These are special times

So here's our story....

Chas and I had planned to take a trip to Knoxville to visit his parents over 2 months before the 10 day vacation was to take place. In the process of planning, his mom suggested that we take a driving trip with them down to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. This is a great place for families , retirees, and golfers to hang out and soak up sun on the beach all day. It was very secluded and it was nice because you can ride bikes on the beach, catch crabs, and visit all the different ports around the small island. I was sold.

About three weeks before we left on the trip, Chas and I started reading questions from this book,

It was a great way to have meaningful conversations at the end of the day and just find ways to connect with each other. And no, we weren't reading the booking thinking that after 101 questions we would get engaged like clockwork (obviously, since we are engaged now, ha!)

So I took the little book along with me on our trip, only to realize that I left the book at Chas's parent's house in Knoxville and wouldn't have it during our stay on the island. No worries, I would just come up with my own intriguing questions to ask.

So I am sure by now you are wanting some pictures, so I will flavor the blog with a few.
This is the day we left Knoxville for the 7 hour drive to Hilton Head. Notice the fog around the camera.....it was so humid that day my lens fogged up when I opened my camera. Talk about a hair humidifier.

So, fast forward a little bit to the second night we are on the island. We had spent the morning hanging out on the beach, and Chas's parents treated us to a very exquisite dinner at a place called Red Fish. Best Mahi Mahi I have EVER had. Hands down.
Here we are on the way to dinner, hanging out in the back seat of the Audi.
After dinner we all visited one of the ports that had amazing ice cream and cheap sunglasses. Of course I bought a pair. Chas was acting himself, so I totally didn't expect anything.
I thought we were going to end the night with a bike ride on the beach, like we had done before. Little did I know, previously in the month he shopped online here and found the perfect ring for me. It was exactly what I had hoped for.


So, back to the book. Since we didn't have the questions from the book to ask each other, I had decided the night before to come up with a random question on my own. I thought I was getting pretty good at it. Well, Chas decided to run with that idea while taking a stroll on the beach after our lovely little bike ride up the shoreline. While getting ready to walk back from the beach, he told me that he kind of had a question for me that he had been thinking about.



No sooner had I turned around and saw him pull something out of his pocket was my heart beating profusely out of my chest as I managed to get an "oh honey" out of my mouth. He was knee down in the water, holding that little black box. This was it. I couldn't believe it. THIS was it. On the beach, in the moonlight. How could the moment be more perfect. He said he screwed up the words when he asked me. I was too awe-struck to even remember. All I remember was jumping up and down, crying like a baby, and saying yes while I held his face in my hands. Yes, of course I will marry you.

And just to give you a scenic picture of where we were that magic filled night, here is a day picture of the beach where Chas proposed. It was nice at night because there were hardly any people out at all, probably since it was totally dark and we were under the moonlight as our only means of lighting. Well, except for the flashlight he brought so he made sure I could see the ring before saying yes.
We spent about 5 days total at the island, and before heading back to Knoxville, TN, we took a small detour to Savannah GA (yes we stopped for fresh peaches on the side of the road. Delicious). There is a restaurant there called A Lady and Two Sons. We didn't eat there, but we did get to take some pictures with famous TV people. Like.....

Paula Dean! Ok just kidding, it's only a cardboard cut out. But, I did get to meet her son Brian, for real.

Once we got back to Tennessee, Chas was determined to show me the ways of the southerners by taking me to Dollywood, the Dolly Parton/cowboy theme park of Tennessee. It really was a lot of fun, here is a picture of us on one of the rides with his sister Andrea and fearless niece Gracie Kate.

We ate lunch at the Chicken House, only to be serenaded by the "chicken lady" who made Chas do the chicken dance, it was the best part of visiting Dollywood by far.
This year we continued the tradition of running the Pilot moonlight 5K by the University of Tennessee. The only difference this year was that it was better because Chas's sister decided to join us. And we all finished!

We spent 4th of July morning up in the Smokies at a park that has camping and picnic sites with Chas's family and his great Aunt Sue. What a sweet lady she is, and even for being in her 80's she is still getting around like she was 60. We had a great time, and it definitely was hard to come back to Utah after the chain of events that took place on our vacation adventure. But the nice thing about being home and back in our own world is that we are starting to envision what life will be like togeher, for the rest of our lives.