It was our 4 year anniversary and Mike surprised me in the morning with a card. We’ve never been the couple to make a big deal of our anniversary so the card alone was such a surprise. He told me that evening he wanted to take me to dinner. Naturally everyone’s reaction is “you had to expect something was going to happen” but Mike always made the biggest deal about going ring shopping. For the longest time Mike had suggested we go shop for rings just so he could get an understanding of the type of ring I would want, however, I always felt super uncomfortable doing that. It was just two weeks prior to him proposing that I finally gave in and said “ok fine, let’s go look at rings” and Mike said he wasn’t feeling well. Little did I know that he had the ring already and was trying to deflect the topic. So the evening I came home, running late from work (surprise I know ) and I walk in and he’s somewhat dressed up for Portland standards. I said give me 5 minutes so I can quickly change from my J’s and jeans. After throwing on an outfit I tell him “ugh I’m not feeling this look”, Mike gave me the biggest red flag when he responded with “it’s ok babe, if you need a couple more minutes, take your time. I want you to be comfortable”.  Normally his response would be “babe you look great, lets go” ☺ Literally a light in my head went off and I turned to my closet and thought “Holy shit, is Mike going to propose tonight?!?” but I quickly dismissed the thought and rejected it in my head thinking “no, no way. He’s always said he wants my help picking out the ring”. So I quickly hurry, throw on option B and we headed out the door. As we’re walking Mike is on his phone but quickly updates me that because I was late he had to push back the reservations so we’re gonna now meet up with our friends for a quick drink at the Fields Bar. Nothing out of the ordinary there so I’m not thinking twice about it. Then we get to the beautiful park that is right across from the bar where Mike says everyone is now because they had to let their dogs out. We ‘re walking and I said “Babe where is everyone?!”..  a couple steps later we walk up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a card and a bottle of champagne. My immediate reaction in my head is “awe, there were no dinner reservations. Mike is surprising me with dinner in the park”. As a stare at the flowers, I turn around and Mike is on one knee!! “Holy shit this is happening” is my immediate reaction ☺ Mike then told me that four years ago on this day he knew he met the woman he wanted to marry and asked me to marry him. Instantly I said yes and tears started flowing. Within minutes, from every angle our dear friends in Portland popped up from each bush, lightpost and every corner possible as if they were a swat team and were on hand to take pictures of the whole proposal. We popped open a bottle of champagne and toasted with everyone. Like a movie, the sun was setting, it was a perfect clear night in Portland and we were surrounded by love. It truly was absolutely perfect. 

Our anniversary May 6^th, 2015 was NOT like any other anniversary. We really have never celebrated our anniversary. We never knew which date to go with – the day we met in Vegas or the day Kim asked me out and make it official (yup Kim asked me out!) But little did Kim know that this anniversary night would be a little different. Ok now let’s back it up now, I knew Kim was extremely adamant about not having ANYTHING to do with picking out her ring, but I always said that we would never get engaged until we went together just so I had some idea of the style and cut. But this was all part of my master plan of her having no idea when the big question was coming. The first time I went to a jewelry store to look at some rings – I almost had a heart attack. I never realized how MANY different styles, cuts, clarity there are; I was overwhelmed to say the least. After I FINALLY decided on the ring now it was onto the actual proposal. Ok now back to the morning of our anniversary – I wake up surprise Kim with a card. Kim has no card (I think she forgot about our anniversary). I tell her that we have dinner reservations – she proceeds to tell me she was supposed to grab drinks with a girlfriend after work (now I really think she forgot – but cut her some slack because we never did dinner before). So this day at work was the longest day ever, I can’t concentrate at all! The plan was to go to dinner and after dinner head to an ice cream shop, grab some ice cream, walk to the park, and then pop the questions. During the day Kim calls me to let me know that her boss put a meeting on her calendar at the end of the day and will not be home in time for our 7PM reservation. Shit! Now I had to call the restaurant and pray that they had another reservation later that night. They do but not until 9PM, so my whole plan is shot, until a light bulb goes off in my head, just do the proposal first and than dinner. No idea why I didn’t think of that at first because there would have been no way that I could of sat through dinner. OK now Kim is home, she is getting dressed, she doesn’t like her first outfit (usually I just tell her she looks great and lets go!) but this time I wanted to make sure she was comfortable with her outfit. Meanwhile I had to get the blow dryer out and blow dry my arm pits because…well…lets just say I was a little nervous. I tell her that we are going to grab some drinks with friends before dinner to kill some time. Right across the way from the bar is a beautiful park that I had some friends set up flowers, a card, and a bottle of champagne. After they set up the props they all hid, some behind trees, some behind bushes. I could of sworn one repelled down the side of a building – they were all ninjas. As we approached where everything was set up Kim saw her name on a card and looked back at me and I told her that those were for her. As she went to pick up the card she again looked back at me but this time I was on a knee. I rehearsed what I was going to say thousands of times leading up to this moment, but I believe I only got out a few mumbled words and then “Will you marry me?” Kim said, “Oh shit this is happening” and then started to cry shaking her head yes. We kissed and then opened the bottle of champagne and toasted with the ninja’s that photographed and videoed the entire thing.