We’re Engaged!

April 28, 2014

I know this blog has traditionally been a place for me to write about my adventures in food and nutrition but this post will be different so I can announce WE ARE ENGAGED!

Aaron and I are super excited and have been overwhelmed with the love and support of our family and friends over the past few days. It has been a wonderful weekend, and I won’t pretend that I don’t enjoy being engaged  . With all that’s going on, sorry I’m not sorry for that double negative!

Last Sunday, Aaron asked me if we could have a “date night” on Friday night before we traveled to NJ this weekend to celebrate Passover belatedly with my family. I didn’t think anything of it because every few weeks, we try to plan something special for a date, besides just making dinner at home or going out to dinner. I said sure, and Aaron said he’d plan this one if I plan the next one. I thought nothing of it.

On Tuesday, Aaron started complaining about the weather forecast. The weather predicted a 30% chance of rain, which he said was ok for his date night plan, but he’d monitor the forecast. Again, thought nothing of this.

Thursday morning, Aaron told me that there was a 70% chance of storms on Friday so asked if we could move date night to that night. I asked him why we couldn’t just postpone to a different weekend, and he said he wanted to do date night cause he was excited about it. I replied “I have a post due for The DC Ladies, so can we go after I write it?” He said “Can you write it this weekend on the car ride up to NJ?” I said, “No, its due at 8pm.”He said “Ok, we’ll go after you submit your post.” All that, and I still was oblivious.

Thursday after work, I went to the gym for a shortened workout then received a phone call from Aaron on my way home from the gym asking where I was. “I didn’t realize you were going to the gym tonight still,” he said. I told him, “I shortened by workout so I’ll be home in 10 minutes, then I’ll should be able to go by 7:45 after I finish my post.” He sounded a bit disappointed, but went along with it. I had no idea why I should hustle more.

So finally, Aaron and I get into the car for this surprise date night. He packed us a light dinner and drove us downtown to the monuments. When he told me our date night activity was to walk around the monuments, just as we did on our first Valentine’s Day date, I thought “Cute! That will be fun, we definitely wouldn’t have wanted to do that in the rain.”

We walked to the new monument with the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence,

enjoyed dinner by the World War II Memorial,

all the while, Aaron made comments like, “There are SO many high schoolers here!” “Why are there so many people here!?” I’d just reply, “They all must be here for spring break; it is DC afterall!” I then said, “It is getting cold out…”

Aaron replied, “Let’s just go to the Lincoln Memorial, since that’s my favorite.”

So we headed over to the Lincoln and there were more people there than I have ever seen. I’ve seen the Lincoln during the day at the height of tourist season, but there were more high school students there at 9pm than I have ever seen before. It was a madhouse!

A lone moment of tranquility.

We walked around the top of the memorial before Aaron resignedly said, “There’s too many people here to enjoy it, let’s just go home.” I was kind of excited since, as I mentioned, I was getting cold!

We walked back to the car, passing the reflecting pool of the Washington Monument. Aaron looked over at a small memorial to the right of the pool (the DC War Memorial), and said, “Let’s go over there and just get away from the people for a minute.” I said, “ok, but it is cold and I’m not sure what there is to see!”

As we got closer to the memorial and we were finally alone, Aaron started his proposal. I was still super ignorant about what was going on, so I tried to put my hands in his coat pockets to keep warm. Little did I know that there was a jewelry box in his pockets! Before my hands reached his pockets, Aaron quickly grabbed them and held them together. I finally realized what was going on when he got down on one knee. I was SHOCKED (clearly had not put together ANY of the signs from the night/earlier week). I kept repeating “Really? Really?”

Really.

I am so happy and thrilled and excited. I am also so thankful that Aaron was so quick on his feet in dealing with the weather (he had planned to propose on Friday), droves of high schoolers (he had planned to propose at the Lincoln), and me (I have no idea why I didn’t wear a heavier coat).

Aaron didn’t postpone the proposal plans after seeing the weather forecast because he wanted to celebrate with our families when we went to NJ this weekend…

and I’m so glad he did