Kortekum: July 1st, 2011

Steve's family is really big on the 4th of July... every year they have festivities spanning most of the weekend and full of fun traditions, one of them being a BBQ at Rob (Steve's brother) and Hilary's house followed by the Centerville City fireworks, as was the plan for the evening.

Steve came and got me at around 6, and after a long day of studying, we turned on the music laughed and made our way towards Davis county. As we drove, Steve gave me a heads up that we may need to leave before the fireworks and go home and be lame for a couple of hours (aka - study)... this is common place for us so I thought nothing of it and just said "Sure". When we got there everyone was scattered, Hill was in the kitchen preparing the last of dinner, there were some out in the back playing catch with Jack, and just enjoying the perfect summer evening. Luckily we had our mitts in the car, so we joined in the festivities and started playing baseball... the perfect 4th of july past time, right?

The whole night was ideal, great hamburgers, baseball, basketball, dessert, laughing, chatting, teasing, it was fabulous! After the food was eaten and the calories burnt off in playing, and after Dr. Steve had given us all a lesson on the female reproduction process, everyone gathered their things and got all ready to go to the fireworks. We on the other hand gathered our things and as previously decided we said our goodbyes and headed back to Salt Lake.

Now Steve wass about to start his rotations come July 18th, and his first rotation is actually in Bountiful just a few blocks from Rob and Hilary's... so we swung by to see if we could figure out where he would be working. It is a super nice hospital 2 minutes for his brother's house. It'll be perfect! Once we saw that we started back towards home... we got about a few blocks south when Steve glanced down at the clock and said

Steve: "Ya know what... It's 9:30... what's another half hour. We should just go watch the fireworks!"

Not knowing quite how to respond, I answered with a question. "I don' really know what kind of supportive you need me to be right now? Do you need me to tell you that we should go study and that we have already said our goodbyes and that we are on our way and should continue? Or do you need me to throw caution to the wind and recognize that you have been studying all week and that a break will do you well?"

Steve thought about it for a minute and then decided for us that we would go back and watch the fireworks. I didn't mind at all, in all honesty I am always pro being-together, so that was music to my ears. We swivel swooped and headed back in the direction of Centerville.

Steve: "There are probably going to be too many people and it's probably too late for us to track down my family in time, so how about we watch them from Ryan and Emily's grandparents house, which is just a couple blocks away from where they are shooting the fireworks off from.. That way we wont have to worry about parking and can just park in the garage."

Me: "Perfect, sounds great to me"

We tracked down the house, which was vacant and had a for rent sign out front, and pulled all of our stuff from the car. When I had gotten into the car after the BBQ there had been some sparklers on my seat, and Steve had explained that he had taken them for us so that we could have our own fireworks, but now that we were going to watch the big ones, it was decided that they would entertain us until the big ones started. So we spread out the blanket and poured out the sparklers and started lighting.

I got a couple lit and handed them to Steve and I was working on lighting a couple for me as Steve went skipping and frolicking off around the back of the house. I didn't think anything of it, but come to find out, as soon as he got out of sight, he was running around frantically trying to find the things that his siblings had hidden for him in the bushes... I didn't see any of that though, from my perspective, he ran around with the sparklers, and came back only a few short minutes later as I was still trying to work on keep a couple of sparklers lit at the same time. When I finally got it down, I, unbeknownst to me, played right in to the plan and started to write things with my sparklers in the air. I love you. You make me so happy. Erika. Steve. Annemarie. Merrill. Christiansen. John... Steve was in the middle of spelling out my last name when the big fireworks started going on behind his head. I was instructed that he wanted to finish spelling out my last name, but that I should sit down and start enjoying the big fireworks behind us. He got the last couple sparklers lit and finshed out the last of my last name. s...e....n.

Pause.

Steve: "ok, one more"

w....i...l...l...y....o...u...m...a...r...r...y...m... ... ... e.

There I was sitting there on the grass, fireworks over head, and the man of my dreams in front of my pausing and staring at me from across the distance between us before he finished with the last e. My whole heart smiled as I watched him with loving eyes, finish spelling the words I have often wondered how I would ever get to. From there he ran over to his shoe, where he had stashed the ring box so I wouldn't notice it bulging out of his pants pocket, and he came over to kneel down by me, and told me that he wanted to spend his forever with me. I was sitting but came up to kneel with him, hugging him as I said yes.

At that, Steve got up, explaining that there were more surprises. He ran around the back of the house again and came back with 2 dozen white and red roses, and a cooler of sparkling cider and glasses. He gave me the flowers, which were so beautiful, and he broke out the bubbly. And by "broke out" I mean he had lost the bottle opener before we left Rob and Hills, so he had borrowed Rob's Swiss army pliers with an opener on it that didn't work and ended up just puncturing a hole right in the top of the lid. He fiddled with it for a few more seconds before he decided that it would have to do, and he poured us both a glass. We raised them both in a toast, and began to toast to us.

Mid toast, Steve's family, now back from watching the fireworks, strolled up to find us there on the blanket amidst the burnt out sparklers and cider. They were all so excited for us and took turns hugging us and congratulating us. They took pictures for us. Ooooed and Awwwwed over the ring, though they had all seen in and then left us to clean up and catch up with them later at the house.

There is part of me that always imagined my heart racing and tears flowing freely in a moment like this... but there was no racing to it, there was only peace.. A deep inner peace that I haven't found in very many places. The peace that comes when I know that I am loved and that everything will be ok, whatever comes our way. I loved that peace.