The big day!

Today was perfect, in every way, from beginning to end! 

Today was the day Aaron proposed! :)

I'll start with the morning...

I woke up early, on this tiny island in the Philippines, and went into town to have a manicure and pedicure!  It's one of my favorite things to do while I'm on vacation, and to be honest, I'm not very good at doing them myself, so it's a real treat when someone else does it - especially when they're only $5!  You can't see from this picture, but the shop is called "Santa Nail Art" (right next to D'mall Mart) and it's decorated with Christmas stuff all over!  I had seen it earlier in the week and told Aaron I had to go there, because who doesn't love Christmas?!

I almost always chose pink or red, but today I went with turquoise toes!  I thought it was a fun color and it matched my bathingsuits. :)  I had Hazeil paint my nails clear since I knew I'd end up chipping the polish as soon as I stepped outside!

When I got back to Spider House I found Aaron, who was itching to go swimming, so we did, of course! :)  There are no pictures to prove it, but I mastered the 1 arm underwater handstand today, and Aaron mastered the art of the dolphin ride swim!  I jump on his back and he swims underwater while I hold on!  It's really funny! 

We did a little reading today on the deck...and a little internet surfing, when the wifi was ACTUALLY working!  It goes off and on all day long!  Drives me crazy when I'm in the middle of something and it shuts off!  Guess that's the way it goes when you're on an island.

We both ordered chicken marsala with rice for lunch! 

It's one of Spider House's specialties and it's AMAZING as far as I'm concerned!

The tide had come up, so we decided to give a go at jumping into the water from the deck!  We both hit the ocean floor when we landed, but still loved the feeling of jumping and did it over and over again!

It was about this time of the day when Aaron asked me if I wanted to rent a kayak and watch the sunset from Puka Beach!  I had a little incling that maybe, just maybe a proposal was in the works, but I didn't get my hopes up, just in case!  I decided I wouldn't play detective and would go with the flow!  (If you know me, you KNOW that this is really hard for me to do!)

I tried, really I did, but it was too obvious that Aaron was trying to plan something!  He and Clement were wispering by the bar and when Diniwid took off his shirt and flailed it around in the air on the deck to try to get the kayak owners attention, I knew something was up!  Nobody works that hard to get a kayak... not around here at least. 

So, with the kayak ready and our red waterproof bag all packed up, we jumped on at 4:30pm and headed around the island to Puka Beach on the north side!  The weather was gorgeous, with blue skies and a cool breeze the whole way!

I love to kayak and love the ache in my arm muscles after we've been paddling for a while, but Aaron told me I could stop and enjoy the view and that he would paddle for us!  SCORE!

As we were kayaking, we passed a couple small secluded beaches, one of which had a middle aged NAKED man was lurking around by himself!  When he saw us, he literally ran and hid behind a rock… classic!

After about 40 minutes, we had made it to Puka beach and pushed our kayak onto the sand.

There was no one around for as far as the eye could see!

I immediately knelt down and started collecting shells...

Unfortunately, after about 10 minutes, this group of Philippino teenagers came out of nowhere and started kind of lurking around the kayak, checking out what we had inside... Then literally sat about 15 feet from us!  Talk about a mood killer!

So, we jumped back in the kayak and headed to one of the small secluded beaches nearby (to the east). Aaron set up the camera on his tripod so we could take some pictures in the water and by the kayak...

... wrote our names in the sand, which is also one of our travel traditions...

February 23rd will always be a special day for the two of us now! :)

Then... as I was kneeling down here, picking up shells...

Aaron said to me, “Jillers, come on lets watch the sunset out in the water!” and guided me out into the ocean. Once we got about waste deep, I pulled him in to hug him and noticed that his heart was beating out of his chest! I said, “Love, your heart is beating so fast!” His response, “Maybe because I’m holding this” and showed me the ring, which he had been holding in his hand! 

(This is a screenshot from the video he took)

Then he asked, “Will you marry me?” Which, of course I said “YES!”and jumped on him, Koala bear style!  We hugged and kissed out in the water as the sun was setting!  Then he slipped the gorgeous ring on my finger and told me to look over there… He had set up his camera and had videoed the entire thing!  It was a gorgeous and romantic moment as we stood there in the water, in our own little secluded piece of the island, watching the sunset and basking in our engagement!

(Waving to the camera!)

 

Aaron was adorable and so excited to be engaged, as was I, of course!  

He wanted pictures of everything, which I of course obliged! :)

Aaron said we had to hurry back because we had a dinner reservation at 7pm! I immediately thought, “Wow, there’s more?!” So, we jumped in the kayak and paddled away into the sunset... literally!

We got back really quickly because I was actually paddling with him this time!  He was giddy the whole time, saying over and over again, “I’m your fiancé! We’re engaged! This is awesome!” I loved every moment of it and had to capture the moment, so I grabbed the underwater camera and took his picture while we were kayaking back.  Terrible quality, but cute to remember the moment!

We got back to Spider House around 6:40pm and climbed the ladder out of the water!  We were met with cheers and lots of "Congratulations" from the staff!  :) With 20 minutes to go until our reservation, I showered, got dressed, threw my wet hair up, and headed towards the beach with my new fiance!  As we were walking, I noticed that a bunch of candles and tiki torches had been set up on the sundeck of the resort next door (Nami Resort).

As we got closer I noticed that a table had been set up next to the water amongst all of the candlelight! I smiled and said, “Wow! Look at that!"  He grabbed my hand and said, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? It’s for us!” WHAT??!!  He led me down the isle of candles and rose petals leading to the table for two on the water! It was covered with a white table cloth, 3 candles, 3 roses, white plates and 2 wine glasses.  There were candles everywhere and tiki torches surrounded the area! 

Three servers, dressed in all white, were waiting for us to arrive, and promptly served us some white wine (which Aaron had found earlier in the day, unbeknownst to me! He bought my favorite, Moscato!).  It was straight out of a scene of the bachelor (which we love to watch for the trainwreck factor) and we laughed about how it seemed just like one of their romantic dinner dates!  He grabbed a rose from the flower arrangement on the table and asked if “I would accept this rose!”… as a joke, of course!  I loved it!  To be honest, it was incredible.  The set up was beautiful, classic and romantic, and knowing that Aaron had planned every detail of it with the manager just made it that much more wonderful.

Earlier in the day, when I was gone to get a pedicure and manicure (good timing, eh?) Aaron was apparently planning! He had gone up to the Nami resort and talked with the restaurant manager about how he wanted everything to be set up!  He asked for the sunbathing chairs to be removed on the sundeck and for it to be decorated in a “simple, classy and romantic way,” which they NAILED! Then he picked out each menu item!  First was a fruit salad (a salad with pieces of apple, grapes, dried mango and candied nuts). It was to die for!

Then our main dishes came out. He had ordered me SALMON!  If you know me, you know I love, love, love Salmon, but don’t eat it in Korea because it’s impossible to find! So, this was an extra special treat!

... and he had ordered a steak for himself! :)

Then, last but not least, we were served a cup of ice cream and the most decadent chocolate brownie cake!

It was the PERFECT night, and the two of us are on cloud nine about our engagement!

We can’t wait to be husband and wife and are planning on coming home this summer to make it official!

The future Mr and Mrs Osteen!

I'd say we have a pretty great little love story to tell, don't we?!