Our Engagement Story

We're engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you're all dying to hear the story, so here it is!!! :) (complete with pictures!!)

This past weekend, Brandon and I were invited up to Camp Magruder (the greatest place on Earth for those who don't know - seriously it's better than Disneyland!) to do some volunteer work. It wasn't the most ideal weekend for us to make the 3 hour drive, since Sunday was Easter, and We HAD to be in Eugene Sunday morning - but camp is such a special place to me, and it'd been awhile since I'd been up there, so I agreed to it. :)

We left Friday evening after work, and headed up. We got in to camp around 8:00, and when we drove in I saw that our names were on the reader board, which just made me smile.




We met up with Anami, and hung out with her for a little bit and then headed to our cabin.

We got up the next morning, March 22, bright and early and had breakfast in the dining hall (yum, I LOVE camp breakfast!) where there was one other group - and then we got our "marching orders" from Anami for the day. Both, Brandon & I had been sick all week long, we both had missed some work - and still weren't feeling 100%. In fact, Brandon felt down right terrible on Saturday. So, because of this, Anami put us on "light duty" work. It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the coast (really unusal for this time of year!) so we were taking pictures around camp to update the website.

We did have one small cleanup project, picking up some shingles that had blown off during the major storm in December. Brandon found this shingle that resembled Texas - and I found one that looked like Illinois. We thought about trying to sell them on ebay. But threw them away instead. :)

Then we headed off to take pictures. Anami had given us a big list of pictures she wanted, and then she took off for a meeting in town. So we just started wandering around camp taking pictures. Like I said, it was a beautiful day, and the lighting was really cool, with this neat haze with the sun shining through it.



And at one point, about 11:20 a.m., Brandon mentioned he really wanted to head down to the beach before the haze burnt off to get some pictures down there.



We walked on down to the beach, and took some pictures around there, and then Brandon headed up to the spot where a driftwood cross stands. Right at the head of the trail to camp.


I followed him up there....

We were standing there and Brandon told me how much he loved the symbolism of where we were standing. In the middle of God's beautiful creation. Spending the weekend serving. And how awesome it was, on Easter weekend, that we were standing at the foot of the Cross.

He said how he feels that is a symbol of how our lives will be together and that this was the perfect place and time.

He got down on one knee, held out the ring box and said "Jennifer Lynne Cooper, will you marry me?" To which I replied "yes, yes, yes!! of course I will, yes!!!!" and i gave him the HUGEST hug possible - and closed the ring box - which he has yet to let me live down. Now, to my defense, I was shaking and standing on sand, and was terrified I was going to drop the ring!!! So, I went over and sat down on a piece of wood, to put the ring on! :)



We spent a little time together there on the beach, and then Brandon said "Let's head back and get some food". Well, we'd brought stuff for lunch, and so I'm thinking in my mind, boy this is romantic - I just got proposed to and now I have to go make a sandwich. LOL But, when we got back to our cabin, Brandon opened the door and inside there was a table, set with food on it, candles burning, my favorite flowers and music playing. Anami's "meeting" in town, was really running errands for Brandon! She got us food from the local Mexican restaurant and the flowers and, took the time to get it all set up! It was amazing!!!!!



After all of that, I figured out we weren't really there to do volunteer work! LOL So, since we were off the hook for the rest of the day, we cleaned up our stuff, headed down to the beach to take a few more pictures, and then headed out.






We had nothing else to do, so we drove down 101 (the coast highway) and stopped and played on the beach and stuff along the way.

It was a perfect day, and a perfect proposal. I couldn't have asked for it to be anymore special!!! We haven't set a date yet, because we're waiting to hear back from a few key people - but we're planning on getting married in September!

I can't seem to get a good picture of my ring, but here is a photo of it from a website. :)


And there you have our wonderful, amazing story!! I'm the luckiest girl in the whole entire world!!!!!