Another one bites the dust! This year is going to be the year of weddings at the Jones household! My little brother is getting married! Fun fact, we went six years between adding Danny to the family and then in the space of a year, we’ve added Jenna and are getting Mitch and Olivia. I love getting all these new siblings! Robert has known he wanted to marry Olivia for a long time. Since they both live in Rexburg, I told him that if he could swing it, he should propose to Olivia in Utah so that I can help with whatever is needed. As soon as he had the ring, he started planning on when they could come down to visit without it being too suspicious. Robert made something up about a cousin’s birthday and they found a ride on the ride board.

     If you know my brother, he’s not one to plan and map out every detail. So about a week before they are coming down I get a text from Robert;

“Hey Whit, do you have any good spots that I could propose to Olivia up Big or Little Cottonwood?”

I replied I have tons of spots I like, and could he be more specific to what he wanted.

“Just someplace with really great mountain views.”

…

     So helpful. Ha. So I ask if he wants Olivia to know it’s coming or not. If he wants more of a surprise I say we all take the family up to Donut Falls to go “sledding.” Since I’m eight months pregnant it won’t be suspicious that I’m not sledding and that I have my camera out, taking pictures of everyone. He can find a good spot, pop the question and mission accomplished.  Robert agrees to that plan and we are good to go for the proposal!

     Robert and Olivia arrive Friday night where we celebrate Robert’s birthday that just happened on Monday. It’s there that we learn that there is a big blizzard coming. So we have a back up sledding place picked out at Hidden Valley Park if we can’t make it up the canyon. Since we all have obligations near noon the next day we meet at the house around 8:30 am and by 9 ish, we are on the road up to Hidden Valley Park. (Thanks to some avalanche warnings.)

     As we all pull our snow gear on and start walking towards the sledding hills, I pop out my camera and start taking pictures the whole walk down. We decided it was safer if none of the younger kids knew – they just thought we were having a fun family outing. As we near the “spot” I motion to Austin to keep the kids (and their brightly colored ski gear) away from us so they don’t mess up the moment. As we get closer, we flawlessly separate into two groups; Olivia, Robert and I at the lead and Austin and the rest of the family. It’s then that I pull back to give Robert and Olivia a bit more privacy and blend into the background. Robert talks to Olivia, pulls her in tight and then gets down on one knee! She said yes! And to top it all off, she had no idea that the proposal was coming! Success! I took a few more pictures of them to commemorate the occasion and then we joined the rest of the family back at the sledding hill for a few more go-rounds. It was such a fun morning! Afterwards a handful of us all went out for brunch to celebrate. We love Olivia and are so happy to have her in the family!