I am getting married...

to the most wonderful woman in the world. She is my best friend and will surely keep me on my toes for the rest of my life!

Here's how it all went down. I knew for a long time that I wanted to ask her while camping at her family's favorite camping spot. They have been going there every year for almost 3 decades now and as long as I can remember talking to Rachel she has always described it as her happy place. I thought this would be an ideal location to pop the question. The only person who knew I was going to ask her is her Grandma Trudi, for two reasons, one, I knew she would be absolutely thrilled to be involved, and two, Rachel has always expressed a distaste for fancy, expensive jewelry so I wanted to see if Trudi had anything with more sentimental value that she wished to pass down to Rachel. She found just the thing, Rachel and I are going to wear her grandparents' wedding bands. I am greatly honored by this and think it is perfect for us given our strong connection to our families. So, while were were camping I asked Rachel out for a sunset canoe paddle. We made our way to the mouth of the lagoon at dusk, with the South Sister and Mt. Bachelor watching over us. Something came over her and she decided that she wanted to turn around in the canoe to face me. Lucky thing because I was trying to figure out how to pull this off with her back facing me. Turning around in a canoe is not a graceful maneuver regardless how steady your sea legs are and she nearly dumped us in the cold water. After settling down, she noticed that I was clutching something in my hand as I was paddling the canoe. She asked what it was and I knew it was time. 

I held out my hand, revealing a pretty little pin that her grandma had given to me and said, "your grandmother wanted me to give you this when I asked you to marry me, so, will you marry me?" She was taken completely by surprise as she was sure I was preparing to throw a frog at her. She replied "really?" Since I have been known to pull a fair number of pranks on her over the years, this was not a surprising response. Seeing the sincerity in my eyes, she quickly replied "yes" as her own eyes began to well up with happy tears. We spent a few more minutes in the canoe, just soaking in the moment and then headed back in to camp to break the news. Now Rachel's happy place has one more happy memory and every year when we go to Sparks we will enter the mouth of the lagoon and remember the time when we agreed to spend the rest of our lives together.