The Day I Never Saw Coming- Part 2

I had just decided to pay attention to what my boyfriend was saying as we stood suspended a hundred feet in the air on a three foot by three foot platform. (Read how we landed on this platform here). 

Right as I turned to face him, he finished pulling out a black box from his pocket and dropped to one knee (he had been loosening his harness earlier in order to have enough slack on it to be able to go to one knee). I realized what was happening at this point (I pick up on things quickly, can you tell?), and started crying.

Through both of our tears, I don't remember exactly what was said (he has the whole thing written down somewhere!), but it was something along the lines of,

"Sarah, just like today is an adventure, life is and will be an adventure too. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather adventure through life together with... Will you marry me?" 

I sobbed out a "yes", he slipped a beautiful shiny thing on my finger (he later said that he was terrified of dropping the ring into the canyon), and stood up to hug me. I then remembered something important and quickly pulled away from the hug and asked,

"Wait... did you ask my Dad?" 

He replied with a satisfactory "yes" and we cried and hugged some more. After I had calmed down and gathered my thoughts, I told him, "Let's take out your phone and take a picture." He said,

"Well we can do that, but my parents are actually down there on the ground taking pictures and videoing the whole thing." 

Commence another round of sobs. Having someone take pictures and video the whole thing was truly just icing on the cake.  The truly miraculous part about his family taking pictures and video was that I did not spot them once (I was looking for them once I knew they were around!). They had gotten there a little after us and had managed to slink around enough corners and hide in just the right places, that I didn't see them as they took pictures of us on the ropes course and the zipline.

People, Cave of the Winds is not that big of a place. It has one entrance, one parking lot and not a ton of places to hide. Not to mention that Alex's 6 foot dad, 6'2 brother, and 5'8 mother were all present to take pictures and video.

I may or may not have married into a family of spies.

After about twenty minutes of just standing on the platform trying to regain feeling back into my extremities and thoughts back into my brain (it was textbook shock, people), I realized I still had to get back down to the ground. I must have gotten a rush of adrenaline because all of a sudden I felt energized to swing around the ropes course like a little monkey. I had just gotten engaged... there wasn't a thing I couldn't do now!

Thankfully this incident of invincibility ended well, and Alex and I both safely made it back down to solid ground where the guys manning the ropes course congratulated us and gave Alex major man points for such a cool proposal.

It was now time for the cave tour (the main attraction at this place, mind you), and I will tell you that I remember two things from a two hour underground, lantern-lit, cave tour.

#1 I was engaged
#2 I didn't have cell phone service

You guys, no cell phone service for two hours after you're engaged is excruciating! I was bursting with news and was walking around a dark cave! We finished the tour and Cave of the Winds landed up giving us a souvenir photo for free (they were the best-totally accommodating the entire day, making the experience that much better!)

We get back to the car and I call my Mom. No answer. I call my Dad. No answer. My mom texts me that they were at a youth conference and wouldn't be available for a phone call till later that night (another 3-4 hours).

I figured I probably shouldn't tell my parents that I was engaged via text so I waited. And waited. And waited. I didn't want to tell anyone before my parents (obviously), but when I got home to change into nice clothes for a celebratory dinner, my roommate Lauren was there and I couldn't help yelling "I'm engaged" as I whipped out my sparkling left hand right as I walked in the door.

Finally, after finishing dinner my parents were available for a phone call. I practically shouted the news into the phone, they congratulated me and I hung up and began calling close friends. The next day or two was a whirlwind of calling friends and family, and then, of course, making it facebook official.

(our celebratory dinner)

Alex had indeed asked my Dad the weekend we went camping, and my Dad did a great job of acting normal (I trust no one anymore). Everything perfectly fell into place to make the day special and memorable. This included the fact that I randomly had decided to put makeup on that morning (potentially making no difference at all because of my absurd amount of tears), Alex's family miraculously made it through traffic that was threatening to make them miss photographing the entire event, and the staff at Cave of the Winds who was so helpful (to the point of letting my crazy boy loosen his harness on the ropes course).

 My engagement day was perfect, memorable, better than I ever expected, and truly

the day I never saw coming.

The Day I Never Saw Coming

Alex and I had been dating for about a year and a half (ish) when we mentioned the "M" word. Marriage that is. I think we had both thought about it before that point, but we hadn't talked about it seriously until a year and a half into things. Now, you may remember that I don't take "I love you" and marriage lightly... in fact I almost broke up with Alex over it (maybe someday I'll tell that story). So, actually speaking the word "marriage" out loud was a big deal and big step for me. 

Now I could go into the details of what we talked about but basically, Alex told me that he was going to wait until he was accepted into PA school before he proposed. That way he could have a nice, thought out life plan with evidence to present to my Dad when he asked for my hand in marriage (that prepared guy!) I thought that made perfect sense, after all, I'm all about planning and preparation (more about that here). 

So, when we went camping Labor Day 2012 with my family and my Dad and Alex randomly went to sit in my Dad's truck while my mom and I were in the camper playing Bananagrams, I thought nothing of it. 

     (Labor Day camping 2012)

My mom exclaimed, "Sarah, they are having the talk." Me, being the all observant and intuitive person that I am, replied, "What talk?" 

Mom: "The talk."

Me: Still no clue

Mom: "The talk. About marriage!"

Me: I basically laughed her off, and spent the next 20 minutes convincing her that she was crazy, that Alex said he wouldn't propose until he got into PA school (which he hadn't yet). And besides, if Alex did indeed ask my Dad, I would know instantly because my Dad is the worst liar in the world. 

We packed up camp a half hour later and my acting-very-normal father gave me a very-normal-hug goodbye and my family and Alex and I parted ways. I was 100% convinced I was right because my Dad had acted so normal, and I'd forgotten the whole little episode by the time we reached Colorado Springs 6 hours later.

 ~ ~ ~

A couple weeks later, I woke up September 15, 2012 thinking it was any other normal day. It was a very normal Saturday and Alex and I had planned to hang out later that day. 

As I stumbled downstairs and half awake flipped my eggs on the stove, I briefly thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if I got engaged today?" 

You see, my roommate Emily, had gotten engaged the weekend prior so engagement was on the mind. Her engagement mostly. I laughed at my own thinking and sat down to enjoy my breakfast. 

Alex picked me up a couple of hours later and we drove to the surprise location. Now, I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE surprises, and Alex knows that, so a lot of our dates were surprises just because that makes it that much more fun to me. Did I mention I love surprises? So, basically, the fact that I didn't know where we were going was completely normal because we always did little surprise dates. 

Half hour later as we pulled into the parking lot of Cave of the Winds I got incredibly excited but also slightly suspicious. You see, we had been wanting to go to Cave of the Winds for a long time, but never did it because it's kind of expensive (in Alex and Sarah world at least). So, my blunt self asked Alex about it and he responded, "Oh I found a Groupon for it." My man is the coupon king so I was like awesome! All suspicion dissolved in his one explanation. 

We went in and he purchased tickets while my overactive bladder called me to the bathroom. When I came out he explained that the Groupon included a couple of the outside attractions that we could do before going on the actual cave tour (Cave of the Winds is the coolest place! Check out their website here). Once again, his coupon excuse totally worked and we boarded this zipline that takes you out over this brilliantly deep canyon. 

(That's us! More on who was creeping later)

We did that a couple times and proceeded to our next attraction, the ropes course. 

Now, I love roller coasters and don't really have a problem with heights, but standing on a rope 50 feet off the ground while the wind blew definitely got my adrenaline going. We monkeyed around for awhile on the ropes (literally), and I kept noticing Alex loosening the harness that hooked him into the ropes above us. The cautious nurse in me asked him "What on earth are you doing? Keep that fastened, I don't want you to die!" To which he responded, "It's too tight on my crotch area!" I then figured, he's a guy and I'm not so who's to say what is and what is not comfortable in a man's crotch area. Problem solved.

After exploring the bottom half of the course, Alex suggested that we go to the highest platform on the course. Oh and did I mention this ropes course was also half suspended over a deep canyon? The highest platform happened to hang well over the canyon edge, making it that much more terrifying  exhilarating. 

Alex went ahead of me and I was on the last rope headed toward the platform and I remember Alex encouraging me a lot as I made my way across the rope. I remember thinking, "Wow he's being really nice today." He is always nice, but I thought it was weird how extra nice he was being. 

{How horrible am I to be that girlfriend who questions when her boyfriend is being too nice to her??}

(me making my way to the highest platform)

Anyway, I made it to the tallest platform and enjoyed the rush of adrenaline that came with the incredible view of the canyon and Colorado Springs. I half noticed that Alex was saying some nice things to me but I was mostly captivated by the view. Out of the corner I see Alex tearing up and fumbling in his pocket and I snapped to attention. 

All of a sudden I realized that I better start paying attention, he might be saying something important! 

Come back tomorrow for Part 2!