Well here is the story of our proposal!! I love it!! It all started when I was going to be coming home from California to Arizona for the weekend. I went to the airport and flew home to Arizona as usual on a Thursday, since I had no Friday classes. I was going home that weekend just to visit my family, or so I thought! I was planning on staying in Arizona from that Thursday September 28th until Saturday evening September 30th, 2006, because I had some minor things that I needed to do that Sunday in California before classes on Monday! While at home I of course talked to Matt several times and during a few conversations he gave me reason to believe that he was NOT in San Diego, where I originally thought he was. I was getting a sneaky suspicion that something was up because Matt was acting a little bit weird in regards to some of the things he would say or the amount of detail he would give about his location or activity that he was doing. Also, there was always an unusual amount of wind interferance throughout some of our conversations. Little did I know, he was DRIVING the long route to Phoenix, which departed from San Diego, required a lay over in Sacramento, and then finally arrived in Phoenix at about 6:00pm on September the 30th, 2006.

The reason for the long journey was because Matt had bought the ring at the Shane Co. in Sacramento the last time he was up there. The journey began on Thursday September 28th after Matt got out of class at around 4pm. He drove almost the entire span of California from San Diego to Sacramento and finally got there at 3 am on Friday morning. Once he got there he caught a few winks and then headed out to pick up the beautiful ring. Later that day he was able to go out for dinner and share his excitment with some of his family that lives up there in Sacramento as well as he got to show them a show them the ring. (It was funny because I called Matt when he was out to dinner with his family at this steak house called Cattlemens, but when I called he told me he was watching a western movie with his roommates, called Cattlemens and I totally fell for it). After that Friday night out with his family, Matt woke up at about 4am on Saturday September 30th "Proposal Day" to drive from Sacramento to Arizona to try and make it there before my flight back to California, which was leaving around 6:30pm.

Well throughout this journey as you can imagine, Matt and to be careful as to what he was saying and doing so that he did not blow his cover. I did not make it very easy on him though, but despite that he was always one step ahead of me. Matt's driving explained the wierd noise in the background, but he always blamed it on the San Diego wind or since he lives near an airport he blamed it on planes overhead, which is a common thing so I believed him. When I started to question him about other things he always came up with the perfect most believable answers and he even said he could prove that he was at his apartment in San Diego because he had me listen to his roommates and their conversation in the background. Little did I know that he had recorded them and was playing them on his MP3 player through his car stereo. It sounded so believable and he convinced me every time!

Well, as Matt continued to drive and as my weekend sped by, my time with my family was coming to an end and so was my suspicion that anything was going to happen. Prior to heading to the airport, I had said good bye to my mom at my house, because she had to run some errands and then I was off to the airport with my dad. (Matt and my dad had been in contact with one another the whole weekend I guess). So when I got to the airport my dad kissed me goodbye at the curb and little did I know that would be the last kiss I gave my dad as "his little girl"!! I walked into the airport to go check in and I walked past some escalators as well as several chairs. Matt, who was wearing a bright blue shirt underneath a suit, caught my eye as he was sitting in the chairs right beneath the escalators that I had just walked past. At first, I had passed him to get in the check-in line not really realizing it was him, but as I turned back shocked and confused I realized at that moment what was happening. I was so excited and still shocked as he flashed his cute smile at me and started coming towards me. I ran to meet him crying and laughing all at the same time, askig him excitedly what he was doing here? Without giving me very much detail, he said that we were meeting my dad in the parking garage, so we went out to the garage and he pushed me on one of the carts as we were in search of my dad. (I was confused the whole time as to how he got there, what exactly he was doing, and I was unsure if I was going to even be taking flight considering I hadn't even checked in yet). He assured me that we were on the next flight out together, so I was thinking he was going to propose in the parking garage, once we found my dad and somehow my mom would be there too. Well I was wrong! We ended up not finding my dad in the garage (which Matt made up), but we did find his truck, so I finally figured out that he drove to Arizona. Matt being his sweet self, opened the door to his truck for me as he always does and as I got in I found 3 roses for me because my favorite number is three and as it turns out, he bought the roses from the grocery store that we will most likely shop at in our dream place in Sacramento called Eldorado Hills. They made the long trek with him and still looked beautiful! After taking a few pictures in the parking garage to document the moment (Matt knows I am a picture fanatic and wanted pictures of every part including his long solo journey which documented very nicely), we ended up leaving the airport and drove back towards Fountain Hills. He told me that actually he came because he heard that my dad made his world famous meatloaf (which we all love), so we were headed back to my house for some of that and he said that we were actually going to drive back the next day to California together.

As we approached Fountain Hills, I was still somewhat confused as to what was going on, but was sooo excited! We ended up turning off at the Fountain Park and then went around back to this one back parking lot. Upon arrival He told me just to wait in the car while he did something. So as I waited, he put on the back of his tailgate a picture of him and then a plus sign and then a picture of me and then a plus sign and then a heart with an equals sign pointing to a picture of both of us. As I got out of the car, he gave me a piece of paper and then led me to the back of his truck. Since it was dark my parents were there with their car headlights to light up the back of Matt's truck. Once I saw the back of his truck he had me open the piece of paper that he had previously handed to me. It was a little love note, with a map and it said go to the place where we had our first kiss. (As it turned out, Matt was hoping to get to Fountain Hills before I left for the airport, and then my dad would have made a detour to the park before even going to the airport, but Matt had to come up with a plan B, because time did not allow him to make it all the way to Fountain Hills before I thought we had to leave to make my flight). So Matt had me lead to way to the correct spot and then at that spot we sat and talked for a bit as the anticipation and moment grew! He gave his "declaration of love", and he followed it by reciting part of this song that we both really like that goes "if I gave you my hand would you take it and make me the happiest man in the world" and then he popped the question. I cried again and of course said "Yes" followed by a big hug and kiss! We hung out there for a few minutes as we talked and watched the perfectly timed fountain that had gone off and really savored the moment. Then we went up more towards the street to meet my parents, who were ready with the cameras to capture this dreamt about moment. It was soo perfect and soo exciting!! It was the perfect place because we went to the park for a little bit on our first date and listened to Frank Sinatra music, we had our first kiss there (not on our first date) : ), also we have been to the park several other times throughout our relationship and then we got engaged there. Also it was perfect because I had really wanted my family to be there. After the perfect proposal and several pictures, we left the park and went back to my house and celebrated with some scrumptious meatloaf and we made some of the many phone calls to share the the exciting news!

Well we stayed at my house that night and then we drove Sunday morning from AZ to Los Angeles, where we continued to celebrate with dinner and then Matt dropped me off back at school and then continued on the rest of his journey back to San Diego, with the Mission Accopmplished!! I loved every minute of it!! It was perfect in every way and as you can all see Matt goes out of his way and goes above and beyond in everything to make our journey awesome!! It is such a blessing to get to marry my best friend and a wonderful guy that has a relationship with God, is so caring and respectful, and overall is the Love of my Life!! We look forward to our long journey together!