finally!

how it all happened....

the proposal story. in all of it's glory. unabridged.
soooo, once upon a time, mr. ramen and i went hiking on camelback mountain. we like hike when it's cool enough in az and we actually have free time... so... uh, not a lot, but we like it. annnyways, we were hiking and mr. ramen mentioned that we should return and watch the sunset from this one rock overlooking the city.

fast forward to thanksgiving. we went to look at rings since mr. ramen has no clue what my taste in jewelry is like. he spied this beautiful ring while he was waiting for me to be dropped off, and thought, i bet a will like this one. and whaddaya know - i picked it out and fell in love with that exact same ring on my own. but i knew it was probably waaaaaaay out of any budget he had set up, so i tried to let it go. (translation: i googled the ring and bookmarked it)

and like any good, patient girlfriend, i kept asking him when we would get engaged. to which he kept saying, "i need more time. just be patient!" so over Christmas, i finally gave up on the asking. since he said he needed at least 2 more month, and made it seem that he hadn't talked to my parents yet, and hadn't even bought the ring.

little did i know... that sneaky boy had found a jeweler in NY who sold the ring and ordered it. like, the week after thanksgiving. ANNND he had asked my parents for their blessing/permission. uhmm, LIAR! totally lied to me. which was easy, since I was away at school.

anyways, he finally decided with perhaps some help, to propose to me on camelback mountain, at sunset. he enlisted his brother, and my sister and brother to help him. But, he thought if he asked me to go hiking with him, i would be suspicious, so he wasn't sure how to get me to go. on our drive back to az, he asked me to have lunch with him on saturday, and if we could go ring shopping since he didn't have a ring yet and i wanted to go to another jewelery store. to which i asked if we could go hiking later. to which he happily reponded, yes!

so... it was a bright sunshiney day, no clouds in the sky... and he was late! (scouting out proposal sites apparently). my sister offered to do my hair and makeup (she thought i'd be suspicious, but i wasn't bc she always does things like that). and finally mr. ramen showed up and we went to lunch at Duck and Decanter. not my favorite place. but anyways. as we walked to the car to go to the jeweler's the sky had darkened, which made him freak out and ask weird questions like "do you think it's going to rain? did you feel that? is it sprinkling?" and then "do you want to be with me forever?" all to which I responded "no, it's not raining, yes, i want to be with you, you are so weird."

so we went ring shopping. which threw me off, for sure, since i figured he didn't have a ring. although he kept text messaging someone (i assumed it was daniel), and seemed really disinterested (i assumed the rings were too expensive).

then we drive to camelback. and it's crowded. almost no parking. so i suggest we just go back home, i'm tired, it's cloudy. he gets realllllly persistent about finding a spot, even though i'm a bit cranky, so we finally park. i mention that if someone else gets engaged while we're watching the sunset, i would be so depressed (oh the irony!). and i have to change into my tennis shoes to hike, and i look sooo ridiculous - like i'm the crazy gf who dresses up to go hiking. ugh. so as we walked up i kept talking about how i looked dumb, and i was tired. and he kept stopping to "enjoy nature" and "look at caves". when i wanted to hurry up and watch the sunset so i could go back home.

so, we get to this spot where the trail splits into two. to get to the sunset watching spot, you go up to the Left. however, mr. ramen starts leading me down to the right, though. and i'm kind of annoyed bc he drags me up the mountain to watch the sunset and all of a sudden he doesn't even care about that anymore?!?!? and we're behind this other couple... and i see these rosepetals... and i start thinking, WHAT THE.... someone else IS getting engaged!!!! (*insert pouting here*) but then i see some asian person hiding in the bushes.... so i get confused, and then denial sets in.... and mr. ramen is leading me up the stairs covered in rosepetals.... to which i respond, "don't touch someone else's stuff!" and then i see his guitar, and automatically i think, "he's just tricking you! ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, is this really happening? no! it's fake! it has to be fake!" he hands me a long stemmed rose. my heart has never beat so fast.

so, he had written me this super sweet song for Christmas, and tells me that there is another VERSION that he wants to sing for me. and at the end of the song he sings "i finally can say what i've wanted to tell you for so long - I love you." to which my mind literally imploded. literally. when we had first started dating, we said we didn't want to say i love you unless we got engaged.
so he gets down on one knee, and my mind was freakkkking out. i now notice my younger brother holding a camera behind a random ledge.... so i try to hold back my tears, and try to focus on what mr. ramen is saying to me...... and THEN. he busts out the ring. THE ring.

and i'm teary and saying "ohhhhmygoshhhhh, ohmygosh, yes!" then we kiss and hug.... and then applause! we had a captive audience of hikers congratulating us!

i was in shock and disbelief. and the best part? the boy knows me so well, he even brought my cute shoes up the mountain so i could change into them to wear for pictures :) oh yeah. i'm marrying a keeper.

* all pictures taken by my sister