And now, what you've all been waiting for....

...the trip update!! :) Well to sum it up, it was the best ten days of my life. I didn't have any doubts about the way things would be going into it and I was spot on. :) There was no awkwardness between us at all. Basically it felt like (well, feels like) we've been together forever, and when I got there it seemed like we were seeing each other again after an extended absence. Anyway, story time. :)

So I arrived Thursday morning, at about 11am London time. The flight arrived a little late so I was rushing to get to customs since I knew Chris would be waiting. They give you these things called "landing cards" to fill out on the plane and give to the customs agent. There was a question on there about the full address of where I would be staying while in the UK. I hadn't even thought to have Chris' address handy...big mistake. I asked a guy before I got in line about it and he said to write down Chris' phone number and it shouldn't be an issue. I did, but when I got up to the agent this was apparently a big problem. He began questioning me about why I came and why I didn't know my boyfriend's address. He wanted to see my return tickets, which I didn't have, so then he wanted to see a printed itinerary of my travel plans, which I also didn't have. It even got to the point of questioning me about who paid for my plane tickets and how much money I had in my savings account. :P At the end, the agent said he had every reason to just deny me entry and send me back to the States, but he would let me in. The guy was a gigantic jackass. And it was my second encounter with a very rude Londoner. Chris is adamant that the real bastards in England all live in London, and I'm inclined to believe him now.

Anyway, I finally got through customs and picked up my bag, then went to the arrivals gate to meet my boy. :) He was there waiting for me with a bouquet of red roses. We gave each other a hello kiss, which wasn't awkward at all. :) Once we got to the car, he presented me with a diet coke (which he knows is my drink of choice) and some cookies from a local bakery. We drove back to his house, and once we were settled, we made a trip to the store to get some supplies. We took it easy the rest of the day, so I could recover from the long journey, and that night Chris cooked me dinner. :) On Friday we went to the nearby city of Southhampton and wandered around their shopping center. Later that night we went to dinner with his mom, dad, sister, and sister's husband. It was awesome actually...I REALLY like his family...it seems I'm bound to get some good in-law's with this deal. :) They are all very nice and really fun.

Saturday was the proposal day! We went driving through New Forest, which is an area near Chris' hometown that is just beautiful. First we stopped in a little town called Burley and wandered through some shops, then we just went for a nice, relaxing drive through the countryside. The area had wild horses too!! They were everywhere, just grazing by the side of the road. :) Chris thought it was entertaining I was so excited by them, but that's not exactly something you see everyday in America. So we decided to park and go for a walk in one area with a nice lake. We stopped along the way and kissed, then he whispered in my ear "will you marry me?" and got the ring out of his pocket. The first thing I said was "what? no speech?" Haha! But of course I told him I was kidding and said yes. He explained that he didn't want to do a speech because then I would know what was coming and would just be waiting for it, which is a good point, so he decided just popping the question would be more of a surprise. So yes, we were engaged and on cloud nine! After that we made our way back to Chandlers Ford (his town) and stopped at the store for some supplies for a party we were having that night...we even got champagne to celebrate! :) A bunch of Chris' friends came over that night. We had pizza and played some poker. They were all great and I was happy I got to meet some of the people in Chris' life.

Sunday we drove down to Cornwall, which was about a five hour drive. We arrived there around 8pm and told his parents about the engagement soon after. They were surprised, but not shocked, if that makes sense. But they were great about it! His mom told us that she had been saving her grandmother's engagement ring for him too. :) So we are actually going to make a small repair to that and get it sized, then have that replace my current ring once he comes here early next year. I absolutely LOVE the idea of having a family ring. I just saw a picture of it the other day and it's beautiful, so I can't wait. :) And the next day, his parents got us "congratulations" gifts! It was so sweet. Sandy (his mom) bought me this beautiful, handcrafted necklace. I'm wearing it in a few of the pictures, including the ones where I have a bright pink shirt on. Anyway, we picked up his sister Mary from the train station that afternoon and had a wonderful dinner down by the harbor, which we were less than a mile from. It was a beautiful place and the house we stayed in was great. On Tuesday we went and toured an old, Victorian mansion, which was gorgeous. Wednesday we went to the Eden Project, which is the cool place with biomes with different environments like the rain forest. Thursday Chris and I just relaxed at the cottage and watched some movies together. We drove back to Chandlers Ford on Friday (which took 7 hours, thanks for numerous traffic jams) and Saturday we drove to London. The day was spent exploring the central city places like Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Thames river, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. To finish the day off, we wandered around the Victoria and Albert Museum, then headed back to our hotel for some room service.

Sunday was the day I left and it sucked. It's only been a week now but feels like we've been apart much longer. We made a plan for him to move here in (hopefully) April of this next year. We are going to be applying for a fiance visa in the next month. The one catch with a fiance visa is that you have to get married within 90 days of the fiance's entry into the country, so until we get the visa sorted and approved, we won't really be able to set a definitive date for the wedding. Originally we were going to just do a courthouse kind of thing here, but his parents said that they wanted to come for it so we've decided to do something nicer. It would be a bit of a waste for them to travel that far for a courthouse ceremony! Although with my almost-OCD like urge to plan everything ASAP, I am getting stressed with the wedding planning since we can't even narrow down the date yet. I'm trying to just calm down and find other things to concentrate on so we'll see how that goes. We are planning to eventually live in England for awhile, but after this trip I can see it will take a lot of adjustment! Their driving is just super confusing, with all the roundabouts and such. The metric system threw me and everything is smaller over there! They also have tons of different food over there, some of which Chris got me very addicted too...such as scotch eggs, a variety of cheeses, clotted cream, marmite, and cider. Yummm!! I've already been searching for places to find those kind of things here. :)

Well this entry is already super long so I better wrap it up. In summary, it was an absolutely amazing trip. I am sooooo happy I got to go. Before Chris, I didn't think I would ever want to get married again, and now here I am planning a wedding and I couldn't be happier about it. :) I know soul mate is kind of a cliche term these days, but I have no doubt that Chris is mine. There might be some cynicism about the wedding, since it's my second and since we haven't been together THAT long, but I hope when people see us together they will see how happy we are and be supportive. As my new maid-of-honor Cheri said today, "this is the one that counts." :)