WOW.

Thank you for your kind words and well wishes over the past few days! It has been so nice to hear from friends and family back home and to know that you are just as excited as we are!!

So Adam did good. That's pretty much all I can say. 

I thought it all started a month ago when I teased him about not being able to keep a secret ("Alison, I got you a surprise today, so don't look in the top left cabinet!"). He was annoyed when I teased him about it, and decided to plan a surprise for Christmas weekend. I didn't want to ask about it because I know Adam: I would say one little thing and he would drop ridiculous hints (TOP LEFT CABINET) and it wouldn't be a surprise. Little did I know what was actually coming :)

I turned out to have a half-day on Wednesday, and as soon as Adam found out, he said "Oh, we can do part of the weekend surprise on Wednesday!" I guess the ring was burning a hole in his pocket? Then last week, he randomly said "Alison, your nails are gross. You should get a manicure." Strange, right? Especially considering he never seemed bothered by my nail biting in the past. He said I would want a manicure for the activity on Wednesday, to which I said "Oh, we're getting our pictures taken by that photography company, aren't we?!" To his credit, Adam said nothing. (Yes, to most of you this would be a RED FLAG, but I couldn't imagine that Adam had an engagement ring with him here. While we had looked in New York last summer, I knew he would want to get a ring from Schmitt's, and I didn't remember a time that he could have gone while we were in Phoenix).

I came home from work on Tuesday to an itinerary of weekend activities. Wednesday's said that the dress was "fancy" and that we would be outside a lot, so I would also need to dress warmly. We were having a Christmas party with the kids and their parents at school, so this is what I looked like in the morning:

Santa and Mrs. Claus (Susan always gets to be the cute one!)

Then I quickly changed to meet Adam, where we caught a cab to a random intersection an hour away. We were then picked up by 2 people, one of whom confirmed the photo shoot ("Hi Alison, I'm Bella, do you remember me from the bazaar?"). Though I did catch the comment about special equipment, I thought she meant setting up cameras, and she didn't want to say it out loud because it would give away the photo shoot. After driving for another hour, we arrived at the Great Wall!! I was so excited to do a professional photo shoot with Adam, all dressed up, in such a beautiful, unique location. It was perfect--10 degrees warmer than the forecast, clear blue skies, and relatively empty. We had a lot of fun posing for pictures and walking around the wall.

We got pretty far down when the photographer said he was looking for a special spot (I assumed based on the sunlight because it was getting later). He said he wanted to take a few "test shots" with us with our jackets on, and then he would tell us where to stand and take them off. Apparently this was The Sign for Adam, though Miss Oblivious over here just thought it was related to getting us in a good light. He positioned Adam leaning against the wall and me facing him, holding hands. Then Adam looked at me and said "So...there's no special deal before December 31st" (his premise for taking pictures now instead of the warmer springtime) "and you know, um, I'm really bad at keeping secrets, and um, I'm bad at surprises, so, um [kneel on one knee, take out a white box, open to a beautiful beautiful ring], will you marry me?"

My first thought? OHMYGOD.

My next thought? I love him so much.

Then Bella said "Ok Adam, put the ring on her finger very very slowly, so we can get the picture." (So glad there was someone there to document this for us!) Many people have asked to see the ring, so here you go:

I, on the other hand, am dying to see the photographer's pictures tomorrow. Since we don't have them yet, here's another of Adam and me from our other trip to the Great Wall: