Surprises!

On Saturday night after I got back from a week facilitating at a camp, Kent and I headed up to Toronto for the start of our small vacation. We got to his parents house late and went to bed right away. The next morning we woke up and ate one of his dad’s AMAZING breakfasts that he always makes when we’re there (and, I have a feeling, when we are not there too), and headed off for my first (of many) surprises for the weekend. We met Kent’s friend Ryan and Ryan’s girlfriend Perola at Horseshoe Valley for some Tree Top Trekking Adventures AND the longest zip line in Canada! It was pretty awesome and also REALLY challenging (my abs hurt for a few days after). Kent and I both finished the beginner, intermediate, and advanced courses. Next we went out for dinner with Ryan and Perola and headed to their house for the night. There we hung out and played lots of euchre – I always take advantage of situations in which I am with 3 other people who all know how to play euchre!

On Monday we had a lazy morning at Ryan’s house, then Kent swam down a waterfall and I was terrified for his life, then headed off to Huntsville where we went to a restaurant called the Cottage, where we had our first date two summers ago. We ate there, did a little shopping, did a hike, and then I had my next surprise of the trip, Kent had booked us a room at the Deerhurst Resort! He told me to wait outside in the parking lot while he went inside and got our keys… by this point I was getting a little suspicious. So I sat in the parking lot and read and he finally came out and we went up to our room, which was a beautiful suite. He told me to wait outside the room and he’d go in and “see if it was nice.” This made me even more suspicious but when I went into the room everything seemed to be in order. We went for a swim at the Deerhurst beach, played some basketball, went for dinner at the Deerhurst restaurant, drank lots of champagne and just had a great evening hanging out together.

On Tuesday morning we got up early and went for a walk, then I had a pedicure at the spa. We went to the beach again and were sooo sad to be leaving the resort, but Kent really wanted to do a certain hike called Lookout that we did a few times when we lived in that area two years ago, before we headed home. It really is the best hike in Algonquin Park, with an amazing lookout at the top. By this time I was still slightly suspicious but trying not to get my hopes up, and trying to convince myself that if he didn’t propose, it would be okay, life would still go on, and it was still a great trip. Plus I figured that he would have done it before day FOUR of the four day trip. On the drive to the Lookout Trail Kent was SO hyper and giddy and just telling me silly stories while I laughed at him and mostly just continued to read my book. Now that I look back on the trip there were a million small signs like this one that I didn’t take as signs.

So we got there and he said he needed to change out of his bathing suit into his shorts (that had pockets…). He did so in the forest and was all “don’t watch me!” not that I was really watching him, but I could tell he wanted me to not be standing near him (another VERY obvious sign that I missed) so I was kind of like “okay, whatever,” and stood by the car. So we did the hike, Kent was walking soo fast while I struggled behind him in my flip flops and dress on the steep, rocky trail. When we got to the top we sat down and I videotaped the lookout and Kent for a while, and then he videotaped me. I was just telling random stories and laughing and looking at bugs and suddenly Kent goes into the whole “Micaela we have had a wonderful two years together and you make me so happy and I want to spend the rest of my life with you…” WHILE STILL VIDEOTAPING ME. I was soo thrown off and I don’t actually think I remember the next two minutes except from watching the video. So Kent was down on one knee and I of course said yes and also kept telling him to TURN THE VIDEOCAMERA OFF!! And please stand up!!! He put a ring on my finger that I personally think is the best ring in the whole world. I never expected him to be so good at picking out a ring; when girls tell me that they want their boyfriend to pick out the ring without any help or hints from them (as in finding out from someone exactly the kind of ring they want) because he should know them well enough by now, I secretly think they are a little bit crazy. But apparently not! I love that it was such a total surprise to me, although perhaps it shouldn’t have been considering that the general consensus when I tell other people has been “I KNEW IT!!!” But Kent has always told me he doesn’t want to get married for four years and has seemed very certain of it even after I get really annoyed about that. What a trickster.
So we left the lookout trail and I rambled on about weddings and rings and such on the way home until I could tell Kent was getting a little overwhelmed, so I said, “Okay, I’ll try to talk about something else… if I can think of anything else.” Although in my defense, he then started talking about picking out the ring, which his sister told me it took him six hours to find the right one.

The past couple of days has just been super fun and I have been on the craziest high… it’s just really exciting that I get to get married to who I consider the nicest, sweetest, most hard working, cutest and funnest boy in the whole world. On the way home from our trip we stopped in Toronto and met his parents for dinner. The whole dinner I kept nudging Kent to tell them and finally he did and they were very shocked but also very excited! His mom even told me that she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night and was taking the following day off of work to celebrate. My other favourite person to tell was my best friend since grade 1, Michelle, who I went out for dinner with and when I told her right away, she ran to the other side of the table to hug me and was just SO excited and it made me even more excited too, if possible. I had to tell Lauren through facebook because she just moved away to school and doesn’t have a phone number yet and I didn’t want her to find out from someone else and she was also adorably excited. Same goes for all my sisters… although Kent had already told Katelyn and Leah, and had hinted at it to Xman a while ago who told Erica. So me and Lauren were the only ones who got to be surprised! I’ve been talking on the phone a lot to Leah, who had already been researching dresses for me and found the most perfect one which is, I think, the one that I want or at least one very similar. More on that later! Kent told me that he is so happy that he got one of the [last name] girls, because we are “the best five girls in the world.” awww! Kent’s sisters also called us and were super excited, although they both already knew too! For a boy who I had always considered fairly secretive, he has certainly NOT been able to keep this a secret! I haven’t even talked to my parents yet, but they already knew too.

The only disappointing part of the trip was that I didn’t have my actual camera, only my video camera which doesn’t take very good pictures at all. So I only have a few to show you (no, you don’t get to see the video!) but here they are. Also, as you can see from the ring picture it’s a bit too big so I mostly just wear it on my middle finger until I can get to Toronto to get it sized. I forgot to mention one of my favourite things about it – it is a Canadian diamond – no blood diamond on this girl!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! I’m also very interested in hearing other people’s engagement stories so share yours if you have one!