so as you may have guessed from the title of this post, matt and i are officially engaged! i am smiling even as i sit here writing and thinking of the wonderful proposal weekend we’ll be able to tell our children and grandchildren about! here goes:

we left emily in monterey and headed north on the pacific coast highway to meet my parents in the santa cruz mountains for a train ride through the redwoods. this part of the state has a special significance to our family, as my dad grew up camping in big basin state park, and both my sweet grandparents are laid to rest in a grove near where they spent their summers.

we arrived around 11 am at roaring camp railroads, met my parents, and climbed aboard an old steam train to be whisked through the tallest trees on the planet {that hasn’t been fact checked}. we spent an hour chugging through the henry cowell forest, with the sun streaming through the beautiful trees.

we stopped for a minute at the top of the mountain and were able to get up and walk around, which we took full advantage of! it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed walking around and exploring the scenery.

it was a wild ride {lol, not really} but it was as beautiful as ever! matt was in love with the redwoods {as i knew he would be} and we loved just sitting back and relaxing as we took the twists and turns around the mountains.

after we disembarked from the train, we ate lunch and matt and my parents went on a short hike. i knew matt was asking for my parent’s permission to marry me on said hike, so i anxiously waited for their return. it was nice to just sit on a bench under a lovely tree and enjoy the shade, although it was hard to relax knowing what they were talking about! i made a nice new friend, an old man who apparently owned A LOT of shares of apple. when his family came back to retrieve him from our bench, he quickly told them i was his ‘new girlfriend,’ little did they know what i was waiting for!

anyway, with permission granted, we headed to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. after a meal at one of our favorite places, round table pizza {you MUST try it if you haven’t been there} matt and i headed to the santa cruz beach boardwalk. we walked along the beach for a while, and then decided to walk out onto the pier. after passing a friendly seal, we sat down on a bench overlooking the ocean, and things really got interesting.

matt and i were just happily chatting along, and a man walked up to us. he promptly asked us if we had plans to see the fireworks show later that night. we quickly realized he was :ahem: under the influence of something, so we played along for a bit and told him we’d consider it. he then invited us to his 58th birthday party, which we kindly declined. i was worried we were going to have to move from our beloved bench if he didn’t stop talking to us. in my head i was like, SIR CAN’T YOU TELL MY BOYFRIEND IS TRYING TO PROPOSE TO ME AND YOU ARE RUINING IT?! luckily, he waltzed away and we were once again alone in our love bubble.

probably knowing it was only a matter of time before another cowabunga california beach bum approached us, matt quickly got down to business. he turned to me and said, ‘caitlin, as you know i’ve spoken with your parents, and they have given me their blessing to ask you to marry me. will you marry me?’ i of course said YES practically before the words were out of his mouth, and he pulled out the ring {i’d noticed it earlier in his pocket} and slipped it onto my finger.

{brace yourself for some PG content} we then kissed A LOT and talked about how happy we were to finally be engaged.

the rest of the weekend was kind of a blur! we hiked with my parents, matt finally saw a banana slug. but mostly, we enjoyed being newly engaged and together in such a beautiful place. i am so grateful for matt and feel so blessed that he came into my life and we fell in love. he is my best friend with whom i want to raise tiny humans and spend eternity with. it doesn’t get much better than that. i can’t wait to marry him!

xoxo,

cait