I’m currently in Colorado on a 15 day trek circling the rockies with Glennn. We have done amaaaaaazing hikes and have seen so many vast scenes of contrast. At some point I will post some of our favorites… or you can friend Glennn on facebook as he has been posting and shooting more than myself… admittedly embarrassing as I am the professional photographer. Oh well. Because this is Glennn’s first mention on the blog here he is… meet Glennn. Yes, we are wearing matching Dinosaur National Monument hats! We are that awesome. 🙂 Or commonly referred to by strangers as a “cute couple.”
Glennn and I have known each other since December of 2011. We met through a mutual friend. I started a new journey two winters ago as I traveled to Australia each fall and return late Spring back to America. I have had many great adventures all around Australia but the most memorable was meeting Glennn. We have traveled quite a bit together since then… Glennn never thought he’d visit America so much in his life! ha ha ha. Here are two fun videos I made of our vacations together over the last year. Fraser Island & Great Barrier Reef
During our trek in Colorado we celebrated our 8th month anniversary together — and to my surprise — became ENGAGED!!!! Here is an engagement trip video Glennn made.
So how did he propose? Glennn says he put a lot of “romantic pressure” on me to make sure I said yes. This ‘event’ happened to take place after a full day of hiking. We both were covered in red dirt and sweat. That night we were staying in a wooden fort camping style!! It also happened to be the day before the super moon… We purchased some hotdogs to cook on the fire and had a bit to wait for the coals to heat so we both headed up our Fort’s tower to watch the sunset and amazingly enough MOONRISE to the east at the SAME time. I even had my mosquito net on and dusty hat. Being in the fort’s tower he asked if he could “read me a fairy tale” that he had written.
To my amazement he brought out a custom printed book filled with photos of our adventures and our story in rhyme! I absolutely love stories and couldn’t believe he had put together such a wonderful present!!! It was quite a long story… and most of the wit is ‘inside’ jokes between us. Then I noticed a change… Glennn backs away from me to read the LAST page where I couldn’t see the photos on that page. (strange) He then looked as me and read the last lines, “will you marry me?” He went on bended knee and pulled out a ring box from his pocket. At this point I had no idea what to think. I was still mesmerized at the rhyming book! As the ring box opened all I saw was a really big white white WHITE diamond. Wow. He asked me again and I said Yes! I lifted my mosquito net (still over my face… ha ha ha) and kissed him!
I have included photos of the book he made at the end of the blog for those that want to see.
For those that want to know even more… I asked Glennn to write his perspective on our engagement. Here are his words:
Dallas asked me to share, here, my perspective on us getting engaged… Well, the way I see it is that life isn’t always perfect, but the difference between reality and a fairy-tale is just a matter of perspective… and to me our journeys together over the past 8 months are as good as any fairy-tale I’ve heard lately… so I figured there would be no better way to propose than in the tower of our very own fairy-tale palace (or wooden fort, as some might see it)!
God had provided us with a perfect “fairy-tale” night… The sun was setting behind us in the west, the moon (an almost full “super moon”) rising in front of us… and the two of us were together, waiting for a banquet feast (also known as hot dogs on the BBQ) up in our own tower at the foot-hills of the surrounding Colorado mountains. Dallas was wearing a mosquito net… but it could easily have been mistaken for a princess’ veil… and while our rather “rustic” fort may not have been quite a castle tower… with the sun setting behind us and the moon rising, it was easy to put aside such minor details and seek the “happily ever after” ending I was hoping for!
And so it was that I had the fun job of reading Dallas “our” story that I’d written for us, and share how I believe that “happily ever after” was, with God’s help, within our grasp and hope she’d continue the story with me… She said “yes”… Yipppeeee!
Honestly, for me, it was a lot of fun… As I said to Dallas, I had to create enough “romantic pressure” so she wouldn’t dare say no! I guess it worked! In any case, any nerves I might have had were pretty-much already fully used up in the much more scary aspects – such as deciding what ring to buy, getting it successfully delivered to me (secretly) in USA despite the vagaries of FedEx, and ensuring the book was printed in time despite “quality assurance issues” (She IS a print-major after all, so we couldn’t have that!)… Having got over those truly nerve-racking hurdles (thanks Eden and Andy for your assistance, by the way!!), asking Dallas to marry me seemed as natural as it was easy that night… I’m glad Dallas was surprised by the proposal… THAT took a lot of work! It seems in these Fairy Tales the princess never knows what is coming, after all!!!
Now I’m excited about the future ahead… I’d really love all your prayers for our future, though, because I know that real life is definitely not always “fairy-tale” – but God willing we’ll continue to see – even through the ups and downs – each day as part of a “happily ever after” that God has prepared for us.
