Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Surprise in the Middle - Like Ice Cream Cake :)

Ok, so yesterday was mine and Darrell's 2 year anniversary and he wanted to take me to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. It was very pretty and there was a lot to see. It's a good thing it doesn't snow here or else there would have been nothing around, some were kind of droopy but there was a lot of green in the little buildings. I got some really good pictures, here are a few of my favorites: Click on them to make them bigger.


This is a close-up of water falling over a rock fountain thing. I like taking pictures of water, it's so pretty

Pretty Fountain


This plant is also white and hanging from a tree, it looks like it has these flimsy spikes coming out of it.This plant is white and growing off of a tree, it looks kind of tentacle-ish with longer flimsy spike things.
These are the non-underwater plants haha.



This is a picture of multiple pink flowers, the color ranges from white to dark pink with splashes of a maroon-ish purple on the edges.
I thought these were really pretty.


This is a close up of a huge leaf, the camera focuses on the leaf right in front and blurred out everything behindthis is a really pretty plant with dark red leaves, it has a row of little buds that are mainly yellow but with red on the tips.
And these lol.

This is a big leafy plant probably about 4 feet high, all it's leaves were orange and the sun was shining through it making it glow a little
      This plant looked like it was on fire!


This is a picture of tiny oranges all over the ground next to a wooden bench

This is the tree where all the little oranges came from. It's just a picture of all the leaves and tiny oranges around them.

          Oranges!!!!

This is a picture of a long short stair case with really long steps, it has walls on either sides and brown and yellow plants lining it. It's kind of creepy but cool at the same time
        Creepy staircase - probably a lot prettier green haha.

This place was so cool, they even had a Garden for the Blind. It had a little tactile map that Darrell's finger person walked around on.. poor little finger man tripped a few times.. apparently his fingers can't see either haha. This garden would have been really cool if all the stuff was alive. It had all of these really pungent plants like Cherry Sage and Mint plants. Some of them were alive and smelled so good! The even had little statues everywhere that were very textured so he could feel those too.
This is Darrell's hand pretending to be a little man and walking on the tactile map of the Garden for the blind.
This is Darrell's finger man tripping in the map

Darrell's finger man walking on the map.

This is a sign that was in the garden, it says Garden of the Blind, built by the generosity of those who care
This is Darrell checking out a sign for Cherry Sage, it has a description in big letters that pop out of it and a braille description underneath that.
Some signs in the garden. The one Darrell is looking at has big letters and braille.











Anyways, on to the story part - at one point in our walk of the garden we found these glass buildings (I say building but they are like huge plant houses for things that I guess can't grow too well outside) They had very pretty flowers and interesting plants in them. One I thought looked like it should be growing underwater. Well we get to the tallest one and walk inside - it had huge palm trees in it and this big spiral structure and an exit at the top. All ramped so it was easy to get up. Well at the top right around the corner from the door there was a little  bench and Darrell and I decided to take a sit. He then went on to tell me why he chose to bring me to the gardens and gave a little speech about how he can compare a relationship to a garden. When he was done with his speech he said "I also wanted to ask you a question".. Well in the process of saying this he also stands up and reaches into Egypt's treat pouch and pulls out a little box... He then gets down on his knee and proposes to me! I was so excited, I was speechless for about half a second then told him "Ah, No you DIDN'T, no you DIDN'T!! " and then I told him yes ;). We hugged and stuff and he told me about how he's been hiding it from me and that he had gone to the jeweler all on his own and picked out what he wanted. I had no idea that it was coming.. I mean, I knew/hoped something special would have happened that day but had no idea he already had a ring lol. He had actually tried to throw me off the other day by asking me (again) what I liked because he couldn't remember. Things like what cut and yellow or white gold... stuff like that so yeah that made me think he hadn't even started on the whole task haha.
This picture is taken of a tree looking up from the base, it was to show how tall the big spiral building was
This is a picture of Darrell still down on his knee lol, I made him stay down so I could take it.
The tall tree building and Darrell right after he proposed!


This is a picture of my ring on my finger, It's a solitaire marquise cut diamond on a white gold band, cathedral setting with a few extra prongs the jeweler put on
This is a picture of a bunch of small tree trunks that have little spiky things coming out of them, it looks almost furry.
I don't like 'ring on hand' pictures but figured there has to be at least one. Oh and that tree trunk was crazy!

This is a picture of the bench I was sitting on when he asked
This is the bench I was sitting on :)


So anyways, we call our parents and my mom and dad are too excited (his are too haha). Darrell said he had to get on to my dad the other day because my dad had texted Darrell something about it.. Darrell told him that I sometimes read his text messages so don't text stuff like that.. My dad can't keep a secret at all. And, I don't read his texts by the way!!! haha. My mom was at work and Darrell had told her it would be today so when I called and she put me on hold we both had to laugh at her haha.


This picture is of a section of water right after a small little water fall, the rocks underneath are blue red purple and light browns, the water is rippling and is very pretty.A picture of the ceiling of a wooden gazebo we went and sat at later on. It's wood and is laid out in the pattern of a star burst. It used 2 by 6 inch wooden slats to make the whole thing. I'm guessing those dimensions lolThese are some random pictures of the place. The one below is the ceiling of a little gazebo thing. To the right is some rocks in water ripples. This is a picture of me leaning on Darrell in the little gazebo thing, we're just being dumb.
Happy! Darrell's head looks a little blown up in the shot but it's ok :)


 This is a close up of a fence made out of little sticks, it's kind of japanese themed
Still going with the japanese theme, there was a little pond that had a small island in the middle, there were two little trees on it, too cute








The right picture is a wooden fence, really cool looking and on the left is a pond with 2 trees on a little island in the middle.



Anyways, after the gardens I surprised Darrell with dinner at The Melting Pot. Best place ever by the way haha. We had a really good dessert (Chocolate S'more Fondue) and went home all full and stuffed. All around I think it was a pretty good day. Don't you?

17 comments:

Katrin said...

WOW! Congrats! What a special day for both of you!

L^2 said...

Wow, Congratulations! Sounds like it was a GREAT day. :-)

Ally and Eclipse said...

You guys are sooo cute together! What an amazing place to get engaged! Alex woke me up to propose to me while I was fighting an infection, not romantic at all! :-D Congratulations again on the engagement! You need an "awesome" Reaction!

Ro said...

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!

That is the best proposal!!!! Wow!!!! I had no idea it was coming. I've got my VO keys locked and I'm reading about all the pictures, imagining how pretty it was and then whamo!!! Oh my God, is he gonna propose? Oh my god! My left hand flew to my mouth and my eyes welled up as I finished reading!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Wow, wow wow wow!!!!

Infrequent Flyers said...

Natalie, you're JUST as sneaky as Darrell, talking lalala about the gardens and the dead plants and the braille signs and the map....

And then, buried in the middle of a loonnng paragraph--kaboom! You guys are engaged! And then back to the rocks and the ceiling and the fence....

Ha ha! I'm so excited for you guys! The ring is beautiful--tell Darrell I say he did a great job! And that's a huge blessing that your parents are all happy about you two--parental support isn't always a given, after all, but your marriage will be so much stronger with it than without.

Hugs to you both!
Mimi

Lisa and pups said...

Congrats - that's so awesome!!!! Love all the pics. Love the melting pot!

Natalie said...

Thanks everyone!!! I was/am very excited about all of it.

Ally - that's too funny but I guess when you know, you know.. and he knew haha

Ro - You actually made me teary eyed from laughing just reading your comment lol. It's so much funnier because if it were me I would scroll ahead and just skip to the good part haha.

Mimi - Thanks so much, glad I could trick you ;) Your comment made me laugh just as hard as Ro's lol. I am really happy that both are parents are on board with everything. It does make it that much better :)

Thanks again everyone!!

Go read Darrell's post now, its his version of the story lol

Ro said...

I'm not getting any new blogs from him. The last one I have is the one where he talked about GDB but withheld stuff.

Do you guys mind if I do a blog post about you two?

Natalie said...

Hmm. It probably just hasn't gone into the feed yet. I notice sometimes it takes up to 20-30 minutes to go onto the feed. It's not even in mine and I helped him post it lol. So it's there haha. You sound all bitter that he withheld all that vital information from you lol. He did it because he wants you to be surprised at all the stuff you get to do, dont' hate him haha. Well, you can hate him a bit if you want lol.

By all means, go and post away!! You never have to ask lol. It's your blog and you post what you want! Plus I wanna see what you have to say haha.

Ro said...

Oh I'm not bitter. That was just the best way to describe the last post I read of his lol!

I like to ask in ocassions like this one, because who knows if you want that plastered all over hehe! I'll probably post it tomorrow when my brain is more awake ;)

Natalie said...

lol if you say so haha.

Sounds good though, get that brain working first lol.

Beth and Alfie said...

CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS!! :-) You 2 make such a beautiful couple, & I'm so happy for you! I love those gardens, too...we've been there before (in the blazing heat tho, maybe winter is better!) So excited for you...thanks for sharing! :-)

Beth and Alfie said...

PS -- Forgot to say -- that's a beautiful ring! :-)

Natalie said...

Thanks Erin and Beth!!!

Beth, I loved the Gardens too.. even though some of the plants were not at their best lol. We need to find just the right time to go lol.. That might be hard considering our weather lol.

Jen said...

Aw that was a brilliant post. Completely didn't see it coming.
The day sounds perfect. Congratulations. I hope you are both very happy together.

Jen said...

Sorry if my last message posted already, but encase it didn't:
Congratulations. I hope you two are very happy together. That sounds like a perfect day and I didn't see the surprise in the middle coming when I read that.
Jen x

Sarah and the Pack. said...

Wow! What an amazing day! I am so happy for you and Darrell!