Best Week Ever....

Last Saturday, August 30, 2008, Aaron Craig Echols proposed to ME, Courtney Lynne Jann Perdue and now, with a very sparkly left hand ring finger, I wanted to share some pictures and our engagement story!

Sooooo, last Thursday, Aaron flew up to San Francisco (again, he was the best boyfriend ever) because he doesn't have school on Friday. He came with me and Dad to work and did homework while we watched the minutes tick by on Friday because we were leaving for Lake Tahoe the very next morning. I grew up going to Tahoe every summer with my family to a Presbyterian Conference Center called Zephyr Point on the South shore of the lake by Zephyr Cove and Round Hill. The place is full of special memories for my family: my grandparents met there at a conference when they were younger, my parents honeymooned there, and my mom even found out that she was pregnant with me when she was on a trip up there. My brother and I have only stayed in 1 cabin our whole lives, cabin #80 "Latimer Lodge", and it is full of fun Summer memories of sleeping in the loft, getting up early to catch crawfish with a dropline (rock, twine, and leftover Canadian bacon that Grammie would let us use for bait), and playing in the lake for hours upon HOURS until our lips turned blue and Mom had to pull us out of the water for dinner. Actually, on this trip, we found a note on the wall about how to turn on the heater that Bran and I had re-written and dated, thankfully, back in the summer of 1993!

Anywho, Mom and I decided that this year, because I was out of school, we would rent Latimer Lodge around Labor Day weekend. Mom was nervous about doing it because she wasn't sure who would be available to go and if it would really come together. Bran and I talked it up so much at Sunday dinners that we convinced Aaron and Bran's girlfried T to come check it out. My dad and uncle had to stay at home and get some work done but Mom, my Annie, and my cousin Kristi were all going to come too. We were worried that Bran and T's schedules would not permit them to take off time to visit but little did I know that Aaron had already made sure they would be there...

On Saturday morning, we packed the car (Aaron did most of it!) and we hit the road for Tahoe with my Mom. I had mapped out a Chick-Fil-A that was on the way so Aaron and I introduced Mom to the goodness at Solano Mall in Fairfield. We took our time getting up to Tahoe and once we could see the lake, we got out of the car and captured the moment in all its beauty:





When we got to the campgrounds, Annie and Kristi had just arrived so we all unloaded our cars and settled into the cabin. Aaron and I checked out the view from the porch of the cabin and I was so excited to be back at Zephyr Point that I told Aaron that we should take a walk later so that he could see the whole place. Aaron asked if we could take a walk just the two of us and of course, I agreed with his sweet request. We were all hungry for dinner so we decided to go into town to Chevy's. After dinner, we went to the supermarket and we all combed the aisles, picking out food for the weekend. At one point, Aaron couldn't really stop yawning and I asked him if he still wanted to go for a walk later. He said yes, either that night or early tomorrow morning before we went fishing. During dinner and at the market, Aaron was using my Blackberry to see if he could check his fantasy football standings. He wasn't having any luck but my Aunt said that back at the Point, you could get wireless access behind the main office. We finished our grocery shopping and put everything away at the cabin. Aaron and I decided to go for our walk and I thought nothing of it when he came down the stairs with his computer in his backpack because I figured we could check for wireless service out on our walk. We took a flashlight, put on sweatshirts and headed out...

We passed the office and I asked Aaron if he wanted to check his football stuff now or later. He said that maybe we could walk down to the beach and see if he could get a signal there. Blame it on the cold air or my overwhleming nostalgia if being back at Tahoe, but I bought it, haha! I lead him to the beach and we walked out on the pier...

In all my 26 years, I have never been out to the beach there at night. It was breathtaking! Standing hand in hand at the end of the pier, it felt like we were the only people out there in the middle of the lake. We were surrounded by a dark sky of big, bright, twinkly stars. We could hear the waves crashing into the pier and continuing on towards the shore. And we could see the lights at the other end of the lake. This is what it looks like in the daytime:



Aaron sat down and started to take out his computer. I followed suit and sat there as he fiddled with it. He told me that he didn't know how much time we would have next weekend (I was going to be coming to LA for our friend Kendra's wedding and staying through Monday to celebrate our 2 year anniversary) so he wanted to show me something that he put together for our anniversary. As we sat there at the end of the pier, Aaron started a slide show that was called "Then to Now: I Love You". The slideshow was pictures of us from one of our first dates to our recent time in Texas post bar. There was a song playing in the background that I recognized immediately. It was a sweet song by a guy named Coffey that Aaron put on a CD for me last year and Aaron remembered me joking that I wanted it playing when I got engaged or married. I didn't remember that when I heard it but it was such a sweet song and such a sweet thing for him to make for our anniversary that I was crying by picture 2! I will never forget sitting there with Aaron, my hand in his, sitting under the stars, crying and thanking God in my head for sending this amazing man and blessing us with 2 wonderful years together. As the slideshow ended, Aaron kept the song playing and he told me that the other part of it was a puzzle that he had made for us to do together. Puzzles are kind of a special thing to us. One of our first dates was spent shopping at Target after dinner for a puzzle. We started it and left it as a work in progress at my dining room table, working on it whenever we had free time. Also, for our 1 year anniversary, Aaron got a picture of us from Europe and had it made into a puzzle and we put it together (and we still need to get it framed!) It was pretty windy that night and Aaron was afraid that we would lose some pieces to the wind or the gaps in the dock so he told me to pretend that I just saw the video but now we had to move out of the wind to a better (safer!) area. Here's where we moved (in the daytime):



And this was our view from the rock bench (in the daytime also!):


Aaron told me that we were going to do the puzzle "on the backside" and then flip it over. I could tell that there were words on it but Aaron said to try to avoid reading it until the whole thing was done. We worked through it fairly quickly (we tend to have a system where we pick out all the edges and Aaron does the border and I work on filling it in) and when I read it, I realized that it was one of the sweetest things I had ever seen. It had 6 things on it that Aaron loved about me and by number 6, he touched my hand and I realized that he was shaking. I thought it was a little strange but it was really cold out and Aaron sometimes gets a shaky hand. Aaron then told me that he was going to flip the puzzle over and he said that I should close my eyes so that he could make sure that all the pieces flip correctly. As I covered my eyes, I started to freak out. WAIT! Why was he shaking? Why was I covering my eyes? My mind started to race...could the puzzle maybe say "Will you marry me?" If so, what am I going to do!? Finally, after what felt like the longest, I don't know, 20 seconds, Aaron told me that I could open my eyes. As he pulled the paper off the puzzle, there it was, a picture of a ring in a box...my ring in a box.

Immediately, as Aaron likes to tell it, I covered my face with my hands. I burst into tears and when I took my hands off my face, Aaron was down on one knee in front of me. Thank goodness I was sitting from when we did the puzzle because I'm almost positive my knees would have buckled under me had I been standing. Aaron took my hand, said the sweetest things I will never forget and asked me if I would marry him. I kept telling myself, "Courtney, LOOK AT HIM! Listen to him, soak up every second of what is happening right now!" Without even looking at the ring he was holding, I alternated between hugging him and covering my face as I told him "OF COURSE!!!" Poor Aaron was still holding the ring so he said, "Can I please put this on your finger then?" I couldn't look at it for a long while and once it was on, I asked him to please just sit down next to me for one second so I could take it all in. I couldn't believe what had just happened. We called Aaron's parents because the time difference made it almost too late for us to call them. We woke up his sweet mom but she was happy to hear from us:) I asked Aaron if he had asked my dad and if my dad had been nice to him. And did my mom and aunt know back at the cabin? Aaron said that yes, Dad was nice to him but no, Mom and Annie had no idea! Bran and T knew and Aaron wanted to wait until they flew in on Sunday, but he said he couldn't wait any longer. We sat for a bit and then headed back to the cabin. When we passed the office, I asked Aaron if he wanted to check his fantasy football. He laughed and told me he had all day tomorrow and that we needed to go back! I tried to clean up my makeup smeared face and when we walked in the door, Mom was upstairs fixing the beds. She asked where we went and I could barely get words out as I walked up the stairs. I showed her my hand and the fun continued:) We made some calls and took some pictures (I will get them from my Aunt and add them ASAP!). Let me tell you, I didn't sleep a wink that night. I had perma-smile because I could feel the new addition on my hand as I laid there thinking about all the friends I was so excited to call the next day. When I woke up and the light came in through the window, I laid there, exhausted but completely enamored with the way my ring sparkled on my finger...

Lots of pictures and phone calls later, the rest of the week was heavenly. Aaron had to leave on Monday to head back to school but I promised him I wouldn't cry as we said good bye at the airport. Every time I look at my ring, I can't help but feel like he's there with me. And if I may brag for one second, my ring is perfect because it is from Aaron. I was NO HELP AT ALL to him because I liked everything and just when he thought he knew what kind of ring I might like, I'd say something else was pretty too...but it could not be more perfect and I could not love it any more. I grew attached to it very quickly and I can only bear to take it off to shower and wash my hands:)

Here's a few more pictures from the week:

s'mores night on the back porch


crawfishin'






kissing on the porch of the cabin:)


Revisiting "our" pier:)




The whole Tahoe Summer 2008 gang!


And so the fun begins:) We are working on a date, working on a wedding that truly reflects us and our relationship, and thanking God and praying constantly for God's continued blessings over us, our families, our friends, and our relationship with Him.

I hope you've enjoyed our special story and I apologize in advance for all my future posts about wedding stuff!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Happy Grandparents Day, Grammie and Papa (Sunday) and Happy 2 Year Anniversary to my sweet FIANCE (Monday)!

"By humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches and honor and life." Proverbs 22:4