We're Getting Married!

Rob popped the question on Sunday in the biggest and best way! Here's the wonderful story:

We decided to plan a trip to the Brookfield Zoo in April - one of my favorite places - and I invited my parents and my good friends and their daughter because they all have a membership and love it there as much as I do. Rob switched the date randomly because "they weren't having any dolphin shows that day anymore" so I became suspicious. I had always joked that the ultimate proposal would be at the Brookfield Zoo Dolphin Show - even more ultimate having a dolphin fin the ring on my finger. Clearly a joke. Somehow - he basically made that happen!!! We head off to the zoo on Sunday and my friend Meg says she's under the weather and not able to make it anymore and my Mom isn't answering her phone but I didn't think much of it because it was Palm Sunday so I thought they might still be in church. We get to the zoo and head straight to the dolphin show and Rob is calm as can be. We get inside and get a seat near the aisle and it starts - they ask for some youth volunteers and then they ask for some adult volunteers and I raised my hand because I always raise my hand. They actually picked me and Rob! We walked down by the side of the pool and they say that we're going to help with a new trick. At this point I knew it was happening but I never imagined it would happen the way it did. They put a ball in the dolphin's mouth (Shanook) and it swims over to the trainer and she pulls the ball out of it's mouth and it says "Marry Me" on it!!! She hands it to me and I turn to Rob and immediately sob when he gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him in front of the whole audience!!! We kiss and then a photographer takes our picture and we go back to our seat and I'm FREAKING OUTTTTTTTTTTTT! I could not believe he made that happen. We get to our seat and he introduces me to the lady next to him - she was in on it! He met with her last week while I was in Florida and got to see the dolphins practice - one actually messed up the trick and gave Rob a heart attack! Our parents came in right before the end of the show. They had been hiding so I wouldn't catch on. After the show ended we went by the pool and all the people from the crowd came and congratulated us and shook our hands and checked out my BEAUTIFUL ring. He had the ring custom made at the same place his brother in law had his sister's ring made. It's perfect and exactly what I wanted. It is modeled after my favorite "cocktail ring" that my uncle found ages ago and gave to me and I've loved it ever since. I couldn't believe he actually had it made for me. I can't stop staring at it! Anyway, we got more pictures after the show cleared out and got to take some with our new dolphin friend Shanook. It was wonderful! Then we got to enjoy a sunny day at the zoo with our parents. We had a mini photo shoot all over the zoo and got to see some of our favorite animals. We parted ways and Rob and I headed back to the city and relished in the excitement. I called a few of my friends in the car and then we just chatted about everything at home and got really excited. Later on he took me to the Signature Room for dinner. On the way to dinner a car honked at us and 2 girls stuck their heads out to shout that they were at the zoo with us - they were the trainers! What are the odds! The Signature Room was stunning! The most amazing views! We enjoyed some champagne, delicious entrées and an awesome dessert - they even wrote congratulations on your engagement in chocolate sauce on the plate! What a perfect end to a perfect day.

I still can't believe how he made it happen and that we're finally engaged after nearly 9 years together! We're SO excited and SO happy! I can't wait to start working on all the fun details to plan our special day. The engagement was perfect and it is a day that I'll never ever forget!