Mt. Bachelor Fun!!

The weekend before Christmas, Craig's cousin Brian and his wife Kristen came to Bend to visit Craig and myself. We had a fun weekend and spent a few hours Sunday morning at Mt. Bachelor, tubing down the side of the mountain. It was the first time Kristen and I met, but we were instant friends. Our birthdays are a day apart Dec. 9th and 10th. We had a lot of fun and we were even able to all go down the mountain together. It was like we were having a little tea party. Kristen and I made friends with a little boy who wanted to race us. Kristen and I beat him every time. Kristen told him we had been training our whole life for this moment and he was young and believed her. It was pretty funny. :) After our tubing adventure we went and had lunch at the Nordic skiing lodge and watched all the cross country skiers who were climbing up the mountain. Here are all the pictures from the weekend for your enjoyment!!

Kristen and I after we beat the little kid. 

Brian and Craig getting ready to go up the mountain. 

We're Engaged!

This is an image of my actual ring with the wedding band, as I have to wait a few weeks to get the real thing. 

On Saturday December 11, 2010 Craig and I went on our first outing to Mt. Bachelor where we had a skiing lesson for Classic Nordic Skiing. After our lesson we decided to hit the trails and have a fun weekend on the mountain. Right as we hit the trails Craig immediately fell on the course and I had to avoid him and figure out how to not fall down too. So we didn't know that a race was going on and we happened to find ourselves in the middle of the race. It scared me so much I fell down on the course a few times and Craig was trying to make sure I still wanted to continue skiing for a few more hours. Once we got off the race course it was fun for us to learn this new hobby, just the two of us. Along the way Craig found an un-groomed trail - I was a few hundred feet back and Craig said "Come look at all of this snow!" The snow was at least 4 feet deep. I saw Craig fall in the snow. I wasn't surprised because we had been falling the whole time we had been on our skis. When I arrived to the really deep snow Craig had taken off his skis was walking towards me. At this point I was very confused. He came toward me and we hugged and he gave me a kiss. He proceeded to ask me "Will you love me forever?" I obviously responded "YES!", when he got down on one knee (and sunk in the snow) he pulled out the diamond that will eventually be placed in the setting of my ring and asked "Melinda, Will you marry me?". My jaw dropped and I think my heart may have stopped for a few seconds. I said, "Yes, yes I will!!!!" It seemed so surreal, and we spend minutes just looking at the diamond. We talked about some of the details we have been waiting to discuss until we became engaged. Then we realized we were freezing and needed to continue skiing to warm up. We kept talking about details of when and where we want it to take place. We ended our day of skiing at the lodge with Chai tea and one of the most amazing burritos we've had.

We came home and called our parents, grandparents, and closest friends to announce our recent engagement. Next, we got ready for an amazing dinner at the Blue Olive at the Brasada Ranch near Prineville, Oregon. The restaurant was nearly empty so we were able to celebrate our engagement just the two of us. We finished the night off by driving through Eagle Crest Christmas lights and came home to Craig's place to call it an early night.