D calls me at 10:25 the morning of May 11, 2013 to let me know he is on his way to my house and to make sure I will be up and ready by the time he arrives. He teases me about the possibility that I might fall back asleep before he arrives, and I laugh at his playful mood. D in a happy and playful mood is the perfect way to start my day. I do not fall back asleep, but instead get up, shower, prepare my hiking shoes and extra socks, and sit down to my computer on my favorite blue recliner with only enough time for some tree harvesting on Minecraft before D pulls into the driveway.
Final exams mean it's been two weeks since I've seen D and I can't stop myself from running out to greet him. I'm excited to see he brought his Nerf guns, just as I requested. We can play with those when we get back. He planned lunch and a park visit, but I don't know the details. I asked him to surprise me. We greet each other with a long embrace before finally heading in.
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| Illinois got a lot of rain in April which will make park visits interesting. |
Since I told him he was in charge today, I wasn't going to make any decisions. As we are leaving my neighborhood he tells me there are actually 2 decisions I will have to make, not including picking what to eat. If I want to count that as a decision then he'll pick what I eat. I think that's funny. I also begin to wonder if one of these decisions will be a really big, awesome one.
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| Hopefully with this much rain the waterfalls at parks will be amazing! |
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| Poor people built their shed on high stilts but the river still rose up higher. |
I am wrong. Another guess? Steak n Shake.
Right! Sweet, we are going to Steak n Shake. We also haven't been here in a while. We each try something new. I get the Grilled Portobello 'N Swiss and D gets the Garlic Double after I assure him that it's perfectly fine to have garlic while on a date. D is afraid he'll get garlic breath but I am not worried about it since I am having garlic, too, and shakes often help cut back garlic breath. I don't know for sure if that is true, but I want him to order what he wants regardless of how his breath will smell. He is really unsure and that is my second hint that something is up. We get a Tropical
Banana milk shake to share and they even give us two cherries on top!
The shake is amazing. D's burger is amazing. I take a bite of it but no more since I know
I'll be getting one of those next time we come, which will be soon. He tries mine which is also very good,
especially the garlic mayo. We each have our cherry and split the shake and the rest of my fries. It is all so good, and thankfully we aren't
too stuffed to be able to walk.
We head to Matthiessen after lunch. I put on my mud shoes, red jacket and brown
wind breaker. D decides not to
put on his coat after I teasingly remind him how hot I think he is in his
gray jacket. D wants to hit our
favorite spots with the best waterfalls here and then go to Starved Rock to see
some waterfalls and find a nice spot to watch the sunset since we've never watched a sunset together before. That sounds perfect to me and I am almost
positive something is up, now. I admit,
that hurries me along, I can't wait to get to that sunset.
Thankfully,
D intentionally slows us down. He points out areas
of interest and huge mushrooms. We
head down towards the Giant's Bathtub first and the water is really high. The cement stepping stones are even knocked
over. I wonder if all the flooding from
a few weeks ago caused a rush of water to move them. We make it over the stones just fine but then
there is a big gap between two with only a log to use to cross. I'm not sure how much grip my shoes have left so I cross very carefully and make it just fine.
D also makes it safely across.
Two older teens are ahead of us and the girl offers to take our
picture. That is super sweet and if today is going to end the way I'm trying not to hope, then I
definitely want lots of pictures of us.
She takes two for us before having to cross the cement stones again to
meet up with her parents who can't cross with their little dog.
D and I
head onward, taking pictures, marveling at the water level, and noting the
debris. We also take frequent breaks for
a quick smooch. He is in such a good
mood! He is also in a goofy mood,
poking me randomly, taking silly pictures, and always grabbing that quick kiss,
I love it! His mood is so infectious I
can't help but be super happy, too! We
find one place he climbed up before but he doesn't want to try it and potentially get really wet today.
Hmmm, that is suspicious. He
stops for another pose that he did on our second date, up on a tree that
stretches across the stream. In a few more minutes we find
the spot up on the ledge where we'd gotten pictures that day, too, and take a
new one.
He doesn't want to be like an old person and not do any
adventuring, though, so he jumps a few more stones than I do to reach extra
places that always require jumping back. A curled up fern leaf is near the first waterfall in front of the
Giant's Bathtub and I'm quite excited about it. I've seen pictures of grasshoppers "riding" their curled fern bikes but I've never seen a curled fern before. We step across some small stones to
continue across the high water here, too.
The water is flowing very strongly.
We make it to the waterfall but don't see the turtle from last time. D was hoping he's still around. He also wants to try climbing closer to the
waterfall but can't find a way. I grab some pictures of us to capture our very first picture's twin and that's
when I realize I'm even wearing the same shirt as that date.
Up the stairs we go to look at the waterfall feeding lake and start our quest for D's rock
from our second date. It is very
important that he finds that rock. I'm getting a strong feeling that he planned this day to relive our first two
dates. How thoughtful and amazing =D We
walk all around the Giant's Bathtub but can't find it, so we head the
other way and finally find it on a bend. We
take several shots, fighting the sun's glare, and head back to the parking lot. I'm so glad D remembered to bring water. I was wishing I remembered water, but he did! We take a quick drink break before moving on to Starved Rock.
I guide us since the route is simple and our first stop is the lower
parking lot near the river. This isn't
where I meant to take us, but we get to see an overturned shed and lots of
other flood damage. The coolest things here are the pelicans and randomly jumping fish. D thinks the fish are really cool. I agree, they are cool but I don't get to
see them as well because I'm making a video of the pelicans at the time. What I notice later watching the video is
that fish were jumping behind the pelican I was recording, so I did get some
footage =D
We stand, talking about not wanting to get married on the
little boat in front of us advertising weddings. D jokes that he should have pretended to
want to get married on it to see what I would say. We go back to the car and drive through some
puddles to get out of the lot. The sun is well on its descent by the time we park at the lodge lot. We take a quick bathroom break in the lodge and I take a moment to tell myself I won't be disappointed if I'm wrong and the night isn't going to end as I am predicting, because no matter what,
today was an awesome day and a lot of fun and D's fun mood made it
perfect. I meet D outside the bathroom
as a song that sounds like Sinatra is playing in the reception next
door. I tease that we should dance,
knowing neither of us likes dancing much, and he looks like he might actually
be ready to take me up on that. As we
head toward the trail I see a girl pulling the back of her pants up and teasingly ask D if I should wear pants that don't cover my crack like that. He doesn't think I should.
Our shadows are quite long as we start down the trail.
I take a picture because we're making a cute shadow. We find LOTS of those beautiful dodecantheon
flowers in purple and white and I must stop for photos. D waits very patiently, making sure I get all
the pictures I want. We stop at
one sign to make sure we're on the right path and he starts a little
sliding dance on the sand. It's so cute
and goofy; I love it.
We make our
way to Lover's Leap taking a few detours just to be goofy. I go along with them because it's fun and
D is sad that I'm not surprised at his silly detours, he says he isn't unpredictable anymore ;) When we reach Lover's Leap we realize we actually can't see the sunset from here as the sun drops behind Starved Rock. That's ok,
though. We can still see the sky
change colors, the way it plays off of the few clouds, and the pelicans down
in the river. I suggest that while we
wait for the sunset to get more colorful we check out the nearby dam to see
what it's looking like all flooded.
D won't let me go just yet, though. He hugs me close again and tells me he knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with
me. He hugs me some more before
getting down on one knee and pulling out a gorgeous ring and asking me to marry
him.
"You
know I will!"
My answer, of course, is yes. We're both shaking slightly trying to get
the ring on and my plastic zebra ring (which we got from a toy vending machine at Alsip Nursery and he'd given me as a promise that we will both put up with each other forever) off and safely put away without dropping either ring and
risking losing them to the ledge. D lets me take as many pictures of us as I want to make sure I get the picture I
want.
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| Thanks to Pulse Photography and Design for their wonderful engagement photos! This is the DZ dock where we always enjoy looking at the lake at Silver Springs, and we make sure to always grab a kiss while here. |
His plan for the day was to
relive our first date (Steak N Shake), our first park date (Mattheissen), and the date where he knew he loved
me (Starved Rock). Then we would go to my favorite
restaurant, Olive Garden for dinner.
After dawdling a bit more and celebrating our new engagement, we head over to the dam then find our way across the dark path back to the car. He offers me his gloves to keep my hands
warm but instead I take the right glove and give him the left so our free hands
can be warm and we can keep our other hands warm by holding hands. It's now after 8:30 and the park closes at
9. D shows me the complementary bag
that came with the ring and the Champaign
flutes that came with it. He told me his
initial hope was for it to be light enough out still to grab a bench somewhere
to sit and celebrate with a little picnic.
He even brought Cheez-Its since he knows they are my favorite
snack. Could he have been any more
thoughtful? Could it have been any more
perfect? The answer to both is no. I could not have planned a more perfect day!
We decide to eat dinner at IHOP instead for some sweet pancakes. D wants me clarify that I picked IHOP, he wanted to take me somewhere nicer, so he can't get in trouble for me picking IHOP. He's always worried someone will say he's not doing a good enough job if he doesn't take me out somewhere nice. So if I want to go somewhere casual, I need
to pick it because he won't ;)
Back home we decide to celebrate with our wine and cake on the couch where its nice and warm. I quickly grab my costume jewelry ring
and put that on to fake out Mom, but she doesn't come out to greet us for at
least half an hour. After she comes out she doesn't say anything about the ring so I put the real one back on while
she's in the kitchen and she gasps audibly when she spots it. She's very happy and tells D she's happy to be able to consider him a son.
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| Thank you to Brad at Bremer's Jewelry in Bloomington-Normal for all your help in getting our ring! |
A comes out and sees it, too, and D apologizes for not taking her out
paint-balling and asking her for permission as we'd often joked that he should. You don't need to ask my dad for permission, you need to ask my sis because she is the one in charge! After everyone goes to bed we celebrate with our Champagne while watching The Office and feed each other the
little chocolate cake that came with the complementary bag. It was so good and so sweet. What a perfect day!
