I'm Engaged!!!

Hey Friends,

Courtney and I got engaged on October 5, 2009. I'm sure bajillions of people want to hear how it all went down so here is my version. (Maybe Courtney will comment on anything thats different in her version).

First, I ordered the ring special back in early September because I wanted to use my grandmother and great grandmothers diamonds as side stones. So the 3 weeks of waiting for the ring to be ready was painful. But in the end I think it turned out even more beautiful than I could have imagined. (Maybe Courtney will post pictures of it for you all).

Then two weeks ago I met with her parents to ask for their blessing. That point is critical because Courtney didnt think her parents could keep the secret more than a day or two and I was with her at a conference all weekend prior to proposing.

So Sunday a friend picked up the ring from the jeweler and that night I got the ring from him.

Since I was working at a conference all weekend I got most of Monday off.

I showed up at her house with a bunch of Sunflowers (her favorite) but I acted very casual and unromantic when I gave them to her so as not to tip her off too much.

Courtney loves when the Aspen trees turn yellow up in the mountains so I told her I'd drive her around where ever she wanted to go and take pictures of the trees.

We ended up driving to the Crags which is a cool hiking area about an hour outside Colorado Springs.

I had packed us a nice picnic lunch so we found a small grove of the Aspens that were still bright yellow and laid out a blanket there and ate lunch and talked. The day was absolutely perfect. It was sunny but with storm clouds threatening in the distance.

She told me later that she'd been thinking 'When Jon proposes he's going to have a hard time topping today.' I'm glad I didn't have to because it really was perfect.

So after we finished eating lunch I pulled out a poem I had written her and had her read it. While she was reading it I pulled the ring out of my pocket. Once she finished reading it I told her 'Ok now you have to stand up' to which she replied in a confused voice 'what why??' :-) But she stood up and I got up on one knee and held up the ring and said 'Courtney will you marry me?'

She kinda freaked out for about 5 seconds and then came back and took the ring and said yes.

Her parents had told me it would likely be nearly impossible to surprise Courtney. But according to her until I told her to stand up she had no idea I was going to propose. She didnt think it would happen for another week atleast since she thought I hadn't had an opportunity to talk to her parents. :-)

I'm sure most people who get engaged say something like this but truely it could not have been more perfect for both of us.

Since everyone asks... at the time of this writing we haven't finalized a date but looking at maybe late February or early March.

My digital camera got stolen about a month ago along with a bunch of other things so I dont have any pictures to post on here but maybe Courtney will link to some when she gets hers online.