Our Engagement Story

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As most of you know, Ryan and I started dating March of 2006, and in Decmeber of 2006 I packed up all of my stuff and moved over 600 miles to Colorado be with him.  We got engaged June 5th, 2009.  We lived together for 2.5 years and were together over  a bit over three before we were engaged. 

There were many, many times that I thought I was sooo sure he was going to propose during that time and I was constantly disappointed. The proposal continued to not come, and not come. Ryan always told me it would be when the time was right, life needed to be perfect.

Oh goodness did that annoy the daylights out of me.

Finally May 2009 came around and we decided we were going to plan a weekend trip the first part of June to soak up the beautiful mountains. Ryan insisted on planning the whole thing, which made me wonder if this was “the” vacation but I was convinced I wasn’t going to get my hopes up. Ryan had asked my dad’s approval eight months beforehand so I knew he wasn’t in a rush.

The day before we were scheduled to leave for our little vacation Ryan told me his boss needed him at corporate for a meeting and that it should only take the morning. I was a little annoyed but was understanding, he was supposed to have the day off.

That morning I went to a client of mine that I was a massage therapist for at the time and my massage table fell out of the back of my 4Runner and onto my foot. Oh buddy did that hurt, my foot was swollen, and bruised as all get out and I was borderline trying to decide if I should go get it x-rayed. However, I wasn’t going to let it stop our trip, I was fine. Really.

Ryan’s Friday morning meeting continued into the afternoon and I started to get antsy.

Like antsy as in sending him texts to tell corporate to stick it because it was day off and we had somewhere to be. He kept texting me back “It should only be a little longer, you know how corporate is,” and “I’m sorry babe this is taking so long. Hopefully done soon.”

Finally, much later than planned, Ryan made it home and I had the truck packed and ready to go. Finally we were well on our way headed south to check in to our cabin. We stopped for some delicious food and the keys to our cabin then hit the grocery store and liquor store on the way up. Then we were on our way making a few stops for sight seeing and finally we found our beautiful cabin. 

The next morning we got up in the morning, made breakfast and looked up where to go hiking. We love hiking, so there was no question of what we planned to do on our vacation. The cabin we stayed at came with a binder full of hikes so we flipped through the book to find the perfect one (little did I know Ryan had already planned which one we were actually going to go on). 

So we were off to take our hike.

The hike was long. Very but it was beautiful. We thought it was going to be a quick hike (ha.) but the hike went on and on. On our way up we talked about life, the future and everything in between. 

This is where Ryan thought he was clever y’all. During our conversation the topic of marriage came up and I said that honestly there was no getting my hopes up anymore because I was convinced he was in no hurry. He decided to tell me that it was going to be a while because life wasn’t perfect. Things needed to be perfect. The perfect job, the perfect blah blah blah.  The goal was to “throw me off” and little did he know that the convo would escalate and I would end up frustrated and crying – partly due to my swollen painful foot (I was trying to hard to be a trooper) and partly because of this conversation going back to the same place as it had before. Yep tears; telling him how things didn’t need to be perfect, we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and the rest didn’t matter, there wasn’t a perfect moment or our live would never be that perfect. I was frustrated which led to Ryan being frustrated because getting me this worked up was not part of the plan and he felt bad about my foot. So, he’s about ready to find a big rock so we could see the view and climb up it and be done with adventure. 

Finally, we got closer and closer and we found a spot with a nice view but you could see the end of the hike. At this point my shoe is about to bust at the seams thanks to the injured foot and I was more than happy with the little view but Ryan insisted we got just a little further we were sooo close. 

So we trekked up higher, to the very top.

To this view.

 

It was stunning. 

Next thing I knew Ryan was on one knee, well the accidentally falling onto two, asking me to marry him.

He was a tidbit embarrassed he fell to both knees but he was in a little bit of nervous tizzy. I think it was almost like a subconscious begging pose considering I’m more than sure he was convinced after the whole crying up the mountain thing, I was going to probably punch him in the face instead of saying yes.

But, as y’all know, I indeed said yes.

Yes to the love of my life.

Yes to the guy that gives me a run for my money.

I said yes.

On our way back down the mountain, he enlightened me that he felt terrible about the conversation that led to me crying because it wasn’t meant to go that far and I wasn’t supposed to get that upset – he was simply trying to throw me off because he wanted to make for certain that he was going to be catching me off guard with his proposal. He thought if he convinced me that he still didn’t feel like the timing was right that he I wouldn’t think today was the day. Well folks, mission accomplished. I thought no way, no how would he would have proposed after that whole situation. He probably wanted to leave my butt on top of the mountain after I ended up in tears, and I may or may not have had similar thoughts. 😉

He also enlightened me that the business meeting at corporate. Cover. Little white lie to make sure I had zero idea that he was actually at Shane Co. creating a custom ring for me, for this very day. And instead of actually telling corporate to shove it he was telling the gals at Shane Co. that this little lady of his was telling him to tell him to hurry up at “work” because we had places to be. He was indeed correct, I had zero idea. Clever man. The ring was beautiful, and just perfect for me. More than I imagined and the reason he waited so long? He wanted to be able to pay for it totally out of pocket – I married a smart man ;).

Oh and the ring? That was hiding in its box in a shop wrap in the sidewall of my 4Runner next to the jumper cables because he knew I probably wouldn’t be looking there. Clever, clever.

The trek back down the mountain was much better than the trek up the mountain, filled with conversation of the future before us, getting thoughts and a little bit of laughter of the bantering gone bad on the way up the mountain. 

After we got back down the mountain, we hopped in the car and headed to the Wolf & Wildlife Center, to go on a tour. It was magnificent. We toured the facility, learned so many things about wolves we didn’t know and then we upgraded the tour so we could have a hands on experience with the wolves. 

Coolest Animals Ever.

These guys were the sweetest. We fed them pieces of hot dogs that were provided to us, and they were just like a big dogs. Snuggles and kisses. Seriously, so cool.

I wasn’t allowed to spill the beans that we were engaged until our trip home. We had a no cell phones rule on the trip and understandably so. So I was busting at the seams Sunday night texting about 20 people. 

Truth be told, it wasn’t the proposal that I probably expected. I probably expected a dinner out at a local restaurant, but the truth is…this proposal was far more perfect than that ever would have been because it fit us perfectly. Two crazy people, absolutely in love with one another that drive each other absolutely batty at some moments, that laugh together, cry together and love adventures together.

The proposal. It was perfect.

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Alright guys, now it’s your turn. Link up below with Rachael and I!  I can’t wait to read your stories, I LOVE love!