We are thrilled to announce our engagement!
It started out as many other walks had - Aapl tugging away
at her leash as she walked us around Lake Calhoun. Normally, we would turn back
half way around Calhoun so her teeny feet would not get too tired. But this day was so beautiful - the evening setting in at the perfect temperature, people were running, biking and roller blading around the lake, enjoying the wonderful evening, and one of the last nice days of Autumn. We agreed to keep walking.
We came to the beach on the far end of the lake and turned off the path to get closer to the water. This is the point of no return for me. My plan was coming together. I reached over and pulled Katrina to me and started my unplanned speech. After a few compliments turned into a full few minutes, Katrina asked me why I was saying these weird things. That was my cue. I started digging in my pocket, past my keys and some dog treats, and found what I was looking for (apparently she saw this sly attempt). I grabbed her hand as I knelt down with ring in hand and asked her to marry me! I'm pretty sure she thought I was joking even though she responded with an enthusiastic yes. After some hugs and kisses and a few tears, I reached into the near by bushes and pulled out a previously hidden bag with a bottle of champaign and glasses. We sat and drank that fine bottle of bubbly for well over an hour as we watched the moon come up, and talked about our exciting future together.
We have included several pictures from our weekend celebration. Neither of us had our cameras, so we kept our fingers crossed with the old disposable 35mm. Mike had already been planning a weekend getaway (which hopefully would be a celebratory weekend) with a little cabin on the shore of Lake Superior, north of Two Harbors. The weekend was perfect, and the Autumn colors were at their spectacular peak. We spent the rest of the weekend just to two of us, and of course, little Aapl!
Of mention, is the dinner we enjoyed Saturday night. When you dine in Beaver Bay, MN, a town of 175 people, one can only imagine the experience. After our order was misplaced, we then enjoyed the slowest service west of Wisconsin and a torrential down-pour - and ended up with a car stuck in a foot of sloppy mud that had originally started out as our parking spot.
Fortunately, we met a Minnesota stranger who went out of his way to drive to the Holiday station and in the end, he towed us out. We were able to laugh about it - after all, how could we not laugh at the fact that here we are on the first full day of our engagement, and we are knee deep in mud with a hillbilly yelling 'Oh Yah! You ain't never getten outta that swamp toonight!' We offered him an invite to the wedding, but he decided to give us our first wedding present instead - a finely crafted industrial strength yellow tow strap!
Each of you are so meaningful to us and we look forward to sharing many more moments with each other and with you!
Mike, Katrina & Aapl
