Our Engagement Story

Wow I couldn’t sleep the night before knowing I was about to propose to the woman I would spend the rest of my life with. We had planned on going up to the mountains to meet Angela’s parents at their condo in Keystone to go skiing. She had no idea those plans also included a detour that would prompt her to change her facebook status to “engaged”.
The first hint arrived at her school in the early afternoon… a dozen red roses, carefully arranged, and each tied with a red ribbon bow holding a personal note: Reasons I love Angela. I had these hand delivered, much to Angela’s surprise – she’s allergic to flowers so my gifts to her up to then had taken other forms – but judging from her text message shortly thereafter (I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!), I don’t think she minded. (I did consider including Claritin with the flowers.)

Also to her surprise, I showed up at her school at 5 pm and asked if she was ready to go (she usually has to work until 6 pm). Her coworker offered to close things down (I had called her boss to arrange this). And happily we started our drive up to the mountains. It was snowing hard and the roads were messy so the drive took extra time… I was happy to be together but I had to try to hide my anticipation, which was almost unbearable. It’s not everyday you get to propose to the love of your life.

We were both hungry so I suggested we stop at a favorite pizza place in Keystone village. The snow was falling hard so we bundled up – Angela was surprised but happy that I had boots for her since there was so much snow (I had asked her mother to leave boots in her car trunk which I grabbed when I picked her up). We made our trek into the village enjoying the quiet that comes in a heavy snowstorm. Angela had her head down with the hood of a puffy coat covering her eyes so she wasn’t really paying attention where we were going. Before she realized it, we were approaching the gondola at the base of the ski hill. We were greeted with a blanket and a gondola cart to ourselves. The ride up was chilly but fun – we drew pictures on the icy windows and enjoyed the view of the city lights below. At the top of the River Run gondola, we boarded the Outpost gondola which took us to the top of the North Peak on the back mountain of Keystone, elevation: 11,444 feet.

We entered the Alpenglow Stube and were warmly greeted with slippers and hot chocolate. We were seated at a cozy table by the fire (I had called to request this). We enjoyed a mouth-awakening six course meal that took about 3 hours to complete. I found out that gourmet food is a foreign language… it was fun trying to guess what the food we were ordering would actually taste like. Whatever it was, it tasted delicious.

Nearing midnight, we boarded the gondola for the return trip (finally!). The night had cleared up… the stars were shining above us in the cold night sky and as we cuddled together I couldn’t wipe the smile on my face. After a few unbelievably romantic words, holding the ring in one hand and a flashlight shining on it in the other, I got down on one knee and asked Angela to marry me. Angela flashed the smile I have fallen in love with, and answered, “YES!”. Bubbly and flowers awaited us back at the condo, and with Angela’s enthusiasm, her once-sleeping parents soon greeted us. After she recounted our eventful night, I had one last surprise: a dvd slideshow of all of our fun times together (the same one you can see here). The rest my friends, is history.

-Aaron