Future Mrs. Robinson (Cue Simon & Garfunkel)

Friday afternoon, my friend Kathleen invited me to go hiking with her and Emily on Saturday morning. I said, “yea, but JT is coming in to town so let me check with him because he does this thing where he ‘forgets’ his tennis shoes so he doesn’t have to exercise.” He said he would go so I passed the message on to Kathleen to make sure she and Emily were ok with him tagging along. She said she was going to bring her camera to practice her photography skills (Emily said she was going to bring her inhaler to practice staying alive–which was hilarious!) and Kathleen had just taken a photography class a couple of months ago, so it was not out of the ordinary. 

Saturday morning, we met at noon in Oak Mountain State Park for the hike to Peavine Falls. We started at the top so it was a pretty short hike to the waterfall. Kathleen said it is usually a trickle, but it rained the day before so it should make for good pictures. Cool, I thought.

When we got to the bottom, I reached towards JT’s pocket for his phone to take a picture because my memory is full. Later, I found out that I reached for the ring box by mistake, but never noticed. I took a picture with his phone and then he asked Kathleen to take a picture of him and me in front of the waterfall. To which I un-romantically said “Kathleen doesn’t want a picture of you and me on her camera.” So I handed his phone to Emily so she could snap a photo for us. Kathleen said she didn’t mind since she wanted to practice photography with people. (I was still oblivious at this point). We posed for the first picture with my hand on JT’s chest and I noticed his heart was beating fast. When I mentioned that to him, he said, “that was a tough hike!” I thought “Oh no! He’s so out of shape- that was such an easy hike!” Although for once, I thought it but didn’t say it. Of course, later, I would find out he was nervous. 

After this picture:

JT said he had an important question to ask me. As he got down on his knee, I said, “no, wait, what are you doing?” Sadly, JT and I don’t remember what was said in his speech, but I do remember saying “I mean yes, yes, of course”! Then, I remembered Kathleen and Emily were watching and I looked over to them and asked “did you know about this?” They both shook their heads yes, with the sweetest smiles on their face. I really don’t remember what else was said, but I needed details. I had to know how this all happened! As the story started to unravel, I realized that not only do I have a wonderful fiance, but also how blessed I am to work with girls who have become friends that care enough about me to help make this so special!

That afternoon, we told my mom in person, called close friends to fill them in, then headed over to Emily’s apartment where some of the nutritionists were meeting that day for a charity event we were going to. To my surprise, there were congratulatory signs once we got there that Katie, another nutritionist and friend, had printed at work on Friday! I felt so loved.

Finally, after catching up with friends, we headed to Jasper to tell my dad and siblings. My little sister is 13 and I knew she would be so excited (she’s known JT since she was about 5) and she was! She didn’t even believe me at first! After that, we met up with JT’s family- his beautiful cousins had just gotten back from the beauty walk at their school. His sister gave me an ornament that she had gotten a couple of months ago in Gatlinburg. It was so sweet and thoughtful of her! At last, we made it “official” by posting on Facebook (because nothings real until it’s on Facebook, right?) to which everyone made us feel even more loved by congratulating us! Last but not least, Lauren and Chris (who also recently got engaged) cooked us a celebration dinner Sunday night. It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend filled with love, family, and friends!

And here she is: