gosh, it's a beautiful night...(setting the scene)

That was the phrase that should have alerted me to the dramatic moment (cue music!) that was about to take place. As it was, I was oblivious- though not for lack of bugging Mr. Pencils for weeks and weeks about when this moment would take place. Which moment? Why this moment of course:

personal photo

It all started during our cross-country road trip in the summer of 2008. Mr. Pencils and I had taken to the roads with his cousin, called Sally. We all decided to take this adventure for many reasons. Mainly, each of us truly wanted to experience a USA road trip and we wanted to do it before gas got even more expensive (please recall that gas in the summer of 2008 was at an all time high of 4 or more dollars a gallon. We were pretty convinced it was just going to go up! We now don't acknowledge that gas is again half the price it was then.....arg). Also, we were taking an Alaskan cruise with his entire family and thought this was the perfect opportunity to do it!

So we set out, and drove from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Tacoma, Washington in 9 short days. We saw some amazing things, including Mr. Pencils' first trip to Yellowstone National Park! I was so excited about this because my family visited Yellowstone at least twice a year growing up. It was so fun to share this place with Mr. P. Before I move on, here are some pics from the first leg of the trip:

The Pencils with Lake Yellowstone in the background

Me at Mount Rushmore

Me and Mr. Pencils at Lake Couer d'Alene in my great home state of Idaho!

Fast forward past a wonderful stay with Bridesmaid AP, a sketchy bus trip from Tacoma to Vancouver, a long line to get on a big boat and..........................we're on an Alaskan Cruise!

On our third day of the cruise, the whole family woke up early for an excursion to go zip lining in an Alaskan rainforest. I was really excited, but also a bit frustrated with Mr. Pencils. The day before, we had one of those all out, open hearted discussions about WHY we weren't getting married yet and WHY we had to wait. We had been dating for 4 and a half years, had stuck through some pretty trying times, including my first year as a teacher (a time where I barely recognized myself half the time), and we knew we were going to get married eventually.

I asked Mr. Pencils why we were waiting. He gave the answers we had rehearsed and repeated times before- we're still pretty young, we've seen so many young marriages fail or struggle- but I was sick of these excuses. Both of us maintained we would be much closer to 30 before we married. Yet, now, it seemed pointless to me that we weren't getting engaged because of other people and society's expectations. So, we're NOT getting engaged BECAUSE people expect us to?!?! That was just as dumb to me AS getting engaged because people expected us to. And, I told him so.

On our balcony, staring out at the rough sea, with the wind whipping at our faces, we had the defining moment. The moment where one person says "this is either it, or it isn't. We can't wait forever." Luckily, Mr. Pencils didn't wait too much longer.

SO! After zip lining, Mr. Pencils, his brother and I were eating some amazing fish and chips (yum!) when he looked at me and said "Want to go look at engagement rings?"

My. jaw. dropped.

"Of course!"

So we drug his little brother to the myriad of jewelry stores that only exist at cruise ports. Five minutes in to the first store, we found it. IT. What did it look like? Stick around for more....

Did you have a moment or conversation that cemented the deal for you and your fiance? What was it?