the barefoot ballerina gets engaged!

About a week ago, I started asking Austin what he wanted to do for the 4th of July.  A bunch of our friends from the kickball team were having a little get together, some of Austin's friends from Houston are in town for the weekend, and there were about 700 fireworks shows going on all over the city.  Austin eventually told me that he wanted to take me somewhere secret to watch the fireworks together, and that he had a surprise for me.  Hmmm.....

Here we are right before we left for the fireworks.  I still had no idea where we were going or why Austin was being so sneaky!  

We ended up at Lake Grapevine.  It was the perfect spot...very breezy, lots of shade, and a great view of the lake.

We had a picnic for dinner: Caesar Salad Wraps, Strawberries, and Tomato Basil Cheese with Crackers.  All on a patriotic plate!  Yum yum yum :)

Austin brought two coolers to the park, but only one of them was used for our dinner.  He also repeatedly told me that I was not allowed to look in the cooler!  I was getting veryyy curious as to what was inside his "secret cooler".  

After dinner, we waited around for the fireworks for what seemed like kind of a long time.  I was ready for the show to start (but mostly to figure out what was in that cooler).

It finally started getting dark...

...and before I knew it, the fireworks had started!

Right as the show started Austin asked me if we could stand up for a second because "his back was hurting from sitting so much".  I didn't really think anything of it, stood up, and kept taking pictures like a goon.  Then, I looked over an saw him doing this:

WILL YOU MARRY ME? 

Holy cow!  At first I had a moment of total word vomit and shouted "NO?!?!?!" meaning "Oh my goodness I can't believe this is for real areyoukiddingme?!"  Then I got it together and exclaimed, "Yes!  Yes!  Of course yes!!!"  

Being the clever little cute head that Austin is, he had a bottle of champagne and some chilled glasses waiting for us in his "secret cooler".  

The "secret cooler" was also where he was hiding the ring.  He put the ring box inside of two koozies to "keep it safe".  

See the koozies on the right?  One was camo and the other was lime green.

He slipped the ring on my finger, popped the bottle, and poured us some bubbly to celebrate!

Cheers!

We watched the rest of the fireworks while we snuggled and smooched and drank our champagne.  It was just the most perfect thing that I have ever been a part of.

We asked a nice man sitting near us to take our picture when the fireworks were over, and he was absolutely gushing.  "Oh wow!  Y'all JUST got engaged.  JUST NOW!  I can't believe this!  I feel like I'm a part of history here!!"  

Happy Tears = Puffy Cheeks :)

On the way home we called my family and some of our friends, and everyone was really excited for us.  We got a few "it's about time"s and a bunch of "when's the weddings?!"s.  I was glad to know how much all of my family loves Austin and how happy they all are for us.  

So, the 4th of July is definitely my favorite holiday now.  I've always loved it, especially the fireworks! But now, every year from now until the end of my days, I will remember last night.  It was so perfect, and I know that Austin put so much effort into planning everything out, but honestly...even if every single thing had gone wrong and there was a swarm of angry bees and we fell in the lake and the ring was made out of string or something, I still would've said "YES" because Austin is the perfect guy for me!

I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with Austin, and I know that we are going to have the most amazing marriage!  

Luckily the ring isn't actually made out of string ;)