We're Engaged -- My Side of the Story

K- and I headed up the California central coast on the morning of Saturday, October 10, 2009 on a spur of the moment road trip.  The trip was spur of the moment because we only just decided that morning what our weekend plans would be, in spite of the fact that K- had been insisting for a few weeks that we do something special on that particular weekend.  All the hotels in Solvang (our favorite nook in the Santa Ynez Valley) did not have vacancy so K- booked us the Vintage Room at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.  On our way up, we did some wine tasting in Los Olivos and stopped by our beloved Wishing Bear Workshop in Santa Maria.  K- made dinner reservations at Steamer’s in Pismo Beach based on the concierge’s recommendation.  That night, K-put on the Florida v. LSU game while we got ready for dinner.  As usual, he was ready much faster than me, so he said he was going to test out the fireplace in the private patio out back.  I could hear K- shuffling through his sappy love songs playlist while I finished getting ready.  At one point I told him to come back inside after LSU made it to the 5-yard line so he could finally see them score (Florida was up 10-3) but he claimed the game was making him too nervous.  I finished getting ready and opened the patio door to tell K- “Let’s go!” but he asked me for a quick slow dance before leaving for our dinner date.   We often slow dance together at home so his request did not really strike me as out of the ordinary.  I tried to get K- to come inside to dance because the air was pretty chilly but he claimed the fire place would keep us warm.  As we swayed around together, I remember chatting about the cold weather and recent family events.  K- started to turn the conversation more serious about commitment to one another --- also not out of the ordinary because we have been together for over 5 ½ years --- but then he dropped down on one knee and my heart started pounding like crazy!  I do not actually remember the entirety of his proposal speech because of the aforementioned heart-pounding and the fact that my eyes were already watering up, but I do remember his promise that we will always still travel the world together and make new adventures for ourselves.  He pulled out the ring box and my words immediately after saying “Of course I’ll marry you!” were “I can’t see it,” meaning that my tears completely blurred my vision and all I could see was K-’ big smile and the fuzzy outline of a ring...I know, typical me!  We had a wonderful dinner at Steamer’s, dessert at Denny’s (haha, yup!), and then came back to our room to reenact our engagement and take some photos using the self-timer...I know, typical us!  K- later confessed to me that the he used the whole no-plans/spur-of-the-moment thing to throw me off – I must say it totally worked!  

  

Reenactment of K- proposing.

The ring!  After taking a few photos of the ring on my hand, I came to the inevitable conclusion that hand skin is weird.

Franklin, our teddy bear kid, helping model a better picture.