Smiley Saturday - A Special Surprise after 5 1/2 years!

This Smiley Saturday is based on an exciting event that occured last Sunday (February 21st, 2010).  After 5 & 1/2 years of patiently waiting, I am now engaged to be married to my partner - my best friend.

Our Engagement Story
Last Sunday, Jay (fiancé) asked if I'd like to go to a nearby provincial park to do some geocaching. For those of you who don't know, geocaching uses way-points and a GPS system to find different locations - kind of like treasure hunting!  This is an activity we started roughly one year ago and have enjoyed ever since.  However, as of last Sunday, we had not been able to try doing this fun activity in the Winter.  So, when he asked, I thought it would be a lot of fun - especially since we were planning to try out a new program called 'Where I Go' that takes you on the tour of a particular area and leads you to a final point (the cache).

The tour we took was at Bird's Hill Park and there were a number of different locations marked in the tour.  The focus of the tour was trailheads.  The trailhead tour combines a number of summer and winter trails.  Although we had been to Bird's Hill Park a bunch of times in the past, there were still many trails that we never knew about.  So, we traveled along to each spot using our trusty GPS.  Each spot I learned new things - for example, there is a restaurant at Bird's Hill Ranch.  Jay brought it to my attention when he said, "I never knew there was a restaurant here!"  As we proceeded through the task, Jay let me tell him which way to go and I managed to get us turned around a few times.  The funny part about this is that Jay knew EXACTLY where he was going.  Why? Well...instead of going cross-country skiing the day before, he had done the whole tour instead (which I didn't find out till later - continue reading on).

Finally, we came to the final point where we were supposed to find the actual cache.  We arrived at a parking lot and at the end of the parking lot there were approximately four deer (including a baby) just standing there.  I've been known to attract animals in the past so Jay proceeded to tell me that I was just like Snow White (super cute and romantic on his part!).  I told him I'd try not to eat a poisonous apple but if I did, he could be my prince charming.  Poisonous apple or not, he could still be my prince charming!

All the deer were very tame, so Jay and I sat in the car for about 10 minutes just watching them (unfortunately I didn't bring a camera!).  I said to Jay that we could just come back later to try and find the cache, but of course, Jay declined and said that he'd rather find it while we were there.  Meanwhile, Jay was worrying in his head that that deer might get aggressive because of the little one and wasn't sure if it was a safe or smart idea to try and find the cache; although, he decided to try and find it anyways.  As soon as he opened the door and got out of the car, the deer ran off (by this time there were about ten of them in the bushes).  I told him that I was going to stay in the car because I only had high heels on (no boots) and I had tried to find a location earlier in the tour and just ended up with soaking wet feet.  Plus, this time I'd have to make my way through the forest, which I figured would be a bit more challenging.

So, off Jay went to find the cache (which wasn't very hard considering he found it the day before).  Once he found it, he brought the cache back to the car (this cache was an ammo box) and let me open it (which I always do anyways).  I took out the log book and flipped through the pages to sign our names and the date (also something that I normally do).  I flipped through the pages and came to a page where it said "Ilissa H., Will you marry me? Jay".  The first thing that came to mind is: "Why would someone write that?" - of course I didn't think to pay attention to the names until a split second later when I thought, oh my goodness, that is my name - this is for me!  I turned to Jay in utter shock and asked "Are you serious?"  This was obviously not a very romantic response at the time but, understandable considering I did not see it coming at all.  He said "Yes" and I said "Are you going to ask me?"  Jay then said, "Ilissa, Will you marry me?" and of course I replied, "Yes!".  I gave Jay a huge hug and kissed, kissed, then kissed him again. 

While still in complete shock but with a perma-smile on my face, I told Jay I'd come with him to bring the cache back to it's original hiding place.  I wanted to see where it hidden and at this point, I really didn't care if my feet got wet!  So I went with Jay to return the cache, which had been hidden by a tree under a pile of snow.  After returning the cache, we enjoyed another hug and I told him "We have to go to my parent's house".  I knew that both my Mom and my Dad would be extremely excited!  So, there we went!

We got to my parent's house (I gave them the excuse that we wanted to see their new kitchen) and I proceeded to take off my jacket and mittens.  I hid my hand on the way to the kitchen, which was where my mom was.  Then, I slowly presented my hand.  She immediately saw the ring and swung her arms around me with a scream of happiness.  I then looked at my Dad and saw the absolute happiness and excitement on his face and he gave me a huge hug.  Both of my parent's were very excited and they were in almost as much surprise as I was when Jay popped the big question!

On Wednesday of this week, Jay and I went to his parent's (out of town) to tell them the good news.  Everyone there was equally excited.  I sat with my new mother-in-law and sister-and-law for a majority of the evening while we discussed the exciting news and shared ideas for the wedding.

We haven't picked a date yet because we are still trying to decide between a local or a destination wedding.  However, we have made some progress in the plans.  We've chosen our wedding colors - ivory/cream, cranberry, and silver (to keep it modern) and I've already purchased my dress.  Purchasing my dress this early completely caught me by surprise - I thought I wouldn't be purchasing a dress for at least a few months.  My mom and I decided to go dress shopping on Friday and after picking a number of dresses I liked and trying them on, I got closer and closer to my ideal dress.  Finally, the sales person who was helping me found a dress that met absolutely every one of my wishes - I truly looked like a princess in it.  After spending almost 20 minutes in it, I decided that this was the dress I wanted to be married in.  Before I purchased it, I decided to go home, show my Dad a picture then bring him back to the bridal shop the next day (today) so he could give me his final opinion on the dress - He loved it!  So, only 6 days into the engagement, plans are starting to fall into place!  I'm extremely excited about the coming months. 

And that story is the beginning to our forever. :)