Mayo...

I'd like to start with a quick picture from Skyping with my family yesterday. We always take a big group photo when we get together, but since Matt, me, and my cousin Brock weren't there, we took a screen shot of our Skype conversation. Then, I amateurishly cropped Brock into the picture. It's not a professional photoshop result by any means, but I think it may be one of my favorite family pictures we have ever taken. Oh the miracles of technology!

Love them all so much!

Remember how I said that I was looking forward to seeing Mimi and Papa's reaction to the wonder that is Skype? Well, I guess my Papa was so in awe that he couldn't even bless the food. Matthew had to say the prayer. There were definitely tears from the women folk. I asked, "Papa, does this technology just blow your mind?" And he answered, "That isn't all it blows!" as he just kept shaking his head in disbelief. Also, my cousin Ashley had us all cracking up. Her mom, my aunt Jennifer, said to her, "Ashley look at that screen. That is Matt and Kelsey talking to us from England!" Ashley's response: "Are you kidding me?!" It was fantastic. Definitely a highlight of my day. I loved being able to spend a portion of the holidays with my family despite the miles between us.

So, back to the original intention for today's post. I was inspired by my friend Kali's blog a few weeks ago when she posted her engagement story on the anniversary of her engagement to her now husband, Pat. (Sorry, that was such a long run-on sentence.)

Kali Bell! Her super cute blog is http://patrickandkali.blogspot.com if you want to check it out!

So, I'm going to go ahead and shamelessly steal her idea in order to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of my engagement to Mister Matthew. I can't believe it has been two years already since he 'put a ring on it'! The journal I brought with me to England has the entries that I wrote on November 25th and November 28th, 2009. Anyway, I thought the best way to retell the story would be to share what I had written on those days. (I have corrected for some spelling errors that I made in my original writing. I was excited and didn't care about being grammatically correct at the time.)

November 25th, 2009
Matthew and I are engaged!

Obviously I got right to the point and wrote this short entry late that night after all the festivities had concluded. A few days later, I decided it was time to write the whole story down in order to preserve it as a sort of heirloom.

November 28th, 2009
Wednesday night, Matthew Tyler proposed. I want to write down every detail so in 20 years I can look back and remember everything about that special night.

The last few weeks of school were pretty hectic, so Matthew asked me to spend the day with him on Wednesday once we settled in for Thanksgiving Break. (Little did I know, he asked my parents' permission back in September and had bought the ring in October!)

Wednesday morning I got a haircut, and afterwards, Matthew and I went hiking. We went to Turkey Mountain for a few hours and got some good views of downtown Tulsa. He told me we were going to go out to dinner, that I should dress fancy, and he'd pick me up at 5:30pm. I made a joke and asked him if he was going to propose then. He looked really sad and told me that he feels like a disappointment every time I say stuff like that. He's trying as hard as he can, and it stresses him out. So of course I felt super guilty and told him I'm not pressuring him. So I decided to lay off and be super appreciative of this date night. 

View of the City of Faith buildings from Turkey Mountain

Part of the hiking trail we walked

He didn't tell me where we were going. He picked me up and brought me red roses. He had never gotten me red ones before. Then (very suspiciously) my mom wanted to take our picture. I just thought she was doing weird things, but the whole night I just kept trying to not get my hopes up. <Aside: Other slightly unusual things had happened throughout the day. My little sister Jordan let me borrow an entire outfit without complaining. Matt's dad had called him earlier in the day, and I wasn't allowed to listen to the call. My mom had been on the phone, walking in and out of the house periodically. But, like I said, I didn't want to make nothing into something and be disappointed.>

I know I don't look suspicious, but I was. And I know Matthew doesn't look annoyed and scared that this picture would give his plan away, but he was.

So, Matthew drove me to downtown while we listened to a CD he made with some of our favorite worship songs. We passed The Mayo Hotel, and I said something about it and how cool it was. <I always thought the hotel looked really intriguing from the outside. It is very art deco, old-school glamour. You can imagine the oil barons smoking in the bar.> We parked and started walking. Lo and behold, we ended up at The Mayo, and he opened the door for me. He asked the front desk where Trula was. He had a 6:00 reservation for this great, swanky restaurant named for a T-town socialite (Trula) who had lived in The Mayo during its glory days. (Ironically, my hairdresser Michelle had told me about an article in the newspaper about Trula that morning. She had no idea about Matt's plans.)

Lobby of the hotel

We had a wonderfully prepared meal. Probably the best food I've eaten since Europe. The waiter Travis was so nice, and he was in on Matt's plan. When he brought our check he said, "I understand you would like to tour the Penthouse and look around." I thought maybe this was a common request since The Mayo's grand re-opening would be happening in a week. So Travis got his manager Shannon (who was clueless as to Matt's plan), and he took us upstairs. We toured the ballrooms and banquet halls. Then he took us up in the service elevator to the top floor penthouse. (The main elevator required special access.) We ended on the roof, and Shannon left us to go check and make sure the elevator would take us back down.

Aerial view of the roof. The sign lights up red at night.

While he was inside, Matthew and I were looking down over Tulsa, at the BOK Center, etc. Then Matt started his speech. From what I remember, he said: "I love going on adventures with you. We have done so much together. We've gone on missions, we've traveled Europe..." Then, Shannon popped his head out the door and said, "The elevator works! You guys are good to go!" Matthew was like, "Thank you!" but he was probably thinking, "Get out of here." So I think Shannon's little interruption threw him off a bit. So, he said, "I guess what I'm trying to say is..." (That's how he asked me out on my 16th birthday) He got down on one knee and pulled the ring out of his pocket. "...Kelsey Kathleen, will you marry me?"

I was crying and when he got on one knee, I kept saying, "You are not doing this!" So, I answered, "Of course!" and tried to hug him. He said, "Can I put this on your finger?" I couldn't even see the ring because it was dark, but I didn't care. I was officially going to marry my Matthew. Of course, I was bawling, and I was shaking from cold and excitement. We walked back inside the penthouse. He told me everything he couldn't before. He talked to my parents in September when I went to Dallas with some sorority sisters. He bought the ring when I went to Colorado over fall break. The ring came in on Monday, and he decided he didn't want to wait until Christmas. His original plan was to do it at Disney World. <We were going on family vacation to Florida at Christmas.>

I didn't want to leave that moment. We went back on the roof one more time to look around and hugged and kissed. Finally, we went back down to the lobby level to thank our waiter and the manager guy. Turns out, Shannon had no idea of the purpose behind the tour. He said, "Hey, that's a nice ring! Were you wearing that earlier?" I answered, "No! That's why we are thanking you!"

We drove back home listening to Phil Wickham's "Beautiful," which I want to walk down the aisle to. <And I did walk down the aisle to that song 9 months later!> My family, Matthew's family, and both sets of my grandparents were waiting at my house. Our friends were there too. Jenna, Allison, Heather, Morgan, Blake, and Emily. It was a perfect day. I can't believe I am so BLESSED!

Walking in the front door to our engagement party. I kind of look like Rudolph when I cry.

That certainly was such a magnificent day, and we have gone on many adventures since then. This is only the beginning! The only thing I regret is not having a picture from the moment that he got down on one knee, but I wouldn't have wanted to spoil the intimacy of that time. Maybe we will have to go back to The Mayo before we move to Houston and go up on the roof to have a little recreation for some pictures.

Trula is in the background of a lot of our engagement pictures. The Mayo itself is in a lot of our engagement and wedding pictures too. We stayed there on our wedding night. The rooms are even swanky-er than the lobby and restaurant. I'd totally live there.

There is now a bar in the penthouse, so access to the roof is not forbidden like it was when we took our engagement pictures. Well, here's to another 2 years times infinity! I'm the luckiest girl in the world. And you can believe me because I have seen quite a bit of the world!