ENGAGED!!

#4 - Get Engaged! - Ok, I know I have not blogged in a long time, but I was anticipating this trip coming up and being able to knock out a few goals, and as it turns out, I am knocking out 4 goals and I have progress on another goal. So I have many posts to post about my goals, then another one or 2 about the trip.



But as most of you know, Jennifer Nicole and I are now ENGAGED! Last Thursday, we left Houston for our vacation trip to Colorado. We flew out early Thursday at 7:20am and arrived in Denver around 8:30 or so Mountain time. Flying while already being nervous is not very good on the stomach, but I made it ok. I knew the whole time that the hours were counting down before I was going to pop the question!




We got into our rental car and began the drive to Estes and then beyond. I had heard about Bryan and Kristen's trip up there from them, and figured this would be an ideal and unique location to propose. We drove through Boulder where the University of Colorado is, and me being a sports buff, I had to stop and take a picture at Folsom Field..




We continued the trek into the mountains on our way to Estes Park. The drive was fun, but long, especially knowing what was in store. Jennifer, not knowing anything, surely enjoyed the trip..






We arrived into Estes, and decided to go ahead into Rocky Mountain National Park, on up Trail Ridge Road, the highest highway in the country. It was definitely quite a haul up the mountains. It seemed like it would never end, especially as my excitement grew more and more. We stopped a couple times up the way to take pictures. I do not look myself in these pictures probably because of how nervous and excited I was. I was however captivated by the amazing scenery that the Continental Divide can provide you with. It really is breath-taking..








Finally, at about 1:45 mountain time, 2:45 central, we arrived at the top of the drive. We got out, I sneaked the ring box from my laptop bag into my jacket pocket, and we began the hike up to the top. Now, here's where it got tricky for me. It was a long hike up. It may not look it from this picture below, but it really was. Not to mention it was our first time outside to really breathe the air, and it had gotten very cold way up there. The air is extremely thin, so it already is very hard to breathe. So if you add that to a long hike, PLUS my heart racing about a thousand beats per minute knowing what I was about to do, I felt like I was going to die. Even Jennifer, who is in amazing shape, had a tough time getting up..




Well we get to the top, which is 12,000+ feet high!!! We take a few pictures, including this final picture of us not engaged, at the elevation sign (look carefully, you can see the ring box in my left jacket pocket, I have no idea how she didn't notice it!!):




Now I know some of you wanted me to have someone take a pic of the actual proposal, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep that moment private. I wanted that moment, those words, those tears, to be strictly in our memory. I did however get the pre and post pictures. It worked out so perfectly. It worked out just the way I prayed it would. A few people were up there when we first got there so we could gather our breath, take a few pictures. Then they left. So I had her all to myself at 12,000 feet high. So I did my thing, and got down on my knee, and asked her to marry me. She said YES! And of course, I pull the ring out of the box, and drop it (hands shaking so bad). It sucked, but it made it more real. So we got our moment. And shortly after, a man comes up, and I ask him to take our picture and tell him we just got engaged. He was very congratulatory, and took our first picture as an engaged couple:



Then we took a few more, even one of us kissing, with my hat off (which I took off during the proposal by the way):






It was simply amazing how it all worked out so perfectly, just as I planned it. I had never been to this place before, but in my dreams and in my plans, it worked out just as I hoped it would. Plus she said YES!!! We were soo happy and excited. And I was so relieved to have that behind me and our entire future in front of us.

We had an amazing weekend after that, visiting Estes Park and Denver. I will blog plenty more and post more pictures later about our trip, but I know many of you anticipated the actual proposal story.

The ring, as many have asked, is a full 1 carat circle-cut solitaire with amazing quality, on a 14k white gold Tiffany-style band. Here it is below. We are going to have to get better pics when we have our engagement pictures done, cause there's a glare in every pic she takes with the flash. Maybe that just shows off the BLING! Ha, just kidding. Actually I'm not, it really is beautiful.




Ok, thank you to all of you for your Congrats! We really do love all of you and appreciate everything. Our wedding will be in early 2010, we both want her to finish school first (Dec. 2009) so that she doesn't have a wedding being planned in the middle of her final year. We are looking at February or early March as a date, nothing set yet, but will be soon.

I have plenty of more blog posts to come, including a very, very interesting story from the famous haunted Stanley Hotel that many of you will find interesting. Let's just say we both had our first very real ghost encounter...stay tuned!!