Snow romantic!

"Our place" is Morton Arboretum. We go there every season several times a year for picnics, hikes, taking in the fall colors, playing in the snow, etc. I was really hoping that he would propose here, our special place. So when we decided the day before to go to the Arboretum for our annual "play in the snow day" (goodness knows we have plenty of it here this year!) I was very hopeful this would be the day! We were also planning to try snow shoeing.

Eric arrived at my house to pick me up with a dozen (minus one) beautiful red roses, and we headed off. We had lunch, then rented our snowshoes and headed out. After about twenty minutes and a few falls we decided we needed a break. We drove around the east side of the Arboretum and stopped at the lake we always picnic at during the summer- crabapple lake. We got out and walked around a bit finding our picnic tree and remembering all our good times there. Then we drove around to the West side to find our other favorite spot; Marmo lake (where we had taken our Christmas picture last year, and where we stop to visit almost every trip to the Arboretum). We took the wrong path to the lake, and once we realized it Eric said "well, do you want to try to find it or go home?" It was at this point I decided today wasn't the day. He wouldn't risk me saying "no" as cold and wet as I was from several spills in the snow. I said "no I want to go find it." Once we arrived at the lake, we put on our snow shoes again and set off. We stopped at our tree and took pictures, but then kept on walking. I was sure this was just a snow day now, but we were having fun so we kept walking around the lake. We got to a bench to take a break, and I said "remember last year we drew hearts in the snow?" and I drew "I love u" in the snow on the bench. He said "my turn" and turned his back to me to make his picture. I took a picture of him, and then turned around to look at the lake. When I turned back he had drawn a heart, and placed a small blue box in the center. I gasped when I realized what it was, and as I turned to grab it I crossed my snowshoes, and almost fell face first into the bench. I stopped myself, and he picked me up as we both started laughing. I opened the box and in it were rose petals (from the sacrificial 12th rose), and a letter. In the letter he expressed all the things he knew he would forget to say in the moment, at the end of the letter it said "Now I must ask you the question that my heart already knows the answer to." He said, " I have another box for you. Do you want it?" I screamed "YES!", and he took the other box out of his coat pocket, got down on one knee and said "Katie, Will you marry me?" I said "Absolutely I will!", clapped my hands, jumped up and down and squealed! It was the perfect proposal for us, and exactly what I was hoping for!