Although the best place to start would be at the beginning of our relationship, I think I am going to start with our engagement and work our way back :) This is my side of the story (maybe I can convince Ryan to share his side too).
As a new staff auditor, I am a busy bee. For the three weeks leading up to Christmas I was set to be in three different states, so I thought nothing of it when Ryan asked me for a copy of my flight schedules and the citiies I would be in. I thought he was just being a protective boyfriend wanting to know the second I landed that I was okay. Little did I know he wanted this so that he could secretly get to Tulsa to ask my parents for their blessing!
About two weeks before Christmas, Ryan asked me if he was going to get to see me on Christmas. I said no because I was going to be with my immediate family in Tulsa. He then asked if I could come on Christmas Eve to Subiaco to see him and exchange gifts with his parents. I said I would check and see if I could and he was quite persistent that he wanted me to come. He also wanted to go four-wheeling with some friends up on Mount Magazine. I'm sitting at my hotel thinking, "it's freezing outside, you HAVE to be joking." Since he is moving to Orlando for a little over a year, he told me that this may be our last chance to go with them due to my busy season schedule. I should note that Mount Magazine (Buzzard's rock in particular) has been important to us from the beginning (which I will get to that in another post).
When discussing holiday plans with my family, I snuck in that I was going to go see Ryan on the 24th. They were surprisingly okay with this, but I still thought nothing of it because I knew that they all really liked Ryan. On the 23rd, I went to a get together at my friend Ellen's house. What was funny is that a bunch of my friends from high school and middle school were talking about people getting engaged and how crazy it was that we were at that stage. My family was also in attendance, but they all knew I was leaving early to get on my way to Subi.
When I FINALLY got to the concert where I was meeting Ryan and our friends, I asked some of them if they were going to get to go with us the next morning. They all said no and had things to do. Ryan said he still wanted to go, and being honest, in my head I was thinking that he was crazy because it was going to be cold and we were the only ones going! The next morning, he wasn't feeling well so, again, I told him we didn't have to go. He still wanted to, so we got bundled up and headed to Chris' to get the four-wheeler.
Usually when we go four-wheeling, I don't get to take my camera because we end up going through mud and water. This time though, Ryan told me to go ahead and bring it because we could go slow on our way up the mountain and it wasn't a big deal. We finally get to Buzzard Rock and Ryan tells me to go take some pictures and he will be there in a minute. I head out to our favorite area and start snapping a few pictures and realize my camera is about to die! I shouted this to Ryan and he goes "WHAT?!". I told him it wasn't dead just dying fast and when I turn around, he's walking out on this cliff that juts out over absolutely nothing with a little box in his hand.
He walks to where I am standing and as he starts to get on his knee, he said, "You're going to have to help me up, but...". At this point my hand flies to my mouth and my eyes start watering as he opens the box and asks me to marry him! In my head I was screaming "oh my god, YES!," but I actually had to ask him today if I even vocalized that! I know I at least nodded...I really couldn't talk without crying. I didn't even give him a chance to get up before I got down on my knees and gave him a huge hug.
I loved that he then goes, "do you even like the ring? You didn't look at it!!" I laughed because I was so focused on the words coming out of his mouth and the fact that he was kneeling on a cliff that I had looked, but I hadn't really seen the ring. So he put it on my finger and it fit perfectly (which is amazing because I have never worn a ring on this finger, nor have I ever known what size it was). It's gorgeous and he obviously knows me very well :)
I think I made him stand on that rock for about 15 minutes before I could move. I don't think he minded. :)
We then started back down the mountain, but talked about our future and our wedding the whole time. By the time we got back to the truck, I wanted to call my mom. I will admit that I cried on top of the mountain, but I seriously couldn't hold it together when I was on the phone with my mom. I'm SO proud of her, my dad, my brothers, and Ryan's parents for not letting it slip!
We headed back home and got to see his family and some of our friends before I had to go back to Tulsa. I catch myself looking at my ring instead of concentrating on other things. I get to marry my best friend in the world and I'm so, so, so excited! Here are a few pictures from that day!
We were standing on the left side of this when he proposed :)
He had a reason for wanting me to bring the camera :)
