Ti amo Jake!

So we're back from Italy, and we had a FANTASTIC time! Venice is such a beautiful city! I have a lot of pictures, but I'm going to make you wait for another post to see all of them. This post is more of an announcement........my wonderful Jake asked me to marry him in Venice! I said yes, of course, and now we're giddily planning for a June wedding. This boy that I found is just so romantic, I can hardly stand it! Love him! Here's the story:

The Saturday before we left for Italy, Jake told me to clear the day so he could take me on a date. He picked me up that morning and took me to Thanksgiving point, about 40 minutes south of my house here in SLC. When we got there, I was surprised to see Jake's friend Justin, and his brother Joe. We walked around the gardens for a few hours and took lots of fun, cheesy pictures. After a little while, Jake handed me a piece of paper and told me he was ditching me. Confused, I read the note and realized that it was a clue. Jake was sending me on a scavenger hunt! So for the next 4 hours, I drove over 60 miles and collected 10 different items. Each stop on the hunt had a gift with a note about something we've done together over the last year, along with a clue for the next point. All the while, Jake and his spies were one step ahead of me, hiding and taking photos of me opening each gift. The 11th gift/clue in the hunt came the next day when I took Jake to one of my favorite places in the world - White Pine Lake. I just love that hike from Tony Grove!

Fast forward 6 days..........we're in Italy. Saturday morning he woke me up pretty early and told me to get dressed, we were going on a walk. We walked for about an hour around the city, getting hopelessly lost in the beautiful maze of architecture and canals. He stopped for a moment on a small bridge to take a picture. The scene was idyllic. The sun was just starting to peak above the buildings, the city was starting to wake up, little shopkeepers were opening their stores, and a gondola was meandering it's way under the bridge we were on. When all of a sudden, Jake whips out the 12th note of the scavenger hunt. It was October 16th - exactly one year from our first date! He had written an adorable letter, he said some sweet things, then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. The first thing out of my mouth was: "are you serious?!" after he said yes, I responded: "I said yes a long time ago!" And that was that! I cannot even express how happy I am. My life has changed so much since I met Jake and I am so excited to see the adventures we'll have in the years to come! Venice will always be special to us, and I hope we get to visit again sometime in the future. And since I can't have a post without pictures, here are a few:

Walking around the city in the early morning

We stopped at the rialto market and got breakfast. Pastries and fresh peaches!

The spot where he proposed

So happy!

The bling. Jake picked it out all by himself! He did such a great job, I LOVE it!


Stay tuned for more stories and pictures from the trip!

oh, and COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT!! Grazie!