It's official, Paul and I are engaged!

After almost 4 years of dating, he has finally popped the question ;)

And we are ecstatic!

How did he do it?

Well, as I had mentioned we've been going to Capitola every year for Valentine's Day. It's become our special little Valentine's place. And as funny as it sounds, I was not expecting a Valentine's proposal, so it was a complete surprise.

If you follow along here, you may have seen that Paul and I just recently traveled to Paris and Rome. When we were planning our trip and told our families about it, everyone asked us if a proposal would happen in Paris. Seriously, everyone. I think all my sisters, my mom, MY BOSS (!), my friends, all asked me. And all of Paul's family asked him "are you going to propose?!". His answer?

Nope. That's "too cliche".

So, we went on our trip, and as luck would have it, no proposal happened. Though I was keeping a glimmer of hope lit that it just might happen there. Nope! In hindsight, I am glad it didn't happen on our trip because there were a lot of stressful moments, and I wouldn't have wanted those memories tangled with a proposal..

So, since Paris was apparently too cliche, surely, Valentine's had to be too. :)

When we exchanged V-Day gifts and I opened mine to find a pair of earrings, all thoughts of a possible ring were squashed for this year. Sigh.

The restaurant we go to, Shadowbrook, is at the bottom of this little hill covered in greenery and little waterfalls and ponds. You can take the stairs down to the restaurant, where there are about 5 sets of stairs and walkways that pass through gardens and little waterfalls, or they have a little gondola that you can ride down in.

Instead of taking the gondola ride down to the restaurant, Paul wanted to take the scenic stairways down. It's really beautiful and romantic. We stopped halfway down, where Paul started talking...

Before I knew it, he was down on one knee with a box he had pulled out of his sock!

He opened up the box....upside down!!!! (seriously, the best part)

After fixing it, he asked, and of course, I said YES!

It was the best night ever! And we are so excited for the future.

Obviously my family had to tease Paul about it: "oh how cliche!!"

But it's the best cliche to me!

So that's how Paul managed to surprise me with a Valentine's Day proposal. Cheers! <3