Some (everyone) might call me gullible or naive. Honestly, I would love to argue this and claim it not to be true but, along with everyone who knows me, I have to agree with them. However, I think life if more fun this way, everything is a surprise and you never suspect anything! This includes when your boyfriend picks you up for dinner one night and begins to tell you that his office is having a raffle for a free wine tour at Caprock Winery.

I had never been to Caprock Winery or to a wine tour in general but, it sounded like fun to me! As the conversation progressed, he explained to me that work was super boring that day and therefore he entered this raffle multiple times. I should also add for detail purposes, his office is not heavily populated, so putting his name in the raffle this many times gave him a great shot at winning. I was super excited leaving this conversation that night, not having a clue as to what he was planning.

Fast forward a week and I was home, trying to study for an applied ex. phys. exam when Logan sends me a text saying,

"Hey, I know you're trying to study but, I have good news! I actually won the wine tour, so make sure to ask off for next Tuesday afternoon so we can go!"

Of course, that text gave me a glimpse of hope in the mix of studying the different minute details of each bio-energetic system. The next day I went to work and asked if I could work the morning shift the following Tuesday. My boss said yes at the time if it left us with enough coverage in the afternoon. When I returned from lunch, she sadly gave me the news that she did not feel like there would be, so I would not be able to leave early that day. I immediately texted Logan, explaining that he needed to give up the tour to someone else because there was no way I could go. The only response I got was, “No, Ashten we are going on this tour. Can you figure something out?"

Luckily, one of my sweet co-workers choose to switch me their shifts so that I could leave by 1:00. Looking back on the entire situation, both Logan and I are amazingly grateful that it worked out, haha!

Going into the next week, all I was focused on was finishing my last few projects before Thanksgiving break. The wine tour was my dangling donut to finish strong. I was excited to go on a nice date with Logan before the holidays began. I remember that Tuesday being extremely busy at work! Everyone was trying to deposit or withdrawal before their holiday travels began. I ended up not being able to leave until 2:00 and Logan had asked that I be ready to leave for Caprock by 3:00. Any female will understand the panic I was in; I had one hour to eat lunch, do my hair/makeup, and the worse part of any female's day…pick out an appropriate outfit.

Logan had been making small comments prior to this day about what we both should wear. Now, the normal not-naïve girls would have picked up on this. I mean let's be honest, what guy is ACTUALLY concerned with what we wear? Not me though, I just took it as him being extremely thoughtful and not wanting me to feel insecure while there. Although this was super sweet of him, it kind of added some pressure when searching through not only mine but, also my roommates closet. Eventually after putting on 18 different outfits and some two or three times (I didn't actually count but, this is probably extremely accurate), I texted Logan that I was ready.

As we made our way to the winery, Logan had me looking up articles about how to “properly" wine taste. You see, neither of us would be considered wine connoisseurs, so Wine Tasting for Dummies, was actually an extremely helpful article. We learned how to hold wine glasses, what it means for a wine to be dry, and how to basically act like we half-way knew what was going on. We both set in agreement that we would equally ask questions and even if one of us asked a stupid question, we just had to go with it. As we pulled in and walked inside the lobby, I was still clueless. We began to taste wines that the owner had pulled for us, possibly (definitely) pouring a few back into the bowl that were not quite our favorite. We then began the wine tour.

I was enjoying the tour; Caprock Winery is beautiful and it was fascinating to hear all the chemistry and biology that goes into wine making. I noticed Logan being on his phone a lot but, it was still football season and I just figured he was checking all his ESPN fantasy football updates. I also noticed how he was not keeping up with his end of the question deal. Here I was carrying us as a couple, trying to think of anything half-way intelligent to ask the owner. I guess you could say that Logan must have had some things on his mind!

We finally ended the tour in the vineyard portion and the owner explained to us that in the middle of the vineyard, they had set up a table with our favorite wine and that we could sit out there and enjoy ourselves for as long as we wanted. I was so excited, how often does this opportunity come? We went and sat in our table; I remember looking around and taking in God's beauty, it was such a breath of fresh air.

Logan was getting antsy and keep asking me if I was ready to go yet. I kept telling him no until finally, he stood up and propped his phone up on the ground against the vase. I looked at him puzzled as to what he was doing when he quickly explained that we should take a picture but, there was no one out there take it for us. For those of you who know Logan, this was another big clue that I did not catch on too; Logan hates to take any type of picture, so his willingness should have made me wonder. I did think it was a good idea and stood up. We both stood a few feet in front of the phone and began to smile. As I was fixing to walk toward the phone to check the video, Logan grabbed my arms and got down on one knee.

Utterly shocked is an understatement. I was taken aback in the best way possible! I have never before felt complete peace combined with pure joy the way I did in that very moment. After my heart rate came back down to a somewhat normal bpm, Logan explained that both of our families and some of our closest friends were inside waiting to celebrate with us. We walked back in and were meet with lots of love and hugs.

I know what each of you are probably thinking, “how did she not know?", but, it's not fair that you say that, y'all already knew the ending! What I do know is that I loved Logan way before being engaged and somehow, leaving Caprock I knew that I loved him even more. Tuesday November the 22^nd, will always be a day that I will long to relive. I am very grateful to my sweet family, my future family, and our amazing friends who helped make this one of the greatest days of our lives. As a girl, we dream and dream about this magical day. Jesus not only surpassed my idea of what this day would be like, but also the man who was created for me. I can honestly say what I might be the most excited about, is to see how many more times I get to fall in love with him. I have a feeling it will be more times than I can count!

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