The proposal was a surprise for me!!  We were in Florida with Grant's parents visiting with his whole family.  On Friday night we planned to go out to a nice family dinner at the Beach House on Anna Maria island.  We had been there before and it is a beautiful restaurant on the beach. It was nearing the end of our vacation and I was a bit tired and ready to just relax for the evening. 

After everyone had taken their seats Grant excused himself to go to the bathroom.  When he returned he tapped me on the shoulder (as to which I thought he was trying to annoy me) and when I turned around he was on his knees and asking for my hand in marriage.  I WAS SHOCKED and I immediately burst into tears. 

It wasn't until about 5 minutes later that I also noticed my parents had flown in to witness the thing!! Of course I said YES and we all had a great dinner together to celebrate (I didn't touch my meal).  It was probably the happiest moment of my life (so far). 

This is kind of a lengthy story.  It was a Friday in January and the Illini had a home basketball game the next afternoon.  Kim’s grandma was originally going to go with her parents.  I thought it would be a perfect time to go ring shopping with my Mom.  Well, Kim’s grandma didn’t feel well, so she cancelled and Kim immediately asked if I wanted to go with the game with her and her parents….problem was, I had just made plans with my Mom five minutes prior.  I knew my parents were leaving for Florida in a week, so I needed to come up with a really good excuse since I would be blowing off my favorite sport and favorite team.  I told Kim I wouldn’t be able to make it and that Gary (my step-dad) really wanted to look at possibly buying a new set of clubs for Florida.  Kim was upset that I would choose to go with my parents instead of the basketball game.  It wasn’t that I was choosing my family over hers, it was the fact that I didn’t invite her.  There were quite a few lengthy email conversations going on that Friday afternoon (sorry Horizon).

 Fast forward almost two months.  All of my family was able to come down to Florida for a much needed vacation.  My sister (Rachel), Kim, and I spent a week in Bradenton, FL.  For the last couple days of our trip, my brother (Ross), his wife (Niki), and my niece (Ellie) were able to maneuver some of their vacation days around to make it for the special day.  Of course, the icing on the cake was having Kim’s parents surprise her (I asked them to come down the same afternoon I was going to go ring shopping in the previous paragraph).

 The night before we were supposed to have “the dinner”, Kim was pretty tired and ready to go home.  She laid in to me pretty good about where the relationship was going and that she was getting older, etc.  Midway through the argument I just turned on my side and faced away from her and smiled.  She had absolutely no idea what was planned.  The next night we had reservations at the Beach House on Anna Maria Island.  It’s literally right on the Gulf.  As soon as we sat down, I excused myself to go find Kim’s parents who were hiding in the restaurant.  When I came back, I tapped Kim on the shoulder and proposed.  At first she thought I was trying to embarrass her, so her response when I asked was, “Are you serious?”  I said yes, and then she started crying.  It wasn’t until she stood up to kiss me that she noticed her parents, and absolutely lost it.