Back when me and Chase had only been dating for a short time (a few months), he took me to his hometown to meet his family and see where he came from. This was doubly interesting since our schools were kind of state football finals rivals and the reason that I had first introduced myself to him was because he was wearing his high school logo gear and I was sad my high school had lost in the football semi-finals. Well, Chase did come from a very beautiful town with a state park. He took me up there and I remember thinking how gorgeous it was up there....fast forward to the holidays 2014. Around the holidays, we decided to start looking at engagement rings. (Our engagement story actually starts almost six months before we officially got engaged.)

I had a particular store that I really wanted to ring shopping at and it was about an hour and a half away from my house, so we couldn't just go at any point in time. We had to plan it. So while we planned around the holidays to go ring shopping, it was January 10th before we could actually go. 

On our way to the ring store, or maybe it was before we had left, Chase turned to me and said, "now don't get your hopes up...we're just looking today." So I tried not to get too excited.

At the store, we quickly settled on getting a solitaire and started looking at diamonds. While the sales lady that was working with us was trying to find a diamond somewhere in the store to show us, Chase turned to me and said, "is this the one? Do you love it?" I nodded, and then he surprised me by saying, "well, then I don't see why we shouldn't get it today." I was beyond excited and then proceeded to take 4x the amount of time to pick out the diamond. Chase purchased it that day, but it unfortunately had to be ordered. It would come in 4-6 weeks.

I kept an impressive tally of how long it had been since we purchased the ring. Valentine's day hit at exactly 5 weeks post-purchase, and indeed, he may have proposed then if the ring had been in by then. But it wasn't. 

At one day before exactly 6 weeks, Chase got a call from the jewelry store saying that the ring had come in. I know because on that day, Chase was standing in the kitchen when his phone rang and I told him that he better answer it because it could be the jewelry store. It turns out that they had left him a voicemail the previous day so he knew it likely was them. (It was!) Trying not to be suspicious, he answered it upstairs, and then realizing that he wasn't being mysterious at all, said, "well, I guess the cat's out of the bag," because he's not terribly great at keeping things from me.

And speaking of keeping things from me, I kept waiting for something to indicate that he was going to pick up the ring, and it came to me about a week and a half later. We had a very specific ritual that we always followed on the way home from work. A snapchat followed by a phone call. The snapchat came but the phonecall didn't come until almost two hours later, which is exactly how long it would've taken him to go to pick up with ring. (I was right!)

But the proposal didn't come yet....March passed without a proposal, followed by April, and May. At that point, I either assumed that he was going to propose at the beach vacation we had planned with my parents in June or in his hometown. The weekend before we were heading to the beach, we decided to head back to his hometown. I was trying not to get my hopes up and just let it happen when it was going to happen. Chase had even said something about getting the timing right, so I assumed we were waiting for a specific date and not a location. However, before we left for his hometown, I was on the phone with my mom when she said, "I think your dad is on the phone with Chase!" 

I immediately assumed that he was on the phone asking for my dad's blessing. I knew he was planning to do this last minute since if my mom found out, she likely wouldn't be able to keep it a secret. (See above!)

My mom said, "oh, he's not on the phone with Chase. He's on the phone with [someone from work]." I didn't quite buy it (but it turns out my mom totally did!). But I still tried not to get my hopes up.

When Chase came by to pick me up to head down to his hometown, he mentioned that we hadn't visited that state park in a while. At that point, I was decently certain that he might be proposing. I tried to keep down my excitement, but I just knew. 

Saturday morning, we were trying to decide exactly when we would be going to the park and I had to work really hard to keep myself from suggesting that we go that morning, which would obviously give away that I knew what might be coming. We ended up going about 6:30PM. Right before we went, Chase changed from his basketball shorts to his cargo shorts....another clue that he was going to propose (pocket to hide the ring box in!). I tried to keep myself from looking at his pockets to see if they looked like they were holding something, but I thought I caught a glance nonetheless. The entire ride to the park, I didn't hear a word anyone said in the car because I was so excited.

When we got to the big overlook, Chase asked to take a photo with me, and then after the first photo, turned and said "I think you've waited for this long enough." And then he got down on one knee and said some romantic things about how he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. I was so excited I don't think I even actually said yes, but I did nod rather enthusiastically. 

The "let's take a picture" picture

The "you've waited for this long enough" prelude

and....down on the knee

putting it on me

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!