Newlywed Blog Hop - How J Proposed!

Today I'm linking up with Kelly at Today was a Fairytale and Cheltee at Something About You and Me for the newlywed blog hop.  I know I'm not technically a newlywed blogger but I AM a newlywed and I just can't resist telling the blogosphere about how my awesome husband popped the question and gave me the surprise of my life!

Here's the story:

Jeremie and I had planned a hiking trip to the Catskills and we planned it well in advance.  I thought this was so we could adjust for weather and so we were sure we had a weekend when we were both free.  I thought.

But as soon as the weekend was planned Jeremie kept trying to push it up. "How about this weekend instead" he would ask.  And this continued every weekend until I finally gave in and moved it up just one week.  The day we finally ended up going it was not very nice.  It was June and it was hot, humid, a little rainy and because of all the humidity it was a little foggy.  But we went because (for reasons unknown to me at the time) Jeremie just could not wait.

We hiked along a beautiful trail until we reached the bottom of a gorgeous two tier waterfall where Jeremie informed me that we would keep hiking up to the second tier with our 3 month old puppy.  Assuming it would be roughly the same as the first half of the hike I agreed to go on, eager to see the waterfall up close. It was not the same as the first half of the hike.  Treacherous is not a strong enough word to describe the second part of this hike.

We would later find out that this hike was extremely dangerous and that people have actually died hiking it!  Talk about risking your life to prove your love!

So, we finally reach the second tier with poor little Sirius struggling up every hill and over giant rocks, and Jeremie and I trying to make it up to the top with all three of us intact.  The waterfall was GORGEOUS.  There was no one there because the day was so crummy so we had the place all to ourselves.  As I'm ogling the waterfall and making Jeremie take pictures of me and Sirius (annoying the crap out of him as I slow down the entire proposal process, which I am still completely oblivious to) Jeremie walks over to one of the rocks and sets up the camera.  I'm assuming he's taking a picture.

He walks over to me, gets down on one knee - the waterfall roaring in the background - gives a nice speech and says, "will you marry me?" The first words out of my mouth?  "Noooooo."  As in, is this for real right now?  Is this really happening?  And then I asked him, "Is this real? Are you serious?" over and over again. I've gotten much criticism throughout the years for this response but let me explain myself.

I know, I know...Just do your best to ignore the Twilight shirt.  If I had known
I was getting proposed to I would have selected my attire more carefully.

This event happened 2 1/2 years into our relationship, which seems like a normal time to propose.  But at the time Jeremie was 21, I was 23 and Jeremie still had a year left in college.   We were young, we still had so much to learn (we still have so much to learn now!) and I didn't see him proposing until well after college.  I was in shock.  Ecstatic.  But in shock.

So I finally squeaked out a yes (still questioning the reality of it) and we were engaged!  And Jeremie got the entire thing on video!  We spent the rest of the day exploring the waterfall together and risking our lives getting back down the mountain - but hey, at least if we died at that point we were dying as an engaged couple - and finally made it back to our car in one piece.  Of course, I wanted to call everyone and I was promptly told that I wasn't allowed to.  Do you know what it's like to be a girl who just got engaged and can't tell anyone?!  Torture.

I came to find out that he had set up a little surprise party at my parent's house that night with all our friends where we ate pizza, drank champagne (pizza and champagne?) and relived the amazing day we had just had for everyone. 

Even with all the confusion, shock, life risking and kinda gross weather, I wouldn't have changed a second of it.  It's a memory I'll always cherish!