It all begins with a surprise trip to Vail, CO. First stop, rental car...Hello upgrade! The thrill of an upgrade was short lived after discovering a flat tire before heading home from dinner. No big deal, right?....WRONG! Bottle jacks work great until they explode and your car slams to the ground. Three hours and a few curse words later we were on our way back to the condo. The next morning we headed off to Hanging Lake for our hike up the mountain. FUN FACT: Hanging Lake had recently become a permit-only hike and reservations need to be made in advance. We clearly didn't get the memo...goodbye proposal spot. As is with life, you make the best of the situation you are in and figure out an alternative. Bear Creek Trail was our next best option. Four miles up the mountain we arrived at a beautiful clearing overlooking the stream, the perfect spot for a drink of water and a proposal! Surely nothing else could go wrong. Every girl dreams of the day her man proposes with a big, shiny rock. For us, that was definitely not the case. After checking to make sure the ring was there, Alex got down on one knee. Leslie turned around and was shocked to see what appeared to be an empty box. He had been saying for months that he could not afford a ring. Clearly, she was puzzled as any girl would be! While Alex was professing his love, he noticed that something wasn't right, judging by the look on Leslie's face. After popping the big question (Leslie still said yes!), Alex was shocked to find that there was no ring in the box. How could this be?! He began frantically looking around and was relieved to find that the ring was under his knee the entire time... just 6 feet from the edge of the drop-off. Needless to say, anything that could go wrong did go wrong, but we still managed to laugh through it all. And we are ENGAGED!!!