road trip...sandpoint, idaho engagement!!!

i am sorry i am doing this out of order, but there are many favorite stops on our road trip, and this one is life changing and will always be the most memorable.  after building our teardrop camper (which i have not finished writing about) we took it for a long road trip, june 29 - july 10th.  our itinerary included; colorado, south dakota, wyoming, montana, idaho, utah and nevada.  with approximately 4300 miles traveled on our camper, we came back engaged!

i have always heard jarad talk fondly of sandpoint, idaho and it was the last "must see" location on our road trip.  we had booked campsites for all of our other stops, but had nothing planned for idaho or our long trek home (aside from visiting the varon's in vegas).

we left montana around 8am or so to make the drive to idaho, and arrived at the "city beach" around 4pm.

we were lucky to find a double parking space (designated for boats) so we could park the camper.  we quickly changed into our bathing suits and were excited to be out of the car and at the beach.  we threw our towels down on the sand and headed for the water.  we were about knee deep when jarad said "look what i found in the water, i wonder what it is?"  it was a small tightly wrapped package, that he started ripping open with his teeth.  my first thought was "how disgusting", why would he put that in his mouth if he just found it in the dirty water?  after ripping and tearing through what was bubble wrap and duct tape, he pulled out a shinny ring and said he brought me to sandpoint to ask me to marry him.  speechless and dumbfounded, i kept repeating "are you serious, are you serious?"  finally the words "yes" came out, after he had to ask me twice.  the ring is his mother's 25th wedding anniversary ring, and absolutely stunning.

after a few minutes of letting it all sink in, we headed back to the car where he gave me an envelope of emails mostly between our moms.  it was so sweet to read all the events leading up to this day, and the excitement from our families.  we made some important phone calls to the family and then decided to find a campground for the night, so we could stay in sandpoint and celebrate.  at the campground a couple wandered over to check out our teardrop camper, and showed us their new "little guy" camper.  we told them we had just got engaged a few hours prior and they made us stay for a glass of wine.  we headed into town to eat dinner at a local brewery and went back to the beach the next morning before leaving.

now i can say sandpoint, idaho is one of my favorite places as well.  we started the long drive home with stops in utah and vegas. we were greeted in vegas with such love and excitement from some very special friends.  they threw us a beautiful dinner and toast.  

now that we are back home, we are excited to start the wedding planning and festivities.  we are also looking forward to planning our next adventure in the camper (maybe bryce and zion)...but not for a while (it will be hard to top the last vacation).