I knew that I was going to ask Jamie to marry me not long after we started dating, I fell in love with her smile and laugh on our first date. She is such a positive and happy person, I quickly realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. After all, us Mid-westerners have to stick together ♥. When you love someone as much as I love Jamie, you tend to want everything to be perfect for them. Needless to say, I spent quite some time trying to conjure up the perfect proposal. Jamie and I both enjoy hiking and the outdoors, so I thought Big Bear might be a good choice. It is a nice quiet community up in the mountains, perfect for some time away together. I booked a quaint little room in the woods and away we went on our three day weekend. I knew we would be coming back engaged (hopefully), but she didn't have a clue. We went out on the town and had dinner and drinks the first night, but we turned in pretty early. I planned on taking her hiking the next day, and asking her during her hike. We woke up the next day and looked at trail maps and I suggested the one I thought would be best. So there we were, climbing up the side of this mountain, surrounded on all sides by pine trees and fresh air. It was absolutely beautiful, but as we continued to climb I had not yet seen a spot that looked right. At that point I was getting pretty nervous, I had a ring in my pocket that I really did not want to lose on the side of a mountain, and I did not want her to notice the good size bulge of the ring box in my pocket. I suggested to Jamie we head back but she wanted to go on, so we kept pushing up the side of the mountain. Right when I thought my plan was going to be a bust, we came upon the view you see in the pictures. I asked Jamie to marry me with that beautiful view in front of us. This story perfectly illustrates why I love Jamie so much. She is always there to encourage me and push me farther, even when it looks like things aren't going to work out.