It happened on Saturday, April 28th, at Red River Gorge in Kentucky.

A couple of weeks earlier, I had suggested doing something fun and different for a date before Sonny headed back to Indiana for the summer for his youth ministry internship and before I left the country to build wells in Guatemala and serve at a hospital in Ecuador.  He responded by deciding to surprise me with a fun all-day date and wouldn't tell me what we were doing or where we were going until the day.  

We were driving down I-75 almost to Lexington when he finally revealed where we were going....HIKING at the gorge!!!!   

We got there and pulled into the parking lot for the Natural Bridge trail.  I didn't connect it at the time, but all of a sudden after receiving a text message, he said "hey, let's not do this one yet.  Let's go do another trail first."  I was mildly annoyed, because I just wanted to get out and hike, but I said "okay."  We went and hiked the other trail and then he decided we could go back to Natural Bridge.    We hiked up to the bridge and sat down for a while to take in the beautiful scenery before he suggested we go a little further on the trail.  

After hiking about a half mile further, we ended up at the Lover's Leap outlook and stumbled upon a picnic blanket with a basket and bouquet of flowers mysteriously all set up.  He tried to play it off like he had no idea what it was, but I knew he obviously had gotten someone to set it up.  I just didn't know who.  The only clue I had was a pocketknife labeled "Brian" at the bottom of the picnic basket full of lunch goodies.  

We sat down and started to enjoy some lunch and the beautiful surroundings.  As we were packing up to leave it all, he said he had to get some sunscreen out of my bag and knelt down to get it.  But instead of pulling sunscreen out of the bag, he pulled out a little square box.  

I immediately started freaking out...in a good way of course.  I think he wanted to say something all cute and sentimental, but I was too excited for him to get any words in.  Of course, he managed to get the most important four words out and I immediately said YES!!!  He slipped the beautiful ring on my finger and I was sooooooo happy.  

After a minute or so of standing there, he says "there should be someone around here taking pictures" and motioned for them to come out from hiding.  Out from the bushes emerged two of my best friends and sorority sisters, Emily and Ruth, along with their boyfriends who were also in on the scheme!!  I was so excited I couldn't help but run towards them and give them an enthusiastic hug and jump into their arms!! What a happy surprise!! I was so thrilled to know he knew how much it would mean to me to have someone secretly capture this special moment, and especially having people I love and care so much about be a part of it!  

After taking some pictures, he had one more surprise for me.  He told me he knew that one of the first things I would want to do after such an exciting moment would be to tell all of my close friends and sorority sisters (who apparently already knew what was going on because Emily, in an attempt to avoid spilling the beans to me, told pretty much everyone else).  So we were going to stay at Transy for the night so I could show everyone I care about there how excited and happy I was.

It was such a great day, and so special from start to finish!  Now, I can't wait to begin the next chapter of our lives together :-)