A Little Colorful Chaos: The Proposal!

We're ENGAGED!!! And truthfully, I'm still in shock! J & I have been together almost 5 yrs. & I've been thinking about this day for...well, I won't admit for how long, but let's just say a while! Many of my friends have heard the story or at least seen the FB pic that gives away how it went down, but in the spirit of getting more personal (once in a while) I thought I'd share the story & some more pictures from the actual event. Plus, Friday's post was a tad intense & while it had a happy ending, it was quite negative (you can catch up here), so it's nice to share something a bit more light.

One of our (I'm sorry for saying "our"...it's annoying when couples say "our" or "we, I know, you can judge) favorite things to do in LA is to go hiking, however, sometimes getting out of bed can become a struggle. Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate quitting my job & well, there was steak & champagne & lots of goodness. The idea of getting up early the next morning for a hike seemed rather unappealing. Normally when the alarm goes off, J will ask me if I still want to go. I was FULLY prepared Sat morning to say "Nope, nope, nope we aren't going" but he never gave me the chance. Truthfully, I was kind of annoyed! I wanted to stay in bed, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be the one to admit I wanted to be lazy. While groaning & mumbling, I got up & got ready to go.

Midway through the hike we always stop to give the pups some water. We got to our usual stopping point at this beautiful tree, but it was occupied by other hikers, which is unusual because this tree is off the main path. It was a bit annoying, but I thought nothing of it. Little did I know, J was planning to propose at the tree. We continued past the hikers when J said he still wanted to stop for water. I thought, "OK, well we can stop right in the path, who cares? It's usually pretty quiet & people can get around us if necessary" but J was intent on finding a private spot.

We finally found an area, watered the dogs & just as I was ready to trek on, he told me he had a surprise but I had to turn around. Oooook. So I turn around & at this point I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I could hear J rustling with the dogs, clipping something on & he kept telling them to "sit" & "stay, stop moving" etc. I know how hard it can be to get these two to pose, so I couldn't help but laugh. Finally, J told me to turn around & there he was, on one knee between these two.

I re-staged the photo seeing as it would have been inappropriate to make J stop saying nice things to take his picture. You can imagine how long it took to get them to sit still.

And bring on the tears. If you know me at all, my dogs mean everything to me, so to have them involved just made this moment extra special, even if they had NO idea what was going on. Though, Fig seemed pretty thrilled. We had a really special moment that included an apology for the proposal to take so long (it's not like I was impatient or anything :) ) & then he got back down on one knee, brought out the ring & I was done. I mean, how STUNNING is this ring?? And it's mine?? Sigh.

Looking at one's hand up close...hello wrinkles.

We took some photos because...duh & yes...some of them are the cheesy-show-off-the-ring photo, but whatever, I give you the right to judge. We've already received so much love from our friends & family & I couldn't be more grateful & thankful to have you all along for the much anticipated ride. This next year or so is going to be crazy, but I can't wait to soak it all in. I'm saying this now so in 6 months when I'm stressed to the max, I can think back & remember just how excited I was in the beginning.