the pumpkin patch date

Nathan planned this double date with some friends to drive out to Idaho Falls to pick out some pumpkins. He's huge into Halloween so we were excited to start our carving festivities for following week. It was the CUTEST little pumpkin patch complete with a kiddie straw maze, hay structures that children crawled all over, kittens, a shop with homemade donuts, and a plot for picking. We searched the place and took our sweet time looking at the over-picked plot. The patch we walked around didn't have any good pumpkins. While we were looking, our friends separated to find their pumpkins somewhere else. There were a few different plots for pumpkins scattered around the main area with the shop.

We regrouped with our friends to be told that they found a nice selection. We followed them to the other side of the patch where there was a loaded truck dropping off fresh pumpkins. I'm over here thinking, "why didn't we start looking here in the first place?" Our friends picked up a burlap sack from a pile and started looking through a pile of potatoes. Potatoes? We didn't come for potatoes! So I dragged Nate over to a row of pumpkins. There sat the perfect pumpkin. Orange, round, big, not many dimples... I examine the other side to find out that it was taken by someone else.

"Nate! This pumpkin is already carved!"

"Really? What does it say?" His voice shook so bad. He was nervous for obvious reasons, but at the time I didn't even take notice. Why didn't I ask him why it mattered what the pumpkin said? I don't know!

By this time of night, it was super hard to see anything at 7pm in October. Only the lights from the shop, the lit tree, and the moon could make things visible let alone readable. "I think it says 'turn around...'?" And like the goof I am, I stared singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' while turning my head to look back at Nate to see if he understood my joke. Nate was partly squatted only to stand back up and told me to read the rest of pumpkin. By now you'd think I'd catch on to what's happening, but I totally fell for it. The pumpkin read 'Turn around Hayley', and when I correctly recited it, the reality hit me. I gasped "no way!" a few times. There was Nate, on one knee smiling at me. 

"Will you marry me?"

I was still in the middle of saying "no way", so it came out as "No...... uh, way! Yes I will marry you!" I hugged him while he was still kneeling. Our friends joined us and told us how when they separated from us, they set up the pumpkin in its place, which was hiding in the back of Nate's jeep the whole time.

What got me convinced that he wasn't purposing that weekend was the knowledge that Nate is a horrible liar. So when he told me that we were going to have Taco Bell for dinner and go workout at the gym afterwards I thought there was NO WAY going to be a super romantic proposal. I did get suspicious when I saw on Facebook that Nate was awake at 4am... meaning that he was up to something (carving the proposal pumpkin, that's what), but Nate swayed me of thinking anything with his smooth lies. 

But there you have it! Cute and simple just the way I like it. Nathan did a good job surprising me when I thought I'd totally expect it! Definitely memorable.