Here's what people have been waiting for...

It has been a while, but it's because I've been distracted over the past 2 weeks.

On Saturday Liz and I went to the mall, and I got within 3 feet of Crazy Hat Man. I kid you not, if I hadn't proposed that afternoon Crazy Hat Man would have been the highlight of my day.

Yes, Liz and I are now engaged. I guess I could share the story of it. I won't say everything about it, but here's a trimmed down version.

We went for a walk on Saturday afternoon at a state park we go to reasonably frequently called Huntington. I've mentioned it before, and it's where I took the photo that is at the top of the blog. We went for a walk on one of the trails that we have never been on, and it was nice and quiet, no-one around. There were some very steep up hills to climb up and down, which had some loose dirt on the down slopes. At the top of the last hill we found a large collection of rocks, so we decided to sit and take a break for a while. We were hanging out talking and having a good time.

Liz had 2 wishes about a proposal - she wanted it to be outside and she wanted it to be a surprise. The more I thought about it the more I knew that right then and there would work. So, I asked her if she wanted to come for a walk over some of the rocks. We walked around, me looking for an area where I could ask the question properly, and then we were standing there.

I started my little talk, I didn't want to come out and just say it.

I said some things ("Why is he saying all this?" Liz later told me was what she was thinking).

I kept saying things ("He couldn't be... he doesn't even have a ring" she thought)

I dropped down on one knee and reached into my pocket ("He has a ring!!!" she realized)

I asked "Will you marry me?"

She responded "Really?!"

I already had the ring part way on her finger with the words, so I stopped. "Yes, really" I reassured her.

"Yes!" she said excitedly. So I put it all the way on her finger.

I stood back up and we had a big hug - "Can I look at it?!" she asked.

A few minutes later a family walked past, and we asked if they would take a photo of us. We didn't say why, and the father snapped this for us:

Once they kept walking Liz and I set up the tripod and stood on the rocks that we had been on.

As for the ring, I did a good job from what I have been told - everyone who has seen it has said it was nice, and the important thing is that Liz loves it. I've seen her a few times just staring at it, smiling.

I tried to take some photos, but it's hard and they don't do the ring justice. To get close enough to get detail requires close up filters, and they make the depth of field really shallow (that basically means that it's hard to get a lot in focus at the same time).

You can click on the photos below and get bigger pics.

I really think the easy part is done. Because now, we're planning a wedding.