Derek!

I'm Engaged! I am so excited and I want the whole world to know! Derek proposed to me on Saturday, March 6th and it was perfect. He totally made it a huge surprise and it was one of the funnest things I have ever experienced. The story goes like this: Derek told me he had to go to guitar lessons at five and then to his basketball game at six. He dropped me off at my house at about a quarter to five and I was just relaxing and talking to the fam. Well, my parents wanted to take me out to dinner so I was excited to go to eat with them. Well, everyone was really chill so consequently I was too! Well, my brother Nate called my dad and wanted us to come walk through the new building on campus that he has been working on. I was excited because I had heard it was awesome so I wanted a tour. So we drive in town and go the building and meet Nate there. Well Nate acted like he didn't even know I was in town. He was like, "Hailee, I didn't know you were coming! That's awesome." He was an awesome actor. So Nate shows us around and I am just enjoying the time wishing Derek could be there with me. (According to my mom, I said I wished Derek could be there about six times :) So Nate finally took us to the roof of the building and I loved it so much. It felt a lot like I was on top of the world and the temple was so pretty in the background. So Nate continued to walk me around the roof just showing me around. While we were walking we had an interesting conversation.

Me: Nate, this is where I want to be proposed to.
Nate: Oh, really?
Me: Yeah, it's like you're on top of the world, and just look at the temple. It would be really unique.
Nate: Yeah, that would be different!

One minute later that dream came true! haha! So we kept walking and as a side note I had no idea what was about to happen.

We kept walking and all of a sudden I see a camera on a ledge, a nice camera. I asked Nate what that was about and he just said it was a contractors probably. I was thinking that was a pretty stupid contractor to leave a camera out in the freezing cold weather. Then I see Derek climbing up the ladder. I was taken by complete surprise that I didn't know what to do. According to Derek, I greeted him just like I do every time I see him with an excited, "Hi Derek!" I climbed up the ladder to meet him and he read me a poem he had written. He then got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. It was awesome!!! I said yes....twice! He put the prettiest ring I have ever seen on my finger and I love it. More than it being completely gorgeous, I love the fact of what the ring represents. Every time I look at it I feel so lucky to be the gal who gets to marry Derek and to live my life and forever with him.

Afterwards, we went to his house and his sweet family had a nice dinner all set up for us, music playing in the background, and candles. They congratulated us and left! It was my favorite dinner from Applebees, Fiest Lime Chicken! Derek knew that I loved that! He is so sweet! We had such a fun night!

One of my favorite parts about this whole deal is that we had to wear hard hats and orange vests! I LOVE it! It was so awesome! Here are some pictures!