I called her brother a couple weeks back and let him in on the little secret. The only thing that I told him was that I was going to propose, but not how. I envisioned that I was going to propose on the beach somewhere in La Jolla while the sun was setting, but that's all I knew. Her brother managed for us to spend time alone in La Jolla the second day that we were there. We luckily found this beautiful secluded area in the cove overlooking the ocean while the sun was setting. We had to climb a little and jump over a little cliff to get to our "perfect" place, but we managed to arrive safely. As we were sitting, Carol's bladder decided that it had enough and so she had to go to the bathroom. Now, in order for her to go to the bathroom, she had to jump over the small cliff, traverse the rough terrain, and climb down a little ledge. And this is with the sun setting!

My "perfect" proposal was almost ruined, but Carol quickly came back and saved the day. At this point, I surprised her with a booklet that I made of our previous IM messages from college. She wanted to read them verbatim, but I decided to skim them instead because the sun was setting and I wanted to get to the biggest surprise of all! At the end of the booklet there was a picture of me overlooking the ocean. Underneath the picture was a letter that I had written describing the picture and how it signified my lonely life without her. At the end I told her to turn to the last page in the booklet. There was a little pop-up of me and a sign next to it asking her to marry me. I then pulled out the ring and got on one knee.

Carol's Point of View (The Extended Version):
It was our one year anniversary on Fri. Jan. 10th, so I planned on driving to Chicago for the weekend. That morning, Patrick had an early class but told me to come to him by 10am so that we could spend the entire day together. All he told me was to dress warmly because we'd be doing something in the city. So I came to pick him up wearing a ton of layers, thinking that we might go to Navy Pier. When he came down to the car, he had a bag packed, which got me confused. When I asked what it was for, he said that he talked to my parents and that they told him to sleepover at their house instead of having to drive back and forth to downtown since we'd be doing church stuff all weekend.

Well it made sense to me, so I was fine with that. That's when I noticed that he started driving away from the city and towards where I lived in Wheeling. He said there was a change of plans, and that we were going to my house. As we were driving, he made me promise him one thing, and that was that I couldn't ask him anymore questions about what we were going to do that day, or where we were going. I hesitated but agreed, and when we got to my parents' house, he told me to pack a bag. Well that's the hardest thing to do for a girl...because we need to know what the weather's gonna be like, what we're gonna be doing, and on and on so that we know what kind of clothes to bring. He saw how hard it was for me to decide what to bring, so he made it sound like we were going to fly to Texas to visit his parents for the weekend. That made perfect sense, so I packed and he had already arranged for my younger brother, Tony to drive us to the airport.

I was freaking out because I had to tell my parents, but Patrick told me to call from the car because we didn't have much time. So we got to the airport, and the whole time I'm thinking this is so crazy. It was lunch time, and we hadn't eaten, so right when we got to the airport, Patrick told me to get food and wait in the foodcourt while he got our e-tickets. It was getting close to boarding time, so we headed over to the gate. I'm still thinking that we're going to Fort Worth and waiting for them to announce it overhead. But that's when Patrick tells me he has a surprise, and that we're going to San Diego, CA for the weekend, and that he'd arranged the trip with my brother, Eddie who lives out there. I was so excited...cuz we always talked about going to Cali together some day. We arrive there and the weather's beautiful! We hung out with my brother that night and then on Sat., he had to work so he gave Patrick the car so that we could go to La Jolla and spend time together. So we take the car and spent the day outdoors. In the afternoon, Patrick suggested that we find a nice place to watch our first sunset together, and I was all for that. So we find the perfect spot, and it took some climbing to get onto this little cliff area along the beach.

When we get there, I realize that it'll still probably be awhile till the sun sets, and I felt like I was going to have to use the washroom soon. So I told Patrick I needed to go, and he kind of hesitated and asked me if I could wait. I said I didn't think so, and asked him to come with me. He told me that he should stay so that no one else takes our spot, and so there I was...sweating as I tried to climb back down and run to the washroom to make it in time before the sun sets. Well, I made it back in time, but I was tired at that point. The view was spectacular, and while we were sitting there, he told me that he had something else to give me as an anniversary gift. He pulled out this binder from his backpack, and on the cover was a picture of the both of us and the words, "Our first year together." I opened it up, and to my surprise, it was all our IM conversations and emails up to that point. It was color coded and everything!

I was shocked because I didn't know that you could even save IM messages, and secondly, I didn't think Patrick was very sentimental. We started to read them, and it was really neat to see how our relationship evolved overtime. The book was thick, but I got really into it and started reading every single page. Patrick kept wanting to skim it, and slowly while we were doing this, the sun started to set. Patrick told me to skip to the end, and that's where there was an envelope. I took the paper out and read it, and by this time, I'm crying. At the end of it, it said, "there's one more thing, but in order to find out what it is, you need to turn the page." That's where I found a pop-up picture of him in a tuxedo when he was little, and the words, "will you marry me?" He got down on one knee and asked me the big question, and I of course said, "YES!"

We sat there and enjoyed the moment as the sun finished setting. I couldn't believe what just happened! Patrick told me that my entire family was in on this, and that they knew he was flying me out to Cali. I give them props because they had me fooled pretty good. Patrick told me that my brother, Eddie knew he was going to propose, and that he wanted to take us out to a nice restaurant in Coronado to celebrate. So Patrick and I go to pick up Eddie's girlfriend, who tells us that Eddie's running late and will meet us there. So we drive to the restaurant which is alongside the ocean and is beautiful. We had reservations, and the hostess led us to our table. Eddie didn't get there at this point, so we started walking to our table. I was looking around and wasn't paying much attention, but when I did look up, I see my mom, dad, two brothers, and grandma sitting at our table. I was so confused, and froze in my steps. Patrick told me that was the FINAL surprise and that both him and Eddie worked to have my entire family there. It was the perfect end to the perfect day. Thanks Patrick!