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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Our Engagement Story....

It was Labor Day weekend 2010, and Gary and I had just made the 7 hr trek to Pensacola Florida (Panhandle) to visit his family. This is a beautiful area and where Gary grew up. We try to visit his family as much as possible throughout the year, so long weekends are always helpful.

One activity Gary and I love to do is go fishing together. Since he grew up on the beach, he was practically raised with a fishing pole in his hand. From my end, I grew up in a little town called Terre Haute, IN where I basically spent every other weekend fishing in the pond behind my Dad's work. Gary knows I enjoy this so much that he even bought me a pink fishing pole...so cute! Needless to say, I didn't think twice when he suggested we wake up early to go catch some dinner at the beach.

THE PROPOSAL....

It was Saturday, Sept 4th, and at this point we had been together for about 3 1/2 years. Thinking back on it, I had a hunch a proposal may happen in the next year or so, but the thought of it happening at this exact moment didn't cross my mind. I mean, we were just going fishing, right?

We started the day at 8 am, and I threw on workout clothes, hair in a pony, and no makeup. After gathering all of the supplies and bait, we headed to Fort Pickens (a beachy state park with the remains of an old fort). Fort Pickens is a long, narrow strip of beach where one side touches the Gulf and the other touches the Bay. We walked all the way down the strip to the point where the Gulf and Bay meet and setup shop there. This is where is happened (photo taken from a Facebook post Gary later sent me):

Gary knows how much I hate baiting my own hook when we have live bait, so being the gentleman that he is he offered to bait my hook for me. At this point, I was sitting on a towel staring at a random crab in the sand and really just relaxing. Gary was baiting my hook...or so I thought. He casually walked over and dangled the rod in front of me.............THE RING WAS ON THE HOOK!!! Being the "Blondie" that I am, I still didn't get it at first. I remember seeing something shiny and thinking "what is that, a lure?" All of a sudden, he got down on his knee in the sand and asked me to marry him. I definitely got it at that point. :)

After I said "yes," he shared with me the engagement endeavors which brought me to tears and hysterical laughters. One of the things I thought was so sweet was to find he had circled this date MONTHS ago as his proposal goal when he started his new job. I also found out that the day I thought Danielle stood up our shopping date about a month prior (which I was so angry about!) and Gary was "golfing" turned out to be a day they were tag teaming on ring details. Ha, guess I can't be mad anymore! I also found out that Gary had met with my Dad earlier to ask for my hand--so thoughtful! All of this happened right under my nose, and I am normally SUPER difficult to surprise!

The beach was pretty desolate at the moment, but I was so excited I jumped up to find anyone I could share the news with. In this case, a random couple walking down the beach. "We just got engaged!!!!" (holding up the ring) "EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" (dancing around excitedly with a huge smile).

From this point, we headed home to share the news with Gary's family and my family. Later that night, we went out and celebrated the stepping stone of our next chapter. This pic pretty much sums it up! :)
<3,

Krissy

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