Since I was a little girl, I've always dreamed of going on a hot air balloon ride. On October 23rd, a Saturday, Ryan surprised me with a flight! We were lucky to get up because the weather was calling for wet snow. Fate must have been smiling down on us, because the day ended up being beautiful and we got the last flight of the season. In the back of my head I thought, wouldn't this be a romantic proposal? But, as we quickly learned, hot air balloon rides are not as romantic and easy breezy as you'd think. Our take off was chaotic, with our Aussie pilot having to jump up on the basket and cut the incorrectly tied knot holding us down with an 8 inch knife (later referring himself to Crocodile Dundee). We were up in the air as high as 2200ft for about 40 minutes. There were 6 other passengers with us. Our landing was even less graceful than the take-off. Our best option for landing was a construction site - the only alternatives were a bog and an angry farmer's field. We dragged in our basket on our side for 20 very bumpy feet. All in all though, a great experience that I'd gladly do again! It took about an hour for the team to find us and load up the equipment in the trailer, after which we had a champagne toast.
By this time, I was sure that my proposal hunch was just that - another hunch. It's not the first time I thought... hmmm.. maybe?? So, I wasn't surprised or disheartened to be "wrong" again. Ryan had plans to go to a team-only baseball party that was being hosted at his place. I suggested we go out to dinner first, so we could get the most of our romantic hot air balloon date before I would go home for the evening. He didn't like the dinner idea - he explained that the boys were cooking hot dogs, so dinner wasn't necessary. As consolation, he suggested we stop at our park bench in Strathcona Park. I thought this was a good compromise. We grabbed some hot chocolates and biscotti and headed on our way.
When we got there, we were disappointed to see another couple on "our" bench! (I suppose I should first explain why this was "our" bench, and why we couldn't just sit on any other. This is the bench where Ryan and I had our first kiss three years ago! It's also the bench where he took me after I got back from a four month work exchange in Norway to give me a candy ring, explaining that since I now had a ring, I was taken.) After carefully observing the situation, it seems the other couple was in the midst of a rather ugly break up. Rather than just leaving (as I suggested), Ryan was persistent that we'd wait for our bench. About 20 minutes later, our bench was finally cleared. We walked over there, sat down for a while and chat, and when we were about to leave, he stood me up and gave me a big hug. I could feel his heart pounding through his chest. He started talking about our first kiss on the bench, and then about the candy ring he gave me. He said, "remember how back then, I gave you a ring, and told you that now you have a ring you're taken?"...(this is when I caught on, and began giggling and nervously and excitedly saying, "shut-upppp, shut-upppp!!! shut-upppp!" He went down on one knee and did the formal, romantic proposal - "Sarah Jane Jones, I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you! Will you marry me?" Obviously, I said YES!
After a few minutes of letting it all soak in, we decided we'd go for dinner at the restaurant where we had our first date, Pilos (a delicious Greek restaurant). This is when all the texting, phone calls started, and the excitement really set in! After barely being able to eat anything because of our excitement, we left the restaurant. We wanted to bring the wine bottle so we can save the label as memorabilia. As Ryan thought would happen, the server stopped us on our way out explaining that we couldn't take the bottle. All I had to do was flash my new ring and explain that we were just engaged. Her eyes lit up with excitement and she ran inside to fetch us what she called, "the nicest cork we have!"
All in all, it was a great day that I'll never forget!!! The ring has a rose gold band and a round cut diamond! I love it!!
