Member- Goodatlove
- 6 years ago
We’re engaged! I think I might still be in shock. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and realize it was all a dream. But fortunately, what happened on Sunday was even better than a dream! And I have tons of pictures and a real ring to prove it! Here’s how it all went down.
(This is the story as posted on my blog, so it’s written with the assumption that you know a little about us. Just a little background: Fiance and I are LDR and have been dating a little over four years.)
Cliff’s Notes Version
Sunday we went on a double date with some friends from FI’s church. We had a picnic lunch at a beautiful waterfall then spent the rest of the afternoon geocaching. The seventh and final cache had a tiara, a poem, and a ring in it. He had me put on the tiara, read the poem and proposed. I eagerly accepted his proposal and we are now the happiest engaged couple ever. In the entire world. Of all time.
Unabridged Version
Back in November Fiance called my dad and got permission to marry me, so I knew a proposal was coming soon. We have been ring shopping (browsing really) multiple times over the past year and a half so I knew he had an idea of what I wanted. However, he convinced me that 1) He wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted and he needed a little help picking it out and 2) He would be buying the ring with tax refund money and since he hasn’t filed yet this year, the end of March is the earliest I could expect anything. He really had me believing there was no way the proposal would happen on this trip so I was determined to have as much as fun as I could anyway and not ruin our time by pouting about not being engaged yet.
There is a fun couple (S & A) from his church that we like to do things with so when we were planning my visit I requested that we have some kind of double date with them. Fiance suggested that we have a picnic on Sunday at Snoqualmie Falls and then go geocaching. If you’re not familiar with geocaching basically you have gps coordinates that you use to try to find a “cache” (container). Think treasure hunting. None of the four of us had ever cached (is that word?) before but it sounded fun so we decided to give it a try. Fiance mapped out seven caches ahead of time so we could take the most efficient route.
He offered to show the route to me but I decided to just go with the flow and trust that he had picked a good route. This is a good example of how we’ve influenced each other I think. The first times we visited each I wanted to have every single day planned out so I knew exactly what we were doing. He would always just ask why I had to plan everything and we couldn’t just take things one day at a time. Now he’s the one who does most of our planning and I just trust that we’ll do something fun together!
Sunday morning we went to church. I attended the early service then during the second service while Fiance taught middle school Sunday school and S played music for the second service A and I went to Safeway to get food for the picnic. After we finished grocery shopping we just sat in her car and chatted while we waited for the boys to be done in church. We talked about a number of things but eventually our conversation led to dating / engagement / marriage. I said how hard it is to watch other people get engaged while I’m still waiting. She tried to encourage me by reminding me that God’s timing is best. Little did I know that she had a pretty good idea of what God’s timing was for our engagement!
Once second service let out and we went inside to change from church clothes into caching clothes I mentioned to A that when I pack for these trips I have to think “Is this something I want to get engaged in?” In fact, I’ve been wanting a new coat for that very reason and I managed to find the perfect one mere days before I flew to Seattle.
We left a little later than Fiance had planned. He complained about being hungry and asked S to drive faster so we could hurry and get to Snoqualmie. I offered Fiance a cookie to help tide him over until we could actually eat. That didn’t seem to help him get over our being “late” but I didn’t think anything of it because hey, cookie!
Once we arrived at the falls we immediately headed over to the picnic tables to eat! Unfortunately they were soaking wet from rain. Rain near Seattle, shocker isn’t it? Fortunately there was a stone wall close by that had dried off so we ate our lunch there.
The falls were gorgeous! They are super full this time of year with snow runoff and it’s just so pretty! Because the falls were so full there was a ton of mist on the look out deck thing. It basically felt like it was raining. Of course, that made me cold. For awhile I had on a tshirt, cardigan, light jacket, coat, and FI’s jacket on top of that. Fortunately once we left the falls I was warm enough to only wear the tshirt, cardigan, light jacket, and coat. Because let’s face it, FI’s oversized jacket was not on my list of “cute outfits I want to get engaged in.”
After enjoying God’s beautiful creation we started our geo cacheing adventure. Our first cache was at an old train museum not far from the falls.The clues were something about ground level and being near the Heisler locomotive. After about ten or fifteen minutes of searching S found it under a pile of rocks. We added our name to the cache log, took a couple pictures, then headed on our way.
Caches two and three were in a field by an elementary school. Apparently elk like to hang out in this field. I say “apparently” because although we didn’t actually see any elk, we found plenty of evidence. I spent most of my time in the field trying to not get elk poo on my shoes. Caches two and three were a lot easier to find than the train cache so we didn’t spend too much time wandering around. When we needed to walk through a particularly icky spot Fiance was a sweetie and just carried me so I wouldn’t get dirty.
The fourth cache was probably everyone’s favorite (minus the last one of course). It was located right outside Scott’s Dairy Freeze, a local restaurant known for their amazing milk shakes. I got a pineapple blueberry shake and it was amaaaaaaaazing!
We didn’t stay too long at the restaurant because Fiance wanted to have time to do the last three caches before it got dark. Cache five was along a trail on Little Mt. Si. We climbed a trail up the mountain then took a little side path to find the cache.
The cache was hidden on the side of the mountain and the view there was gorgeous. Obviously I wanted to get pictures with the mountains in the background! Right after I suggested we take a couple pictures I saw someone (who looked kind of like one of FI’s friends) suddenly disappear behind a huge rock. Immediately my heart started pounding. Fiance knew I wanted the proposal to be photographed. Was this it? I totally freaked out in my head and I glanced at FI’s pockets to see if there were any suspicious box-shaped lumps in his pockets. But his pockets looked empty except for his phone! And the person behind the rock never reappeared. I didn’t mention anything about who I thought I saw, we just took the rest of our pictures and headed back down the mountain.
The sixth cache was probably the hardest to find. A little tuppeware box was hidden in a wooded area under a pile of leaves. Do you know how many piles of leaves are in wooded areas? Lots. While we were looking for the geo cache I managed to talk myself out of thinking Fiance was going to propose. Seriously, any one can find those geo caches and no way would Fiance leave my ring out in the middle of nowhere like that! And besides there had been several people on that trail, the guy I barely saw was probably just a hiker who liked chilling on the edge of a cliff. Totally normal.
The seventh cache, called Cave of Wonders, was basically across the street from the sixth cache. We walked along a little trail and looked for a big cave-like tree stump that, as the clue suggested, could be reached or stepped into.
Once we located the right stump Fiance knelt down and pulled out the box. He opened it and “found” a tiara and told me to put it on. All of the other caches had little treasures in them as well, but this tiara was obviously brand new. That’s when I knew. This is it. This is what I’ve been waiting for for over four years. Fiance is finally going to propose.
He stayed on his knee and read the poem that was in the box.
Here at the “Cave of Wonders,”
Aladdin’s life changed not as much,
As when he fell for Jasmine,
Like my heart you have touched.
If you were Cinderella,
Which would not be so alarming,
Is there any chance for me,
To be your fair Prince Charming?
And if you were, like Snow White,
Needing just one kiss,
Then just the same as Ferdinand,
I’d surely far from miss!
Aurora and Prince Philip,
Forever destined to be,
In deep love, and together,
Is there that chance for “we”?
Though I guess that we are most,
Like Beauty and the Beast,
‘Cause you are very gorgeous and,
I’m not — to the say the least!
Emily I want you,
Forever in my life.
Will you take this ring now,
And say you’ll be my wife?
I didn’t really know what to do as he was reading so I just stood there and kinda freaked out. And by “kinda freaked out” of course I mean that I literally started to hyperventilate. I managed to squeak out a “yes” and Fiance slid the perfectly sized ring onto my finger. We hugged and Fiance held on for a long time because he thought for sure I was going to fall over.
That was such a special hug. I was (and still am!) so so happy. I was shocked and couldn’t believe we were actually engaged! When I finally let him stand up he told me he had another surprise for me. He’d had photographers following us all day! Four of his friends jumped out from behind rocks and trees to make themselves known. I can’t believe they followed us all day without knowing! Sure I saw one of them for a split second, but I didn’t see a camera so I really did dismiss it.They seriously did an awesome job being stealthy ninja photographers!
As they took pictures of the ring, Fiance asked if I recognized it. It’s the only one I ever liked enough to try one, the one we found over a year ago. He’s had it for an entire year. In case you didn’t already know, Fiance is certainly the patient one in our relationship.
After we got engaged, his parents, a brother, two sister’s in law, and the whole engagement team ate with us at Applebees to celebrate. Well, they ate. I was too excited to eat and stopped after about two bites.
Fiance did such an awesome job planning the whole day and I am thankful to have such a thoughtful boyfriend fiance! I am so excited about what the future holds for us.
