I'm engaged!

For those of you who don't already know, I got engaged to my favorite person in the whole world, Elizabeth, while on vacation in Maryland.

I've been planning this for sometime and it was a lot of work keeping it a secret from Liz while traveling together. Trying to pick up the ring, get through security, and asking permission from her dad made it a challenge.

The story ...

Monday July 24th was the big day. I never really had a day planned out for this... I only knew that by the time I got back to Arizona that I would be engaged. I was waiting for the right time to strike and I wanted to allow enough time to celebrate while we're on vacation.

After leaving the beach around 4PM I asked Liz if she wanted to go out to dinner with just her and I. I had to keep the dinner pretty casual so she wouldn't suspect anything so we went to dinner at this place in Rehoboth beach Delaware called Nicolas Pizza. They're famous for these things called Nic-o-boli's (close to a stromboli). After dinner we decided to go for a walk down the boardwalk of the beach. We stopped at a couple of fun play lands where Liz hung out as a little girl. The sun was starting to set so I suggested that we go for a walk on the beach...

While standing out near the ocean I asked Liz, "Do you know what I really want for my birthday?" (My birthday was coming up on July 27)

Liz was thinking at the time that I wanted a computer monitor or something and wasn't even really paying attention to what I asked. While Liz turned away for a minute I quickly grabbed the ring and got down on 1 knee in the sand of Rehoboth beach and said, "Will you marry me?"

Liz, with a confused look on her face, gazed at the ring in ahhhh. She began crying with excitement and continued looking at the ring. After several seconds had passed, I asked her, "Do you want to try it on?" Liz was so excited she cried the entire way home and couldn't believe that I asked her.

We then headed home to break the news to the rest of the family. We stopped to pick up some champagne on the way back to the beach house. Liz's mom Anne was the first to find out since she was the only person at home. Then a few minutes later Liz's cousin Meeghan arrived and she seemed to somehow know that I was going to ask. When she arrived she immediately ran in and looked at Liz's hand for the ring and then began jumping up and down screaming with excitement. It was a great reaction!

The rest of the week left plenty of time for celebration as we told the remaining 25 people in Liz's family that came to the beach. Liz's parents held an engagement party for us and Jen & Matt (Jen is Liz's sister). Jen & Matt will be married on June 16, 2007. The party was great and we had a good time playing 90's trivial pursuit!

As of the time of this Blog our date for the wedding is May 26, 2007 and will be in the Bahama's on the beach.

See more pictures from out trip here