Our engagement hike

As everyone (at least who's in the immediate family or is on facebook) knows by now - Ryan and I got engaged this past Sunday. Somehow he actually managed to surprise me, which I didn't think would be possible. I had plenty of ideas, but it turns out he was one step ahead of me and managed to totally fake me out.

See, we've had the diamond for awhile now and it's been residing in my jewelry box. Every time I opened up my jewelry box to get earrings or whatever, I'd see the diamond. So, on this particular day (though I had thought it would be a good day to propose) I also knew that the diamond was still in the jewelry box. But sneaky guy that he is, he had replaced the diamond with a cubic zirconium so that I wouldn't notice it was missing (and no, I never took a good enough look at it to notice it was a fake.)

So, unbeknownst to me, we left to go on our hike at Little Grand Canyon in southern Illinois. Ryan was cool as a cucumber on the drive there and actually slept half of the way so I really had no idea what was up. But when we actually got out on the trail, he began asking me all kinds of questions about marriage and I started to wonder....

He popped the question at the bottom of the canyon (yes, the dogs were there) and we got to spend the next few hours climbing our way back out and trading stories about all the sneaky things he had done and all the suspicions I had. It was perfect!

It's slowly starting to sink in that we're officially engaged now and my mind is whirring with all the details (which, according to the wedding planning books, we're already several months behind on!) :-)

Here are some pictures from our "engagement hike" as I have now dubbed it.

 It is such a pretty trail! I highly recommend it, especially this time of year!

 Tuesday, taking a break in some leaves.

 Me being silly and trying to figure out a way to show off the ring!

 Our lovely engagement pic. Ha! Can't beat being nice and sweaty!

 Ryan and his followers.

 Just another pretty shot.

And for those who want to see a slighly better picture of the ring - here you go. I LOVE it!