wanna get married? yeah me too.

mr. lesley and i got engaged! 

yep. 

i am the soon-to-be mrs. lesley (!). 

and i couldn't be happier. 

october 7, 2011 was one of the happiest days of my life, and it went a little something like this...

i heard a little knock on my classroom door friday afternoon and opened it only to see mr. lesley standing there, pumpkin spiced latte in hand. 

i was lucky enough to get his company for lunch, when he informed me (quite specifically i might add) that we would be going to dinner with some of his friends that night but he wanted to pick me up early to go "see the fall leaves." 

although we have been known to do such things, he was acting quite suspicious.

(it didn't help that every time he was on the computer the past week he would never let me see what he was doing and made sure i knew not to hack into his facebook. i mean, who does he think i am? i may be nosy, but i'm not THAT bad:) 

he arrived at my apartment a little before six, roughed up sir winston for a bit, and then we were off to admire the changing foliage. 

after a stop off at starbucks for some hot chocolate, we made our way to a nice little park in denver just in time for sunset.

we found a little bench where (as i found out later) mr. lesley planned on proposing except instead of being alone at the little park, we were surrounded by 7 year olds, kicking soccer balls as hard as they possibly could.

i was thoroughly entertained, but mr. lesley was less than ecstatic to have the company, so we decided to take a stroll around the park instead.

all of the sudden, he stopped near some flowers and asked me a little question..

"do you remember what i asked you the night before your first half marathon?" 

(now at this point i really thought something was up) 

to which i responded, "you asked if i would be your girlfriend" 

apparently that wasn't the answer he was looking for...

"no, what did i ask you specifically?"

then it really clicked...

"you asked if you could come to my race as my boyfriend." 

before i knew it, he was on his knee and said,

"now i want to know if i can go to this race as your fiancee. will you marry me?" 

i think i reached for the ring first (it was so pretty...i couldn't help it), but then i said "YES!"

and gave him the biggest hug and kiss of my life! 

(and yes, in case you were wondering, i'm sure the little kids were staring at us by this point completely grossed out, but of course we didn't care.)

then he said a bunch of other wonderful things.
words i will hold in my heart forever.

it was only appropriate then that we celebrate with champagne, which mr. lesley poured all over himself before it made its way into our glasses.

yeah, we're pretty classy.

once our little celebration was over, mr. lesley told me that we were still going to meet his friends for dinner, but they were running late so we needed to kill some time.

we decided to stop at our favorite record shop, twist and shout, to pick up a record for this special occasion.

(we kinda have a thing with buying records.)

we picked a band of horses album, since it was the first concert we went to together:)

at this point, it was still "too early" to go to the restuarant, so mr. lesley suggested we go to the atomic cowboy to get a drink before dinner...

but when i walked in, i was greeted by 25+ of some of my favorite denver friends, 

cheering and clapping, and i was in shock (to say the least)...

and REALLY happy with mr. lesley.

apparently, he had invited all my friends to a "surprise marathon pump up party." 

and even though they thought it was strange (have you ever heard of a marathon party?) they came anyway and were just as surprised as me when they found out we were engaged:)

so, first things first, i had to show off my new bling, bling...

call my sister and shed a few (or a lot) of tears that the timing of the night didn't work out and she was with her fiancee (yes, we are now engaged at the same time:) and at a rehearsal dinner for a wedding the next day.

she sent flowers in her absence, and they were BEAUTIFUL!

and take as many photos with all the amazing people who came to celebrate with us!

after saying hello to everyone, mr. lesley's uncle (who came into town to watch his son, mr. lesley's cousin, run the marathon with us) grabbed the mic and gave the sweetest speech as a way to welcome me into the family.

then of course, there were a lot of hugs...

a lot of eating atomic cowboy's gigantic pizza slices...

a lot more photo opps (thanks matt,!)...

a lot of family quality time...

a lot of friends who filled my heart...

and a lot of l.o.v.e.

it was perfect.

so, so perfect.

i was overwhelmed by the love of so many people that night.

i don't know if i've ever felt so celebrated in all my life.

God has truly blessed both of us.

and now i just can't wait to start our life together.

we are kinda the power couple of the century, after all.

(move over mr. and mrs. obama).

let the wedding planning commence!

(fyi: if any of you would like to just go ahead and plan our wedding that would be great. thanks:)