Engagement Pictures!!

Night on the town

Last night Broc's sweet aunt Lacy called us and asked if we wanted to have some fun riding the segways that are being stored in their garage. Neither of us had ridden one before so we jumped at the opportunity. Plus Lacy, her husband Levi, and darling little Easton are so much fun to hang out with. I don't know how many of you out there have actually tried riding on of these things but they are freaking AWESOME! It took a second to get the hang of it but once we got it, we were off. We rode for about 2.5 hours on these things. From the mall to in-n-out and everywhere in between. We got a little carried away on the way home as we figured out by only eating one meal a day and using electricity for only a fridge when we were married that in about 4 years we could afford one.

Sneak Peek!

Tonight we took our engagement pictures. Errin Andrus took them. She is AMAZING. This is just a sneak peek of how well the night went.
(This picture in the road was actually all Broc's idea!)
Cant wait to see the rest!

We'll try this again...

We reenacted the proposal the way Broc said it was "suppose" to happen. But I still think the way it happened couldn't have been better :)

Here's a collection of some of our favorites over the years :)

One button at a time.

I am so extremely blessed to have an angel of a friend Corrie Theobald who is making my wedding dress. She is AMAZING and has been our dear family friend and neighbor for years. Yesterday I got all measured and fitted for the dress. She is doing the interfacing, the hemming, the pattern manipulation, the beading, the lace, the satin, the measuring, the unpicking and everything else that has to be done when making a dress. Except for the buttons. I was given the simple job of covering each button with the same fabric the dress is being made out of. I took this very seriously ha. When you see this gorgeous dress I want you all to take note of the buttons. I did them. Thank you very much. She said it would be tedious but holy cow. My thumbs are raw. Broc was a sweetheart and helped me with a lot of them. It only took a few hours and a couple million mess ups to get them all done. SO COOL. Who gets to cover the buttons on their own wedding dress? Pretty sweet!

LOVE LOCKS

Google it, Love locks. It will take you to "locks of love" which is a hair donation site, and a great cause I might add but just click on images. Apparently the rest of the world has been locking their love on gates, bridges, doors, and whatever else for years now. Broc heard on the radio that St. George was making a "love lock gate" on Main Street in St. George. So we decided to participate. It's just this easy...

Step #1: Buy a lock at Walmart. Pretty cheap. Like $3.58.

Step #2: Decorate that lock of love.Step #3: Lock it on the gate.Step #4: Throw one key off a bridgeStep #5: Throw the other off the mountain.There, our love is locked forever. Try it.

We're ENGAGED! 9/4/10

Broc and I went ring shopping in mid June so ever since then I've been a little anxious and he's been a little stressed. In other words, it's been a long few months since we've known we wanted to get married. Actually, a long few years. So here's how the story goes....

Erin: So a couple weeks ago I knew it was going to happen relatively soon so I decided to go ahead and schedule our engagement photoshoot so that we could get a slot because the booking fills up fast. I was sure that we were going to be engaged by then so I wasn't worried about it but as the days past, I got a little worried I'd have to wear a $9.86 ring from walmart in the photos. I kept asking Broc about the status of the ring and everything and for the first time ever, broc became a good liar. And by liar I mean he just wouldn't tell me anything.

Broc: It was three months since i had been home from my mission. I was... am poor, but still we went to a thousand different jewelers and ring shops to find the perfect ring. Of course that perfect ring ended up being a million dollars. Plan B. We waited just a little while so i could try and save up at least half of that million dollars so we could get it. The problem with that was i didn't have a job that payed that much. Not quite anyway.

Erin: He would tell me "it's coming soon" but that turned into weeks. I started to believe that his "soon" was my f-o-r-e-v-e-r. We originally drove down to vegas to pick out a ring back in june but so many factors started to limit us, order time, cost (it was like a million dollars) etc. So last week we found a ring at the mall that was a lot like the one we had originally picked out. I fell in love with it. And even more in love with Broc.

Broc: So it took me a while to earn that million dollars. A couple months actually. But it turns out all i had to do was pay a reasonably smaller down payment of two hunderded and fifty thousand dollars. This made things easier. So i went to Kay Jewelers("Every Kiss Begins With Kay") and got the ring i knew she would love.

Erin: Okay so I had to take some people's family pictures the night all of this was going to go down so Broc got a little apprehensive when I said I wouldn't be done doing that till about 8:00 p.m. I wasn't sure why he was insisting that I ask the family to re-schedule because he just said he wanted to go on a date. I still wasn't suspecting a thing. I told him that I couldn't re-schedule but thought that we could just go to my house afterwards and watch the movie "my best friend's wedding" that I bought for only $1 at the D. I. earlier that day. I thought it was a worthy purchase and a great date night movie. I thought that was the perfect plan for the evening... he had a better one.

Broc: Dang right i had a better idea than just watching "My best friend's wedding". I was proposing. So i was sitting at work just counting down the folded clothes til i could get off and go get things ready. Then My BFF Pete comes out of nowhere and surprises me at the store. I really was surprised because he lives in Salt Lake and i had no idea he was coming. So i got off right when he showed up and we decided to join forces and get this thing rolling. So we hunted down the security guard that i had talked to the day before about using the mall that night.

Erin: I was a little disappointed that Broc was working until 7:00 that night because I wanted him to come with me to take the pictures that I was scheduled to take.

Broc: Like I said earlier, I got off right when Pete showed up. I didn't work till 7:00 but she bought it.

Erin: As soon as I got done, I called Broc and he didn't sound like he had much of a plan for the evening.

Broc: I most definitely had a plan.

Erin: He asked me if I was sick of taking pictures and if not, he wanted to go to the red hill to take just sit and take pictures together. People have asked me if I knew or started suspecting at that point because it's the "red hill" but I really didn't. Those are the kind of dates we go on so I honestly thought it was just another night. Broc picked me up and he looked dashing. All dressed in his nice vest and white shirt with jeans and his new shoes. Again, didn't get thrown off because he always looks dang good. At the red hill we just sat looking out at the view and talking about how we always wanted to end up here. How St. George is the best place on earth, because it is.

Broc: St. George is where it's at. I thought we should get the night moving so I suggested another random place. But not so random for us. We always seemed to end up on top of the Blue Bunny parking garage on main street on weekend nights in high school and it's just a place with a lot of awesome memories. We drove down there and continued to take pictures and talk about how cool all the buildings are on tabernacle by the electric theater. It was then that my friend joe, who was in on the whole thing called to confirm some details. I walked away to talk to him but did it as discretely as possible.

Erin: At the blue bunny parking garage, Broc got a call from Joe. He walked away and talked to him for a second. When he came back, I asked him what he wanted and Broc said he was telling him all about his new gun. Then Broc went off on talking about all the rights and privileges of having a concealed weapons permit and begged me to let him get one. He does this quite frequently actually.

Broc: Joe wasn't calling about a gun.

Erin: I was gettin really thirsty so we stopped at iceburg right down the street to grab a drink. As soon as I drank it, Broc insisted that we leave. I didn't know why. Still, not suspecting a thing. In the car I started talking about the upcoming engagement pictures and started asking about the ring and he got a little frustrated and told me that he didn't want to talk about it and ruin our night. All he said was that it was going to happen some time this month. I stopped talking about it.

Broc: Little did she know it was happening that night. I told her that we had one more place we should go and drove straight to the mall. She kept saying that she didn't think the mall was still open because it was 9:30 on a saturday night and there weren't any cars in the parking lot but I convinced her that it closed at 10 on saturday.

Erin: He wanted to go take pictures in the photobooths that they have in the mall. We have a ton of those photo strips from over the years. I was sure that the mall was closed but he kept insisting. We walked up to the food court and there were chains on the doors. I kept telling him to turn around and we'd do it later but he kept walking. There was an older security guard standing inside and Broc said that he knew the man from working in the mall and said he'd let us in.

Broc: He and I totally set it up earlier that day. He was in on the whole thing.

Erin: So the kind old man opened the door for us and greeted us with a big smile. As we walked down the mall, all the gates were over the doors to every store. I just kept saying "Broc, I really think we're not suppose to be here".

Broc: We walked past the jewelery stores and she joked about robbing one of them to get a ring faster.

Erin: We finally got to the other end of the mall where the photobooth is located. We stepped inside, closed the curtains, and started fidgeting with the buttons.

Broc: I realized the photobooth was off. Inside I started to panic. That was kind of the whole plan for the proposal. I was going to pull out the ring while the pictures were being taken and capture her face on a photostrip. But it was turned off, probably does with the mall. I was swiping my card over and over to get it to work. I even suggested Erin try her card.

Erin: I could tell Broc was getting a little frustrated with the photobooth and so I told him we could come back and do it tomorrow.

Broc: The key word was whiskey. When I said whiskey, Mitch Hancock would lead all the people who were hiding to come out. I said it fairly loud, Erin didn't even notice. I could hear everyone and I was worried Erin could too.

Erin: I was too busy looking through my purse for 3 dollars to try to put in the machine to hear anything.

Broc: The photobooth wasn't working but I wasn't going to let it ruin anything. I said to her that I had something to make it up to her. I pulled out the ring. Her face lit up...but in a very confused yet ecstatic expression. She kept repeating "what is that?" over and over. I pulled the curtains open.

Erin: Standing there were probably 30-40 people. All my family. All his family. All our friends. Even some people I didn't know that I later found out my dad caught them as they were leaving the mall to stay and watch. I couldn't believe it. Broc led me out of the photobooth and got down on one knee. The smile on his face I will remember forever.
Our song was playing.
He asked me to marry him.
I said yes.
And the security guard whiped a tear.

Kindergarten Babies

Last week was my little sister Lexi's first day of kindergarten. She was a little apprehensive so Broc and I were telling her about how fun kindergarten was. The funny thing is that Broc and I were in the same kindergarten class!! The only thing I can remember from kindergarten is Mrs. McBride giving us easy cheese and ritz crackers served on a cookie sheet and watching my friend get stung by a bee at recess. All Broc can remember is the playground and the spiral monkey bars. Too bad we can't remember eachother. So Lexi, best of luck with easy cheese and monkey bars. Kindergarten is great.(also pictured Ryan Steck, Wess Musso, Brady McArthur, Katie Holt, Daniel Stocks, and the side of Tyler Tolman's head)

9th grade yearbook signing day rolled around at Pine View Middle School and I thought Broc was the "hottest" boy in Mrs. Ronnow's honors english class, so of course I went up to him and asked him to sign my yearbook. I remember contemplating for a couple seconds on what to write, and to buy some time as he signed mine I commented on his new set of braces (probably the first thing I ever said to him, ever). I remember getting enough courage to write something totally out of my element and even used the word "hottie". So not like me, especially as a shy freshmen. What was I thinking? But it was written in pen so there was no going back. Anxious to see what the 9th grade "hottie" wrote in mine, I searched for his message frantically to find this...
He thought I was a "swell person". Swell.

THEN & NOW

Here are some photos from before and after the mission...

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

The story of Us.

Broc was a scraggly haired, braces wearing boy with gorgeous eyes. I was a scrawny built girl with a dancer smile.

At age 16 we sat opposite ends of Mr. Jones studio art class. I sat on a table with a few of my panthera friends while he sat on a table full of girls that probably wanted to date him. I remember how dang attractive I thought he was from across the room and that he probably didn't even know my name. He later told me how he thought I was too good for him because I was on the dance team. Little did we know that things were about to change.

It was junior prom our junior year and I had a boy coming from Arizona to go to the dance with me. When he came, it was to my surprise that I was totally not interested in him like I use to be. My mind was on the cute Broc Hafen that I had only hung out with a time or two. Broc and I were in the same day date group. We went to the park to play missionary tag. I had my eye on Broc the whole time. Suddenly I was it and had to run to link on to someone's arm and Broc (already being my main focus) was my first target. When I grabbed his arm and turned around to watch the rest of the game he whispered to me "So you don't seem very into this Arizona guy". I felt flustered hoping he didn't notice that I was looking at him the whole day. I think I replied something like "Ya for some reason it's just not there for me anymore". Soon after, someone grabbed Broc's other arm and off I had to run. Being arm in arm with Broc was the best part of the date and he wasn't even my date!

That evening at dinner, our large dance group ate at Jeremy Hardman's. There were 2 huge round tables to sit the 20+ couples. The view I had of Broc was familiar. Opposite ends of the room just like art class. Since he was the only one that was aware of my disinterest in my date he kept making faces and gestures to me across the room. After the dance I went home and called our good friend Tyler Carlson to vent to him about how this Arizona boy was staying in my basement and I wanted to try to sleep through him leaving in the morning to avoid any awkwardness. Tyler took me by surprise when he said "It's because you like Broc huh."

I guess it was obvious from day one.

Shortly after junior prom Broc and I had our first date. We went to the Pine View Jazz dinner dance. Us and Kennedy Byrd must have been the only people under the age of 50 besides the band. We danced to jazz music, ate staheli catering and enjoyed elderly company and it just happened to be Valentines Day. It was a weird but perfect first date.
So anyways, the rest of the story goes like this, Broc started to like this Erin girl a lot and asked her on many more dates. Erin was super happy because she loved being with Broc. Nothing has changed to this day.

So they dated for two years...

Went to lots of dances...



Had TONS of fun...

And yep, they fell in love.


Then they turned 19. Broc turned in his mission papers. She got geared up for a long wait.


Broc got called to serve in Madagascar. The furthest mission from church headquarters. Exactly 10,748 miles away. He left April 30th 2008. Erin died April 30th 2008 (not really).

2 years past...
and this boy came home.
I swear it was a lot longer than just having to scroll down 2 pictures.

Things were back to normal.

Still in love.