We're Engaged!!!

Ok I know a little late on the notice but hey a girl gets a little busy after she gets engaged!!

Gene and I have been together for a little over a year now (ok a year and three months but who's counting), anyway, lets go back to April-ish. We'd been ring shopping quite a bit so I thought he'd propose at some point in the next few months. Well one night on our way to home group he just casually asks me, "You don't really need a DIAMOND do you?", um what, excuse me? Now I'm not really high maintance (I still have clothes in my closet from college and I haven't bought a pair of new shoes in, I don't know how long.) so of course I thought he was serious. I replied, "ARE YOU KIDDING?! We've been out shopping for rings for how long now, we've spent days at a time ring shopping and now you're asking me if I really need a diamond?" needless to say I was a bit peeved. One friend of mine loveingly called this time in my life "diamond gate '09". But then after venting to my sister (who talked me off the ledge numerous times) and a couple close friends I calmed down. I started looking at gemstone rings and actually got on board with the whole "non traditional" ring idea. So I made Gene go out looking for Gem stones with me. He reluctantly trapsed about the mall with me as I forced him to look at all the Gem stones in town (he deserved this and you'll find out why later).

Fast forward a week or so.....Gene says to me, "We're going to Colorado this weekend." Ok do I have a choice, No. So I make plans to go to Colorado, book a hotel and all that jazz for the weekend of May 1st and 2nd. After I get it all booked I realize, HOLY CRAP my parents birthdays are the 1st and 2nd AND my best friends baby shower is that weekend as well. I run to Gene to tell him we have to reschedule and all he says is, "O'well guess you'll have to just call them from Colorado." What? There is no getting out of this trip, what's going on? Then a few nights before we leave we go to dinner and he says, "I have a fun thing planned for you this weekend." I of course ask him what and he tells me a scavanger hunt. Hmm ok. He tells me that he found a bunch of little trinkettes that I'm gonna love and he thought this would be a fun way to give them to me. Okey dokey. I start suspecting but I don't want to get my hopes up and then if it is just trinkets that he put so much thought into I didn't want to be disappointed.

So we get to Colorado and check in to our hotel. Friday night we go out with some friends and enjoy the craziness that our good 'ole Roaring Fork valley has to offer. The next morning (Saturday) he sends me to breakfast with my good friend Laura Vogel (Lauralita I like to call her). He says he'll call me when he's ready. So we go to breakfast and no call, we go look for shoes, no call......finally he calls a few hours later and says ok have Laura drop you off at BB's (best barbaque place of all time!!!). I get to BB's and when I get in the truck there is a little box with a note and an empty charm bracelet. The note leads me to the first place we met........another little box and another love note! Oooo this is fun! So I continue all around town from place to place. All places we had special memories at and the charms to match. Each charm was significant to that place (cell phone for the place he got my number, a little cross for the first place we went to church together and so on.) We end up at the resturant we went to for our first date, Mango's! So yummy. Well I have to ask the bartender for a shot (since that's what I did before Gene got there on our first date cause I was so nervous!) so I get a shot and she brings me a box. Another charm, and she's set up and beautiful table by the fireplace that she's lit just for us! I'm starting to think that this is just a charm bracelet hunt and it's fun and so thoughtful so I'm trying not to be too disappointed that I may leave Colorado ringless. So after lunch the next note lead us half way hanging lake.

This was the hardest hike of my life!!! Here is the view going up....do you see a trail cause I don't. Nope just crawl over the rocks. SHOOT ME!
But the view was just amazing and the trail was awesome. It was raining so we were getting soaked but everything was so vivid! This is a little cave thing that the waterfall was just trickling over. (you can see the rushing water to the right of the cave)

So half way up the mountain we come to a little log hut thing. It was covered in carvings. As I got closer they were all initials. The whole thing was covered with people who loved each other. It was so sweet. Well of course there was a box with a charm and a note to continue to the top! (At this point I'm thinking, so help me if I get my butt up to the top of this mountain and there is another freakin charm and no ring I'm gonna flip out! The charms were lovely and the thought he put into this whole thing was so amazing but this was the hardest hike of my life and I wanted to cry when that note said we had to keep going.) Ok back to the story. So Gene went over to the hut and "imortilized our love." in this little log shack!

Isn't he cute in there! He carved our initials huge and over a couple other peoples but they'll get over it. Ok so we continue to the top. Remember the air is extreemly thin on the top of the world and I'm completely out of shape, so here we go. I'm almost there and almost in tears and I look up, as I'm gasping for air, these little kids come skipping down the mountain. They've been to the top and are now skipping down the freakin mountain. I really wanted to throw a rock in their general direction (but again I digress I was wet and getting slightly grumpy with this mountain.) So we continue on and come to this staircase that has a railing and thank goodness because the side of the staircase was shear and straight down! We get up the stair case and Gene parks me on this little bridge and tells me to wait here. So I took some pictures of the waterfall going under the bridge I was on.

Beautiful isn't it! This was really a spectacular hike and I recommend it to most people. If I can make it up there you can too, trust me! So then I hear a faint yell coming from the direction Gene went off in. I walk through some trees and it opens up into this.....

This place was just stunning! The water is crystal clear and there are even little fish up there. How fish get to the top of a mountain is beyond me but they were there and that's how it is. Then I spy Gene across the lake just standing there with a little grin on his face (it's a crappy picture but he is grinning).........

So I walk around the lake to get to Gene. He lead me back behind the waterfall a little and I see another little box on top of a boulder. I walked over to it and opened it. Another charm, a little engagement ring charm and a note that simply says, "Will you marry me?" I turn around and there's Gene right behind me on one knee with the ring in his hand. I freaked out slightly and cried a little. The best proposal I could've ever asked for. It was a diamond by the way (that whole trick was suggested by Gene's wonderful brother, Thanks Greg!).

So we hung out in the serenity of the lake for awhile and then we too skipped down the mountain like little kids. We had to stop at the little log shack to take a pic with our initials.
We ran back to the hotel to get changed because Gene's brother and sister in law came all the way from Denver to congratulate us and have dinner with us (they may have came for other things but I like to think it was just for us.) So there ya have it. The engagement story. Here is a picture of the completed bracelet and the ring!

We're getting married this September and we are buying a house right now too, hence me not updating the blog for awhile. Hope everyone is doing well.
Love,
Alivia (almost Burgess!!!)