Matt and I joke that we can never do anything "normally," it has to be In True Us Fashion that we live life. Take for example our first family vacation to Kansas City. Everything was fine, no one had a fever, no one was fussy, but suddenly there were random pukes. Huge mess, big clean up at a rest area, and then everything was fine. There's always got to be that one something that stops everything from going off without a hitch. Our entire relationship is really one big In Us Fashion, but one of my favorite us stories is the night we got engaged.
It was September 2007 and we had spoken a lot about getting married that next summer (Matt had his eye on the 6/7/08 date), thinking of where we would like to get married, but he had yet to actually present me with a ring and formally ask me...not that we're exactly formal people here. We had both been busy with work and planned a four day getaway to Chicago. I had laid out an itinerary of all of the museums I wanted to visit, parks I wanted to walk through, shopping, restaurants, and where to go for drinks. Since we had a list of things we wanted to do, we left bright and early on a Thursday morning, arrived in Chicago early afternoon and went straight to the Lincoln Park Zoo and to walk around the Lincoln Park neighborhood (this was only Matt's third trip to Chicago and I made it my mission to show him all of the things I loved about the city). After an afternoon of being tourists and dinner at Giordano's, we finally checked into our hotel room and then walked around the Willis Tower area (then called Sears tower). Matt suggested we head to the hotel to rest a bit and then go for a late night walk to Buckingham Fountain to see it all lit up. While it wasn't on the itinerary, I was on board with this idea.
After resting, checking out our amazing accommodations, and having a drink in our room I threw on some gym shorts and my favorite pair of Nike's. Matt looked at me and said "um, don't you want to put on something a little nicer? And maybe do your make up?" In typical me form I shot back "Um, no I don't. It's 10:00 at night and we're walking a few miles. I'm going for comfort." He tried again to get me to put make up on, I refused again, so out the door we went with the camera in tow--something Matt made sure we had with us. Weird because I'm the capture-as-much-as-I-can picture taker. The walk to Buckingham Fountain wasn't anything special, typical talk and what not, but when we got the fountain Matt was completely disappointed (something I did not realize until we re-told the story to friends and family). "The fountain is suppose to be lit up until 11:00! It's not on!" he said. It wasn't until the next morning when we went back to visit that he told me he had planned to propose in front of the fountain while it was lit up. We did a little research about this once we got home and found out that they did in fact turn it off early this one night for no apparent reason.
I was completely unfazed when the fountain wasn't on. "It's fine, we can come back and see it in the morning after breakfast. We'll get our pictures then. C'mon, lets walk around Grant Park before it gets too late." So, we walked along the well lit areas of the park (hello, I'm not totally stupid). I have no idea what we were even talking about when Matt suddenly stopped and said "you know I love you right? Will you marry me?" pulling the ring box out of his pocket (I know he said more than this, but I really can't remember a bit of what was really said!). I said yes, of course. How could I not? I was with my best friend, in my favorite park, looking out at a moonlit Lake Michigan?? As we kissed and got the ring on my finger, all while talking quite loudly I'm sure, we heard a "Ehm??" coming from the bench behind us. We turn around and realized our engagement had just taken place in front of numerous trying to sleep homeless people! Not only did we get engaged with a dozen or more sleeping homeless people as our audience, but we didn't even get any pictures....so really, it was a good thing I didn't give into the make up because it wouldn't have mattered anyways.
So you're our friends and you don't know this true story?? Yeah....when we went to Buckingham Fountain the next morning, we took a few gorgeous photos in front of the fountain, kissing with my ring on my finger, and re-staged the whole engagement. We doled those pictures out and simply said "yea, they're our engagement photos." You'd be surprised how few people asked for the story after looking at the staged photos! I would love to say this was the only In Us Fashion story and the wedding went off without a hitch, but not so.
We got home from Chicago, celebrated the engagement with family and friends, and went into wedding planning mode as much as we could with busy work schedules. Matt chose the date 6/7/08 to get married (he swore he would never forget this date so we should take it) and finding places to have the wedding and reception was proving difficult. Finally, at the beginning of November, after numerous calls to Des Moines Parks & Recs, we were ready to book the Greenwood Park Amphitheater for the wedding. We had everything picked out and we took a day off of work to go book everything, pay our deposits, etc. The day before we were to go pay the deposits for the wedding (what I like to call Wedding Deposit Day) we found out we were pregnant with Max. Within twenty four hours, we changed all wedding plans. Instead of the 6/7/08, Matt chose 2/29/08 (yes, that's right Leap Day) to get married. I planned a wedding in just weeks. It was completely scaled down and completely the wedding I truly wanted.
Even though we do things In Us Fashion, I believe it's life's way of telling us what we truly need, showing us what is truly important, showing us what path to take. Everything has a way of working out the way is suppose too, we just tend to make it a bit more interesting and do it In True Us Fashion. For those of you who are having a bad day or thinking you get the short end of the stick, just re-read this and know that when life gives you lemons....well, you somehow take those lemons and turn them into limes. Because that's just how we do things here, In true Us Fashion.