snowboard in 3 years, so when we somehow made our way to the top of the mountain and Nate edged his way over to a cliff, I lingered on a nearby bench for about five minutes. Nate kept beckoning me over and I kept avoiding the inevitable emergence from the bench, until I finally made my way into a semi-standing position and hop-slid-stumbled my way over, plopping down next to him.

“Wow, what a great view,” I said, digging in my jacket for the camera. “We HAVE to take a picture of this!”

“Don’t worry,” Nate said. “We will. Chelsea, I love you so much. You’re my best friend.”

“I love you too, hun,” I fumbled with my gloves. “This is just beautiful! What mountain is that over there?”

“Chels, we’ll get a picture of the mountain in a minute. Anyway, I was saying how I love you so much. And I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone but you.”

“Mmmhhmmm,” I obliviously kept fumbling for my camera as he continued his proposal, “Yeah, me too.”

“….and I want to be with you forever,” he concluded. “Will you marry me?”

“It’s just so pretty. We should really….wait. What?”

I looked down to see him clutching this:

Of course I said yes. And apologized profusely for being incapable of shutting up. Here we are moments after we got engaged (we flagged down a nearby skier to take a pictures of us). And yes, we ARE wearing matching jackets. We’re just that cool. And again, yes, Nate is wearing shorts to go snowboarding. He’s just that awesome.

Oh, and I did eventually get a picture of the view.