Stefanie

     My amazing boyfriend Shane, of a little over a year, told me about a month before Thanksgiving break that we was taking me on surprise trip to Southern Missouri. On Sunday morning, the day we were to leave for our trip, I thought we were going to Cabela’s before we left. It was about forty-five minutes later that I found out that we were going to the airport!  I knew then that we weren’t going to “Southern Missouri”.  Eventually I hear over the loud speaker that our flight is departing to Tampa Bay, Florida.  Talk about a surprise!  I still didn’t know whether or not that was where we were staying or if we connected to another flight.  But I soon came to find out that we would be ending up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida!               The whole vacation was absolutely AMAZING and every time I told Shane thank you, he said this trip was all for me.  Our last night of the trip, Tuesday night, I came to find out that the trip really was all for me.  Shane’s childhood friend Cody and older brother Austin live in a condo where we had stayed all but one night and had an absolutely awesome time hanging out.  But even when Cody told us he had a surprise waiting for us on the eighth floor balcony, I was still surprised.  I began to wonder what he could have planned for us for being “awesome friends for visiting him.”  I also began to worry because Cody said he owed Shane some payback; I thought innocent me was going to be thrown into the mix as well.         Shane and I head up to the eighth floor balcony that had a stunning view of the city, palm trees, and ocean in the near distance.  It was about midnight and the stars and lights were shining bright as we step onto the balcony.  We see a wine bottle sitting on a table near the ledge and I begin to think he bought us a nice bottle of wine.  How sweet right?  Turns out it was the empty bottle we drank from the night before, with a note twisting in the wind out of the mouth of the bottle.  The note read “kiss, and enjoy the view,” so of course we did so.  We pulled the not the rest of the way out of the bottle and it told us to go down stairs and cross the street to the beach.         At this point “we” are scared Cody and Austin are going to jump out of the bushes with water balloons or whatever else.  As we walk hand in hand we laugh at what they might be plotting.  We make it to the beach where we stand at the top of the steps and look around.  We don’t see anything special and once again get worried they were going to pull a prank on us.  I decide to go down the stairs onto the beach to get a better look around.  As I look around a see a blanket on the sand with a candle on each of the four corners.  There are roses all over the blanket with a box of my favorite candy in the middle, lemon heads of course ;) .  I begin to think how nice and sweet it was of Cody to set this all up for us as Shane and I kneel down to smell the roses.  I am thinking in my head that I really want some of those lemon heads as we joke about how awesome the set-up is.         Shane takes me in his arms from behind and faces me towards the ocean where there are many cruise ships in the distance.  He talks about how much he loves me and how awesome I am.  And I of course start telling him how great we are together and how much alike we are.  A few hugs and kisses later, he turns me around again and begins to tell me more.  He finally says to me “but I have something else for you” and turns me around and gets on one knee and asks if I will marry him.  I of course begin to tear up as I see this all unfolding and think about what has just happened.  Being the smart and crazy girl that I am, I say yes of course!  We hug and kiss, laugh and joke as we walk down the beach eating lemon heads and holding hands.  The perfect beginning to an absolutely amazing life together!