The Engagement story!!!

ONCE UPON A TIME...

yeah....anyways. So everyone wants to know the story of how Erik and I got engaged :) so, by public demand, here you all go.

So Friday was my birthday and Erik asked me what I wanted to do Saturday night for my romantic dinner. He told me we could go anywhere for dinner and he would pay. I told him that I would LOVE a picnic under the stars.

So Saturday after the Choir Concert, I was really excited about our starry night picnic. The weather was perfect and the skies were clear. We drove through Applebee's and got food to go. I asked Erik if we could get changed and he said no that we were to stay dressed up for the nice dinner. .....i was in my choir dress...if ya'll have ever been in one of those, you can't move. seriously.
Erik stuck in a CD that had some of our songs on it. It was totally romantic. I asked him what the title was (because I love christening my mix CD's with wild and fun names). he told me he wasn't going to tell me......ooook (?)

After Erik let me change into my other really pretty blue sparkly dress and we started to drive up to the parkway. The smells of our dinner were killing me as we drove up to the lookout on Buena Vista. As we got nearer, I saw what looked like a fire. I was a little worried that someone had started a fire (which is a no-no on the Blue Ridge parkway), but as we got closer i saw that surrounding a basket, special dessert and blanket, were candles ready for our romantic picnic.
I was totally melting already that Erik had taken care of every detail to make this the perfect night. We got the food out on the blanket and I was wanting to EAT! **now...everyone knows that erik loves food and doesn't waste time to eat. keep this in mind**
anyways, I was ready to eat...and I was hungry. but Erik wanted to just chill and look at the stars**
so we did(after me losing the debate of food vs. stars)
as we gazed up into the stars, erik asked me
ERIK"you remember when you asked me what the title of the CD was? "
MARIEL: "yeah..."
ERIK" I decided its going to be called 'Eternal Lover'"
MARIEL "awww...thats so sweet and romantic"

**it was at this point that he turned to me, pulled out the ring, got on his knee**
ERIK "will you be my Eternal lover?"
MARIEL "of COURSE!!"

yeah....then we sat marinating in the sweet moment. We called our folks and a few others. It was then that we noticed that there was a meteor shower that night that just took my breath away (ok we are talking HUGE meteor shower with giant streaks across the sky with big tails and everything)

I guess Erik told Hannah and David to come and take pictures after it happened (thus why the re-enactment pictures) because MArlies told him that she wished she had pics of her engagement. But since they hadn't heard from us for a while, they just drove up and jumped out of the car hootin and hollerin

This is the funny part

when I got up to greet hannah, she ran full gallop and jumped on me. Unfortunately her knee hit the side of my head with FULL FORCE! I passed out for a few nanoseconds while she was jumping on me screaming "congratulations! congratulations" She was so excited...but i told her to wait to congratulate me until i stopped being concussed :> I have a great gooseegg for that lolololol

anyways, hannah and david took some awesome pics and I had the best night of my life.

So thats the story. Candlelit picnic under a meteor shower and the perfect proposal. I am so happy...SO SO SO Happy!