Where to begin...
This weekend was the most amazing weekend of my life. It all began on Friday afternoon when Eric picked me up from work and we headed for the airport. I was so excited to take a break from the busy schedule that I have been keeping and to get to spend time with him (there hasn't been a whole lot of that lately). On the airplane we talked about how excited we were to be going to Arizona to spend time together, for Eric to meet my Aunt Sally, and to see David compete in his first Ironman. On Friday night we went to dinner with Aunt Sally at a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant with wonderful food.
Between the traveling and the two hour time change we were pretty exhausted so shortly after we got back to the house we called it a night.
Saturday morning we woke up fairly early so that we could head out to hike up Camelback Mountain. I have hiked Camelback a few times with my family so this was a MUST DO for our trip and I am sure that I had been telling Eric how wonderful it was for months. After driving around for what seemed like FOREVER (I can only imagine how Eric must felt) we found parking and headed toward the trail. Immediately I remembered how tough the hike was going to be! After about an hour of Eric practically dragging me up the mountain we reached the top. We found a little spot that was away from all of the other people at the top and sat down on a rock. At this point I was getting a little grumpy...ok maybe a lot (we are going to blame that on the blood sugar, but who really knows!!) so Eric got out the cliff bars we had brought and we ate those while talking and enjoying the view. When it was time to head back down the mountain Eric went to have a woman take a picture of us with the amazing view. In the middle of taking pictures he reached his hand into his pocket and he got down on one knee!!!! At this point the next few minutes are somewhat of a blur...I heard the word love a few times and definitely something about the rest of my life...and then LAUREN MARIE WILKEN, WILL YOU MARRY ME. OF course I said YES!!! After a few minutes of being caught up in the moment and overwhelmed with joy I realized that the whole time this woman had been taking pictures because Eric had let her in on the whole thing! These are some wonderful memories that we will for sure never forget!
After that we spent a while on the top of the mountain calling family and a few friends before heading back down. The whole way down I wanted to shout to everyone "We just got in engaged!!!" but I think that we made it down with me only telling a few people!
The rest of the day couldn't have gotten anymore wonderful. After stopping at my Aunts house to tell her and talking to a couple of my cousins on the phone Eric pulled out another surprise. He made me a scrapbook (yes thats right, went to scrapbook warehouse and everything!!) with pages full of all of the major events in our life together so far. I knew that he was incredibly sweet and romantic...but seriously, he had saved everything that we had done and remembered very special dates like the day we met, our first date, our first trip...you get the picture. If only I could be that sweet, I will work on it. Next we headed off to the Biltmore Hotel where we had the most wonderful massages. We spent the rest of the day at the hotel laying by the pool and sipping on "margs/ritas" (Eric calls them "margs" I call them "ritas", you choose) and pina coladas.
Saturday night we got all fancied up and headed to dinner at a nice outdoor restaurant called El Chorro. The atmosphere was amazing with beautiful lighting and a band playing all night out under the stars. When we arrived we were surprised with a card from our waitress. The card was from our amazing friends the Burnetts, congratulating us on our engagement. Then she told us that they wanted to buy us a bottle of champagne and dessert to celebrate...they are sooo wonderful, we are blessed to have such great friends in our lives.
As we sat and ate we talked a lot about how we didn't want the night to end and how great the day had been. Before we left Eric dedicated a song to me and we danced. As we headed back to the house I couldn't stop smiling ( I don't think I stopped the whole weekend). Here I was sitting next to the man that I am going to be with for the rest of my life...and he is AMAZING!!!
Sunday morning we spent some time at the house with Sally just hanging out then we got ready and headed to Tempe to cheer on our friend David. We met up with David's fiance Nikki, his friend Andrew, and David's mom and dad. This was sooo fun because I got to show off my ring to a group of people for the first time!!! :) We spent the next 5-6 hours shaking with excitement and anticipation to see David run by again and to watch him cross the finish line. As he finished the Ironman at about 8:00pm it was all I could do to keep myself together. I was so inspired by the discipline and determination that it took to get David to the race and the strength that he had physically, emotionally, and spiritually to get him through the brutal conditions of the race day.
DAVID WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU...YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!
After a short dinner Sunday night we headed back to Scottsdale to get some sleep.
Monday morning Eric and I got up and headed back to Phoenix to hike up Squaw Peak before our trip was over. This was a much different climb than Camelback, but still very difficult.
After hiking we went back to Sally's house, got cleaned up and headed to the airport to come home, but the surprises weren't over...
When we arrived back in Dallas I was told that I had one more surprise waiting for me and even though I tried VERY hard to get it out of him, Eric kept the secret in as we headed towards Plano. We passed by my apartment complex on the tollway and came to a stop in front of Maggiano's Restaurant...a nice Italian restaurant that Eric and I have had a couple of nice dates. Already I am excited because I am hungry and I am thinking that this will be the perfect way to end the trip, a quiet dinner to recap all of the wonderful weekend...BOY WAS I WRONG!!
We were taken to the back of the restaurant and when I turned the corner my family and Eric's family were sitting at a huge table waiting for us. Immediately I was filled with emotions. Our families are such a huge part of our lives and to be able to celebrate with them all together was so wonderful. The rest of dinner was hardly quiet as I learned even more about all of the planning that Eric had done to make this fairy tale weekend fall into place. I was either laughing or smiling throughout the entire dinner...so much that I had to massage my cheeks because they hurt so bad. I have been so blessed and I feel spoiled to have such wonderful parents and an amazing sister and because of this I was sure that another family could never come into our lives and compare. I was definitely proved wrong on Monday night and as we laughed and talked, I thought that God has truly given me the most wonderful gift, another family who matches up with mine and whos love for each other and the Lord inspires me and lifts me up every time I think about them. Mom, Dad, Katie, Beau, Kimberly, Mama Hughes, and Big G...I love you all so much, thank you for being there to celebrate our amazing engagement with us!
SO, to sum up...I have the most AMAZING fiance ever!!! He worked so hard to make this whole weekend so wonderful for me. I know that this is just a glimpse of what the future holds for us together as a couple and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.
Eric I love you so much...thank you for all of the wonderful memories so far and the many more to come! :)
