Engagement

Upon my arrival home from Seattle, Paul left the next day to spend a month in Davidson, North Carolina, his alma mater. I spent two weeks doing a rotation in San Antonio and left the next 2 weeks open to vacation. On October 11, Paul flew to Houston and I drove there to take our Step II CK ( Part of our licensure exam to be doctors). This was our first time to be together for more than a day in about two and a half months. We took the test Friday, which is taking History and Physicals of 12 standardized patients ( aka fake patients that are acting) and than writing up a note with what you think they have. The test is just a bit more exciting because it is timed, and Paul and I both ran out of time on some of them before getting to go everything we would want to do. But last test of the year -- hoorah!!
That Friday night we went out with Lindsey and Luke, my long-time friends who we stayed with in Houston. We had to wake up way too early Saturday to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina. Paul had planned a nice weekend for us up in the mountains ( for my birthday is what he told me). So we drove up to Blowing Rock, North Carolina ( up near Boone) and stayed in a beautiful house. KD Weeks, Paul's mentor from college and also who we has working with during the present rotation, let us stay in his house for the weekend. It was sooo nice. I will include some pictures of the amazing view from the balcony. So we arrived Saturday afternoon, went for a little run around town and around a pond, went walking around the town, and had a glass of wine at a restaurant in town as well as some ice cream - perfect combination. Paul also bought me a bracelet in a store there, and I told him this was the first piece of jewelry he had bought me ( little did I know). We fell asleep super early, as we had gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before.
So Saturday, Paul had planned for us to go on a hike up in Grandfather Mountain. We changed trails about a mile into it, went back to our car and went into the Grandfather Mountain Park to go on a more intense trail. But I am so glad we did, because the trail we ended up doing was like no trail I had been on before with ladders and cables along the way and awesome views. We made it to the top, the highest point in these ranges (although it was only 5900 feet - so different than the 13,000 ft peaks in the Rockies). There Paul and I were reminiscing on our great adventures we had been on and shared some memories of our relationship. I still had no clue as to what was about to happen. It was so perfect, as we were the only ones up there on this peak. He than got on one knee, said some sweet things, and asked me to marry him... and I said YES!
Hope you enjoy the pictures.