A Weekend of Engagement

Rehoboth Beach & Williamsburg | August 2-4, 2013 | What started out as a relaxing weekend with Jon’s family turned into a exciting engagement on the beach!

Jon and I traveled to Rehoboth Beach early Friday morning with his parents to hang out on the beach and enjoy Rehoboth. We were staying in Bethany Beach about 30 minutes from downtown Rehoboth (courtesy of Jon’s mom!). A short walk over to the beach area- which was much less crowded than the few times I’ve ventured to Rehoboth during the busy season. We pulled out the beach chairs, umbrella, and the cooler full of tasty drinks and enjoyed many hours of sun. We had arrived early, so I didn’t think much of it when Jon and his mom went back to bring in our luggage in the early afternoon. I did think it took them a long time to come back, but originally thought it was just for snacks. (Little did I know what was to come.) 

We spent a lot of hours out there, taking quick dips in the freezing ocean to cool off, and breaking out the bocce set. Around 4pm we ventured back to the room to get ready before heading out to dinner. We chose to eat at the Dogfish Brewpub (one of mine and Jon’s favorite spots), try out some fancy beer and yummy burgers- and get 10% off! 🙂 Afterwards we wandered the boardwalk, stopped in a few shops, I grabbed some fudge (chocolate peanut butter of course) and then we made the drive back to Bethany. 

Saturday morning we proved that you can exercise on vacation! Jon’s mom went out for a four mile power walk while Jon, myself and his dad went out for a run. Jon went for two miles while his dad and I went for six. It was a bit brutal- too flat and no breeze going one way- but we made it. Was part of my first week back into training for the next half in October (Hershey Half with JJ). We had a tasty complimentary breakfast before saying goodbye to Jon’s parents. They had to make the incredibly long drive all the way to Waynesville that day. Super big thank you to them for the wonderful company and of course helping out with what was to come later that day!

Jon and I headed out to the beach again for a few hours – we decided that we’ve moved from just beach towel people to beach chair and umbrella people. It’s the way to go- never again will we go without them. 🙂 Ironically we did start talking about hypothetical wedding stuff (little did i know.. ha). We headed in around 2pm which was good for me considering my weird skin heat rash problem that of course was flaring up due to too much time in the sun. Jon had mentioned that we had dinner reservations (which was kinda my first clue that something was up) because well he’s not a planner. I usually do all of that. But I thought well this is exciting- he’s finally arranged something for the night- and he was pretty proud of it. In the afternoon he mentioned to me  “I’ve got a surprise for you.” My initial thought was: is this going to happen now? However it was instead a beautiful bouquet of flowers, cupcakes and some Festina Peche. (He knows me well.) This made me think- ok this is my surprise for the weekend and we’re just going to dinner to celebrate the relaxing weekend. 

We had decided to take the DART bus up to Rehoboth so that Jon didn’t have to worry about driving and parking. Of course we had to stop by the outlets just so I could get in a little tax free shopping! There wasn’t much that I found that I wanted to buy and Jon was kind of following me around making me a little anxious. We ended up not making it up to one of the outlet sections due to their shuttle and Jon wanting to make sure we had a chance to get down to the boardwalk before our dinner reservations. (again I was suspicious but I had just gotten flowers and cupcakes, etc. so I wasn’t sure…) We made it down to the boardwalk to go for a walk on the beach and of course it started to sprinkle. We started on the walk through the sand… which after a while really starts to work on your ankles. I was holding my dress to keep it from dragging in the sand and it seemed to take forever for us to get toward the end of the boardwalk. We had been talking about random things on the way down there, and then all of a sudden Jon starts to talk about the beginning for our relationship and how someone thought we’d been together forever based on how we interacted with each other. Then he said- hey I forgot to give you the card earlier that came with the flowers and pulled it out of his pocket- I was a little confused at this point- but as soon as I opened the envelope and read “I hope eleven months is enough time to plan a wedding…” I got a huge smile on my face and got incredibly excited. I set down the note with my flip flops in the sand and waited for what was to come. I would love to say that I remember every word of what happened next- but I was so excited that it was a blur. There were a few tears among the smiles over what he was saying and then Jon got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I jumped up and down saying yes in response. He showed me the beautiful ring that he picked out. It was perfect. Not what I was expecting at all (we had been discussing solitaires.) But it was exactly what I wanted. More jumping up and down followed. SO EXCITED. I took a photo of my hand with a beach in the background (like you do) and then we found a nice family to take some photos for us at the spot where it happened. 

Afterwards we made a ton of phone calls to family and friends to tell them the wonderful news. Everyone was so excited with us!! We finally made it to our delicious dinner at Jam Bistro- followed by more photos and phone calls and texts. It was hard to concentrate on the food with all the well wishes! Loved it though- it was a great pick by Jon- very us- not too fancy but nice enough to have great food. We made it Facebook official- and wow what a response! So many likes and comments- I don’t think my Facebook has ever had that much action! Thank you to all for all the congratulations. We then headed over to the Dogfish Brewpub for a celebratory drink when I noticed my heat rash disease had flared up with all the heat and excitement. I had to get some Benadryl and Gatorade to help with the issue. Of course prior to the relief- it took us forever to get back from Rehoboth to Bethany. We were hoping to get the bus but missed it, and then it took us forever to get a cab- and then once we did it cost a small fortune. But we made it back in one piece and I made it to Wallgreen’s for medicine. What a day. Amazing. Jon thinks everything went wrong (comedy of errors) but for me it was wonderful. A super great day that I’ll always remember!

And then the weekend wasn’t over. We got up super early to head to Busch Gardens for the day. Jon was taking me on a trip around Europe to celebrate ;p. We love Busch Gardens- a day full of roller coasters, water rides, and park wandering. I had locked up the beautiful ring for the day just because I was nervous about taking it around the park. We had ice cream and ate in Ireland for lunch and of course Trapper’s Smokehouse barbeque for dinner. We rode Verbolten twice- great new ride Busch Gardens. Love it. Hearing Jon scream like a little girl in the dark was hilarious. We stayed for the fireworks which were pretty decent for an amusement park. Then headed back for the night before another early morning back to DC and to work. 

An incredible weekend. So many thank yous to everyone who helped put it together. and Thank you to Jon- I love you and am so excited to plan our wedding with you!