We're Getting Married!

As most of you probably know, Jon and I like trains. Way back in 2010 I signed up for a membership at RailGiants Train Museum. You know who helped me sign me up? Jon! I honestly had a crush right away and I still do to this day! Once the Big Boy (the largest steam locomotive ever built) was re-acquired by Union Pacific, we were both at the museum constantly watching the progress to remove it from our museum. All that time spent together finally led us to our first date in late 2013 and the rest is history...

I asked Jon out to Chipotle for a late lunch for what would be our first date. After lunch Jon took me in his truck over to Cal Poly Pomona (where he was going to college) and he gave me a full tour of campus. We went to the Farm Store on campus as well and bought some delicious local chocolate milk to share. We headed back to my car and ended up chatting for a few hours before I finally headed home.

While working on a job in northern California I had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Monterey with Shelley, who at the time was working out of Stockton. I had no specific time or moment that I was planning on proposing, but felt that I would know the moment when I felt it. Our first stop in Monterey was to the aquarium. I thought Shelley was on to me when we passed by a jewelry story and turned to me and asked if I had been doing any shopping lately. All I could think about was did she know that I had the ring in my pocket. No moment at the aquarium felt right so we went to dinner at a local restaurant right on the beach and I thought maybe we should take a stroll over to Carmel by the Sea to watch the sunset. Once we got to the beach and I saw the beauty of the place I knew this was the perfect location, but I wanted to make sure it would be special so I wanted to get away from the larger gathering of people on the beach. I said we should take a walk down to the far side of the beach where there were fewer people so we could take in the sunset. But of course as we walked down to the end of the beach the setting sun decided to duck behind a cloud bank. Not to be denied I decided to just keep going always watching the sun and touching my pocket with the ring inside. As we found ourselves running out of beach and the sun just not wanting to cooperate, I decided to improvise. Trying to get Shelley to look away so I could get down on one knee, I told her to check out this large rock out in the water. Of course she was confused as to why would she want to look at this rock. But once she turned around I pulled the ring out of my pocket and got down on one knee. When she turned around and said yes to me asking her to marry me I was overwhelmed with happiness and joy. While the sun may not have been able to come out and shine on this special moment for us, I knew our love was shining bright.