Dear Diary:                                                            February 14, 2014

I wouldn't have been writing this week if it wasn't for the ever romantic holiday of Valentine's Day. Because I've been so busy at the hospital, I knew I had to make something very special for my wonderful wife. But didn't really want to go over the top......well not too much. So I thought about it and then it hit me. I decided to recreate the very first date Esme and I ever had together. I think I described it in the very first entry I ever wrote in this diary. And seeing as it was winter and we had more snow and ice then we knew what to do with, all I had to really do was find a frozen pond. In NH, that wasn't that hard of a task. So when I had a few days off, I ran around trying to find the perfect location. In the neighboring town of Chelsea, I found exactly what I was looking for.

Now it was time for the harder portion of the plan. I called a company that specialized in writing on ice and asked them to carve "I love you Esme" into the ice which they said they would do just that the following evening. Then and this I had pre-ordered about a few months in advance as it was massive and that was a ginormous bouquet of flowers about a whole story tall to be delivered on the morning of Valentine's Day and put right in our front yard. I think there were close to 10,000 individual flowers in this bundle and they were totally different from one another. A company in California specializes in these monstrous creations and I thought that wouldn't it be a perfect lawn sculpture for this occasion?

All was set, except I had gone to oversee the ice carving and was very happy indeed with what they had accomplished. After which I strategically placed rose buds all around the ice and up in the trees. Then I brought a bunch of speakers that I placed into spots where they were invisible and picked the perfect skating music. Esme knew I was planning something, but she didn't know what. The other couples of our family were each doing something special and to tell you the truth I was so busy with my own plan that I hadn't gotten around to asking who was doing what. I'm sure I'll know next week. One thing is for sure, Alice was running around faster than me putting the finishing touches on Leah and Keith's wedding. Leah finally figured out what kind of dress she wants to wear. Took her a while but she is very happy with her choice. She's getting married in two weeks.

No news yet on that little earthquake that we felt last week other than the fact that it had in fact originated under NH and not somewhere. Even though it was like a 3.2 on the Richter scale, it made the news and the USGS are investigating. Rogue and Esme have been following the story like two information hungry people. They kind of remind me of me when it comes to new medical information. It's so cute watching Esme's eyes light up each time Rogue would tell her she found out something new; always made me smile. I never got into natural disasters myself but it would be nice to know whether this was some random occurrence or are we in for more "shake, rattle, and roll" as Jacob said.

But I digress. The idea for this Valentine's Day surprise came to me just as we were watching the winter Olympics in Sochi. They show figure skating practically every day and the first time they showed the ice dancing couples, Esme got this wistful and faraway look in her eyes. It didn't take a rocket scientist or mind reader to know she was thinking back to our very first date. Now we've gone ice skating since then of course but it's always been with family and/or friends. I don't recall the last time it was just her and I.

This morning, just as the sun was coming up, Esme and I got up and got dressed. She asked me what she should wear and I said something cute and warm. Both of our outfits as well as all of the other photos are in links below. As we got ready and walked out downstairs, before I opened the front door for us to walk out, I put my hand over her eyes and told the other family members who had already seen the huge formation bouquet to zip it. No one said a word and smiled as I opened the door and carefully led my wife toward the massive flower bouquet. Then without so much as a word, I took my hand away and let her look. She gasped and couldn't or didn't breathe, talk, or make any noise for a good solid minute; then she said:

"O-oh m-my! W-what on earth? It's enormous!" She stammered out as her eyes got the size of saucers. I took the opportunity to wrap my arms around her from behind and whisper:

"Happy Valentine's Day sweetheart."

"Holy crap! Did the jolly green giant forget his flowers on your front lawn?" Jacob, who had just come up to the house said.

We all laughed. Even Esme as she unwrapped herself from my arms and walked toward it. It was a few feet taller than her; hell it towered over all of us including our tallest of Watchers which was Alexander. She smelled the flowers she could actually reach and closed her eyes. The bitter winter air was filled with the aroma of spring. I smiled as did everyone else. We loved winter but were all ready for spring and its flowers. But my Valentine's day surprise wasn't over so I tugged on Esme to follow me.

"There's more?" She said shocked.

"Of course there's more. This was just a little something." I said with a wink.

"I would hardly call this thing little!" She said sarcastically as I laughed.

Before we left toward the ice rink, Rose took some pictures of Esme with the massive bouquet and also of us together. After our personal photo op was over, Esme took my hand and we ran in the direction of Chelsea. We turned around just once to look back as our entire family (including wolves and Watchers) were looking at the bouquet as Rose took the opportunity to photograph everyone with it. They were having a ball and making silly faces and poses with it but careful not to ruin or break anything. With a satisfied smile, we ran toward the woods and disappeared. We picked up speed still holding hands as we ran northwest toward Chelsea and my last surprise.

As we neared it, I started to slow down until I finally stopped us both. We were around the bend from it but I needed to cover Esme's eyes once again so she wouldn't see it. Once that was done and she giggled saying she hope she didn't trip over anything, I carefully walked both of us toward the pond. When we were at the edge of it, I removed my hand and let her open her eyes. When she did, had she been human she probably would have fainted. Her hands went to her mouth as her eyes filled with tears. I took the opportunity to walk to where I put everything and then walked over to her with her ice skates. The words "I love you Esme" were carved in elegant font into the ice. All of the roses that I had put down were still exactly where I had left them. There was even one long stemmed one just casually lying on top of the letters in the middle of the pond. I had already donned my ice skates and glided to the center of the ice to pick up that one rose and come back to where she was standing and then handed it to her.

"Oh Carlisle. This is.....so unbelievably beautiful. I don't know what to say." She whispered as she inhaled the sweet nectar of the rose. I smiled and pointed toward her ice skates.

"Why don't you put them on?" I said gently. She nodded and in two seconds had them on. I reached my hand out to her and said:

"May I have this dance, my love?"

"Yes you may." She said with a little giggle, placing her hand in mine.

I produced a remote out of my pocket and turned on the music. The first song that I chose was "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins. As those notes started to filter out of the invisible speakers, we glided over the ice together. At first she just took the time to look around at everything I had prepared and then she forgot all about that as we just gazed into each other's eyes as the music seemed to move through us as if it was made of our life blood. We did some fancy foot work and could have probably beat most of those Olympic skaters. But hey, we're vampires so we do everything pretty well if I do say so myself.

We skated for what seemed like hours. The music flowed from one romantic song into the next as we just enjoyed each other and the magnificence of the day. It was a beautiful one with the sun shining so obviously we were shining as well. But we didn't care; we were in the middle of nowhere. There was no possibility of anyone spotting us. As the sun started to set, it was time to go home. I had a camera with me and took both photos and multiple films of Esme and I or Esme alone on the ice and I can't say there could have possibly been a better way to end that part of the day. When we were ready to go home, she put her arms around me.

"Thank you so much for this beautiful day. I love you so much honey. I can't even put into words what all this means to me. The huge flowers were great, but this......this mattered more than anything else. It brought back our very first date and how much and how far we've come since then. You are the most amazing man and husband in the world." Then she kissed me. We stood like that for a while just hugging and kissing.

She had gotten me a scrap book of all of our Valentine's days prior to today that same morning and I knew I could put these new photos in there. It was another precious and priceless gift. I knew that no matter what happened before, now, or in the future, I was the luckiest man on the planet to have a wife as gorgeous and precious as Esme. We ran back home after that and the whole family or most of them were back from whatever romantic getaways they went on. Some had left the state altogether for a few days; John and Maria had gone to their native Italy, Kim and Michelle went to Colorado to climb some mountains, and Amy and Peter had gone to Nova Scotia as that's one of their favorite places and apparently they own a home there. Everyone else was home. So this time, Alexander and Keith cooked. Women weren't allowed in the kitchen. It was a great way to end the day as everyone sat together for a Valentine's Day Dinner with flowers galore; as that massive bouquet would probably live for like 2 weeks.

After dinner, we all said goodnight and went to our separate homes and living quarters. Esme and I went straight into our master bath and got our candles and lavender bubble bath ready. What a perfect way to end the day. Ahhhhhh......

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

~Carlisle Cullen