Like any guy I took my time in making the decision to ask Alana to marry me, almost 6 years. Fast forward to sometime in November, Alana’s parents came to spend the night with us. After dinner when Alana and her mom were deep in conversation I asked Jeff to go look at the improvements I had done to the barn (there were none). We walked out to the barn and headed upstairs, when we got to the loft I turned to him and said “well, Jeff the real reason I wanted you to come out here was because I wanted to ask for your blessing to marry your daughter”. He smiled, and gave me his approval. I told him my plan was to take Alana for a walk on Padilla bay and to get down on one knee and ask her. I told him that I really wanted to do it sometime in the week leading up to the Rospond Christmas because all of Alana’s family would be there. And then came the rain, and more rain, and more rain. It wasn’t a light drizzle, the kind you would be ok going for a stroll in, this was raining cats and dogs wet. Every day leading up to her family coming I would wake up and look at the weather and think “maybe tomorrow”. I was out of options. On December 2nd I woke up at 5 am because I was too nervous to sleep and my tongue felt like I had been sleeping with a whole bag of cotton balls in my mouth. Finally, at a little before 7am Alana FaceTimed me looking to see where I had gone . I told her I was prepping the Prime rib but that I would be in to say good morning in a minute. I thought “here we go”, I walked in the door and turned the lights up just enough so I could see her but not enough to where she would be blinded. I knelt down and held her hand and started telling her sweet little things trying to get her out of the deep slumber she was in. Finally when I thought she was awake enough I asked her to marry me in a slightly quivering voice. She was shocked and said yes, of course! Before telling me to turn the lights up and do it again which I did in a way more confident voice.

I woke up on Friday 12.1.2017 to a typical rainy day in Mount Vernon only to see Spence pacing around the house asking if we could go for a "walk" on our favorite trail Padilla Bay. I essentially looked at him like he was crazy (sorry, Spence) and moved on with my morning. We had a work holiday party to attend that night & my family was coming into town first thing Saturday morning to celebrate an early Christmas. Needless to say I was distracted and focused on any and everything else besides holiday engagements (nice job, Spence). Naturally, I slightly over indulged in the adult beverages at the holiday party (can you blame me?) and slightly, wobbly came home in time to snuggle our sweet pup, Remington, paying little to no attention to Spencer (love you the most, Spence). The next day I woke up around 6am to Spencer leaving our bedroom and in a haze immediately fell back asleep. Around 6:45a I rolled over to realize he had not return so of course I resorted to the first thing that came to mind FaceTime. He answered and said he would be right in, he was working on something outside. I first remember him coming into our bedroom and kneeling on the floor saying sweet things and holding my hand, completely unaware of what was to come and spoiled in the fact that this is not unusual of sweet Spence to be this loving, but then things turned slightly more serious to the point where I needed to sit up and take note of what was happening. He pulled out a ring and I blacked out... laughing and coming to I asked Spence to turn the lights on and do it all over again, wiping the makeup from the night before and tears away. I wouldn't change a thing about this day & will always hold this home and that morning in a special place. xxx