The Engagement

After a long stressful night Thursday (losing our softball game 19-0 didn't help) in which much was discussed - finances - life - dreams - passion - walking away from a corporate world and a corporate resume - needless to say, nothing was really resolved. We went to bed only after assuring eachother we were not mad at the other... never go to bed mad - seems to be a good mantra.

Liz awoke early for her 6am-2pm shift at Balfour's memory care facility (she's a care partner for an alzheimer's home) - I was up to my alarm at 7:15 to see the sun shining on the flatirons outside of our window while the birds chirped their welcome to the first spring-like weather we've seen in over 3 weeks. (This day has been a long time coming :) I thought to myself "today is the day!"

I reserved an airplane for a 2:30pm flight and called and asked Liz if she wanted to come on an Aerial Photography flight with me. The premise was that The City of Boulder had called and wanted some last minute shots of the flatirons. Seemed feasible to me - I've often had clients call the same day that they're looking for shots - Liz fell for it hook line and sinker. (or so she says:)

I then proceeded to find a rickety ladder that had been discarded by the next door neighbors with which Colby and I ascended onto the roof to survey my "canvas". I started right in with two rolls of white paper that I had from a former life of running an art gallery. After finishing the downstroke of the second R in Marry I ran out of paper. Leaving a nice big white - WILL U MAR on the roof.

Off to find more paper... 2 hours later, after a visit to the local Blueprint Supply, store I was back in business. Meanwhile, Liz had received a phone call from Steamboat Ski Patrol - inviting her to join them for a 2 day intensive ski patrol training and try out session on April 1st and 2nd. I then received the same invitation as well. The excitement for getting these invitations was a perfect precursor to what was to come.

With around 20 minutes to spare - I left for the office to meet Liz (she thought I'd been hard at work all day). We then drove to the airport and loaded up into Cessna 5224K and promptly taxied to the end of runway 11L where we waited... and waited... and waited. Never in all of my flying experiences have I waited as long as we did on Friday - ExecuJets, helicopters, Dakotas, Seminoles, DiamondStars - everyone and their boss's mom was out flying Friday afternoon... well at least they were landing. As we waited to takeoff, me attentively listening to the tower waiting for our call sign - Liz sat happily fiddling with her headset - interupting Air Traffic Control to see if her headset was working properly... ah the love of my life can stress me out sometimes!! :) Finally, we were given clearance and off we went into the wild blue yonder!!

I had told Liz that she was to be the photographer for the flight - so we had prepared her window so that it could swing up flush against the wing while in flight (this way she could hang out of the window and take the best pictures of those flatirons as possible!)




After two low and slow passes right next to the flatirons I asked if she wouldn't mind taking a quick picture of our house for longevity (which on hindsight was probably not the most inconspicuous adjective). Seemed like a reasonable request to me... I do have aerial shots of every other place in Boulder that both she and I have lived in - so why not add our current home?? So we swooped down and left and slowly our street came into view - and then our house - and then the screams of excitement were all I could hear over the cockpit intercom... as the shouts of "Oh my God" paused for a few seconds I slipped in the official question: "Liz, will you marry me?" - without even a slight hesitation she shouted "YES, YES, OF COURSE!!"

It was at that point that I just wanted to be on the ground - as it's quite hard to hug and kiss and truly celebrate while flying a small airplane 500 feet over the house.... so after a few "laps around the block" to get some good shots of the house - we flew back towards JeffCo Airport. As a newly engaged couple - we came in for a soft squeeky clean landing at JeffCo - taxied to parking... shut down, jumped out and ran to give my new fiance a hug and kiss.... Woooeee we're engaged!!


The photos of the days events can be found here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=14rdrxsi.6hc12c6a&x=0&h=1&y=-x8j26d