TripMcNeely

After a couple years of dating, and several trips to his hometown of St. Paul, Derek finally took me to the Minnesota State Fair. As a California girl, born and bred, I could barely contain my excitement! Cheese curds?! Mini donuts?! Anything I could ever possibly want to eat….on a stick?! Minnesota State Fair, where have you been all my life? After an eventful morning of pig-petting at the Miracle of Life Center (Baby animals! Be still, my beating heart!), Derek and I made our way across the campgrounds, to meet up with his family. Still amped from my encounter with the infant farm animals, I didn’t think twice about Derek bending over to tie his shoe. When I finally acknowledged his bended-knee position, he was holding my grandmother’s ring (Precursor to the story: I had told Derek that, if ever should he decide to propose to me, I wanted to use the same ring that my grandpa gave to my grandma, during WWII). Derek: [silence] Me: “What is that?” Derek: “Your grandmother’s ring”. Me: “What are you doing?” Derek: “Asking you to be my wife” And cue the water works. Now, this is the part of the story where Derek likes to tell people that I “snatched” the ring from his hand and placed it on my finger like a greedy little child (possibly true; I was in a daze), but I am pretty sure I let him slip it onto my finger. Either way, we were both shaking and crying, kissing and hugging. That night, my brand new fiancé won me a big stuffed Garfield, and we gorged ourselves on cotton candy and saltwater taffy. When we got back home, Derek tacked the fair map to our wall and placed a pin in the area where he proposed – the exact middle of the fairgrounds! Not slightly to the left. Not slightly to the right. The exact center. We also found out that Derek’s grandfather had proposed to his grandmother at the Minnesota State Fair! I can’t wait to go back the fair, next year!