Susan and I are Engaged!!!

You heard it right! It's official! After being together for 2 years, almost to the day, we got engaged on Sunday, July 26th.

Here's how it went down...

I had it all planned out, Sunday we were to go climbing at a crag high up on Mt. Humphreys. I figured with some tricky excuse, I would get Susan to go up to Snow Bowl (the ski area, start of the Humphreys Trail and altogether beautiful place) after we climbed and then I would take here to one of our favorite aspen groves and propose to here there, among the tall ferns, alpine flowers and towering aspens. The spot is breathtaking. After that I had planned a surprise getaway to dinner at The Asylum and an overnight stay at the Jerome Grand Hotel in the historic mining town turned artsy, quaint Jerome.

(View of Jerome from the Jerome Grand Hotel)

It would have all gone to plan but...Susan wasn't feeling so good on Sunday.

Uh Oh....I wasn't sure what to do with this twist. I was stressing for most of the day because I was ready and committed. I really wanted to ask her to marry me but she was laid up in bed and it just didn't seem very romantic to ask her while she was in that condition. I couldn't imagine waiting another day but I didn't want to be lame.

Later in the afternoon, she asked me to get here some stuff from the store. While I was gone, I thought long and hard about the pros and cons of doing it now or waiting. I believed that if we loved each other and truly wanted to share our lives together then why not now? It would surely be a big surprise to her and hopefully a good one.

All the way back home I made sure to remember the words I was going to say to her "Te quieres casar conmigo?" (Spanish for "Will you marry me?"). Oh, by the way, Susan loves Spanish and speaks it quite well and I speak pretty much zero Spanish except useless words like the naughty ones.

When I got home, it took me a little bit of effort to cool my nerves and then I just blurted it out. "Te quieres casar conmigo?" There, I said it!

Susan was so surprised that she thought I was messing with her at first. Once she realized that I was serious, she said that she would marry me. YES!

I was banking on the fact that after I asked her to marry me she would gain some energy and I would be able to get her to get out of the house, salvage some romance out of the thing and go down to Jerome (I didn't tell her where we were going, it was still a surprise). She immediately wanted to go so we got out of there and made the always wonderful drive down 89A from Flagstaff, through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona and up the winding mountain road to Jerome.

When we got there and she realized where we were staying, Susan was floating on air as was I realizing my dream of wanting to marry her from our "Day 5." But that's a whole other story.

(Jerome Grand Hotel)

The Jerome Grand Hotel was more than I could have expected. It was perched on the highest, steepest section of town and it overlooked all of the desert Verde Valley, the red, sandstone cliffs of Sedona and the peaks of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff. And the hotel itself...everything about the place was antique. Some things dated back to the 1800's. The hallways were literally a museum of pre World War 1 antiques and painting. Our room was quaint, old and beautiful and our private terrace had an amazing view.

(Hallway on the third floor, full of antiques)

(This organ was built in Germany before World War 1)

(Old time record playing jukebox)

(Crazy old elevator)

(the elevator had nice seating)

(View from inside our room)


(We enjoyed the views from our terrace)

(Susan with the Jerome Grand Hotel in the background)

We ate dinner at The Asylum. We were lucky enough to get a table with a first rate view of the valley below.

We enjoyed our time at the restaurant. We got to say a lot of wonderful thing to each other that would have been said earlier if I had more of a proper proposal somewhere cool (not one to a sick girl in bed at home), got some complimentary Champagne form the host, ate some good food and then retired to our room.

(The Asylum Restaurant)

About 4 am, we couldn't sleep anymore (too excited) and decided to sit on our terrace and enjoy the stars. We ended up setting out there until we got to see the sun rise another hour and a half later. It was perfect.

The moment the sun came up we split to walk around town. It was fun, roaming around Jerome checking out all of the side streets before anyone was up. Usually, Jerome is bustling with tourists. But we wouldn't see any of them for another couple hours.

Definitely, one of the best days of my life and I owe it all to Susan. Thank you Susan. We are going to be quite the team!