Love Story: THE ENGAGEMENT

This is the second best part of the story. The best part is the wedding but this is the second, the engagement! It makes me so happy thinking about it!! Ok, so the end of the summer is happening. I just finished working on the program team for CSU. I was completely exhausted and yet very excited because I was going to see Chris soon! At the end of every CSU summer, our family has family vacation. I have a large family so gathering us all together outside of holidays is very difficult. We relish the time we all get to be together. We were blessed this summer to be able to use a house up in Estes Park. Oh my goodness, it was GORGEOUS. It sat in the valley of two mountains with a beautiful pond in front.

One of the many beautiful spots on the hike

We head up to Estes Park after the conference and enjoy the wonderful views and mountain air. Oh yea, a lot of family had the stomach bug- so gross. I don’t handle sickness well. I tried to stay away from any sick person b/c I didn’t want to be sick when Chris got there. I did a pretty good job and didn’t get sick. OK, so Chris comes into Denver and I drive down the mountain to get him. We have the most glorious reunion; we were back together again. We come back up and hang out with the family for the night. The next day was our day together, just us.

August 2^nd, 2011: We started out by going to Starbucks to get some breakfast and then headed up into Rocky Mountain National Park. We decided we wanted to spend the day hiking, so we found a spot and took a bus to a beautiful trailhead. While we were on the bus, I had my hand on Chris’s leg and thought I felt what was a ring box. I was really excited. I knew that it was going to happen on the hike. We hiked about 7 miles that day. I found us some of the most breathtaking views. I took us off the path so that we could have some privacy and obviously set the stage for him to propose. I had a great plan, but Christ apparently didn’t see my plan. I am quite the control freak and like to figure stuff out, I thought I had figured it out, I was just waiting for him to get down on one knee. After 7 miles of hiking, we came back to our car, no ring.

We grabbed some food at the grocery store to have a picnic dinner back at the house with everyone. We came home and we changed, packed the backpack and talked to the family. We are getting ready to leave the house and I had to run back into the house and grab something, that is when I heard someone say, “We need to be ready with the champagne when they get back”. This was it, I was beyond excited. I didn’t let Chris know at the time that I knew, I told him later. We hiked up to the top of one of the mountains by the house that had this porch type thing that overlooked the mountains, it let you see for miles. Chris set up the dinner and we talked. We walked over to the overlook and I turned around, he was down on one knee. I honestly to this day can’t remember what he said. I tried really hard to pay attention but I was so excited. He said many wonderful things and when asked, “will you marry me?” I replied very quickly with a “YES” It was one of the sweetest moments. We were alone, looking at all of God’s glorious creation and reflected on God’s goodness and perfect planning on bringing us together when he did. I was in awe of God and how gracious He is! We prayed together as we started this new journey together, that God would continue to be at the center of our relationship! 

Right after he proposed :)

Our picnic ended quickly b/c a massive storm rolled in, we ran down the mountain to my family who was waiting to celebrate with us. It was an amazing night. I loved that Chris knew how important my family was and wanted to propose when they were able to celebrate with us. It was the most perfect night! I was engaged to God's best for me, the man I had prayed so many years for. My prayers were being answered, my heart was so grateful. I am so blessed!

Celebrating with the family- I was very excited!!!

Funny story, the next day, I go to wake Chris up and I find him on the floor in his room. You know that stomach bug that everyone in my family had, yea, he got it too. I felt so bad. I ended up taking him to the clinic in town because he was so dehydrated. As he was sitting getting fluids, I finally had cell phone service and was able to text, call and post on Facebook and Instagram about our engagement. I probably looked liked the most uncompassionate person ever, I was sitting on my phone as Chris had an IV. I did ask Chris if it was ok if I did it while he was getting looked at, he was fine with it! I had to tell people-WE WERE ENGAGED!!!! Chris was sick the rest of the trip and got better in time for us to fly home. But all was right; we were engaged! The wedding planning could officially start :)

The most gorgeous ring EVER!! This picture does not do it justice. It is a family diamond (it is clear, it looks yellow in the picture, but it isn't) I LOVE IT- Chris did very well!!