The Proposal: By Steve

Some people have been asking about the proposal story, so we thought to ourselves "why not put it up on the blog that has been detailing our adventures in Alaska together?"  So, here goes.

As you may remember, during the winter we went for a hike up a mountain.  It was called Mt. Baldy.  The hike resulted in this picture on the blog (p.s. for those looking for foreshadowing, the peak we are facing in this picture is where we were standing when I proposed):

Well, what the blog post may have failed to mentioned (for fear of scaring our families) is that we got temporarily lost on our way down the mountain.  It was only for about 20 minutes, and we could see the end destination, but we slightly misplaced the trail and ended up walking through 2-feet of snow.  

While doing this, I was exceptionally calm, light-spirited, and happy . . . which, if you know me in trouble situations, may not always be true.  It was in this instant when I realized that it was Tammy's presence that was making it all ok: she kept me calm and gave me a sense of comfort and security.  I knew I had to spend the rest of my life with her.  The proposal location was set.

Flash forward to this past Saturday (June 11, 2011).  We decided to go on another hike up Mt. Baldy:

We made it to the top of the ridge and paused.  Tammy got curious and thought the proposal was about to happen.  Tammy was mistaken.

We then climbed higher, all the way to the mountain's summit.  Steve set up his tripod, ran back to Tammy, and got down on one knee:

All the rest is history.  She was kind of surprised (she had 10 seconds of notice because that is how long my self-timer runs for).  We drank some champagne and ate some strawberries I brought up:

And we spent some time soaking in the fact that we were now, officially, engaged:

After we made it to the bottom, we headed to Girdwood for a dinner at Jack Sprat's and a relaxing evening in the Alyeska Resort:

Of course, no set of engagement pictures would be complete without the signature Tammy face:

So that's the engagement story.  We have gone from one of our first dates in May 2005 to being engaged in Alaska in 2011.  And we are so excited to see what the future has in store for us together:

                                               (Us in Greenfield Village, Michigan on one of our first dates)