Oh what a world. This is Eric and Cindy; we'll each add our commentary to the photojournalism below :o)
Eric: This is the ring that I went back and bought an hour after I told my sister that I would buy it in 2 weeks.
Cindy: This is the ring Eric bought after he had all of us convinced that he was going to buy it in 2 weeks... I had no idea. But it's perfect!
Eric: This is us starting out at the gardens. I thought it would be warmer... but hey, at least the ring was nice and warm in my camera bag.
Cindy: I didn't know why Eric decided to go on a date in the middle of finals week, but I liked the idea of Tulip Festival! Little did I suspect what he was planning...
Eric: Every time I went to take a picture from the kneeling position, Cindy would either run away or do a weird pose on the ground. I almost proposed right here.
Cindy: I thought he'd want some fun pictures with the flowers in them -- that was what we'd come to see, right? Haha.
Eric: Do you see that look? We just saw someone take bridals here, and I've been trying to propose for the last half hour!
Cindy: Yay, a waterfall!
Eric: So, this is about twenty yards from the center of this amphitheater, where I wanted to propose. I got on my knee, and went for my camera bag, and Cindy ran away and did this gladiator pose. Fun, huh?
Cindy: Cool, an amphitheater. Let's do gladiator poses. Won't that be fun?
Eric: Look, my gladiator pose. Look closer, and you'll notice my right hand is only pointing one finger. That's because I have the ring in that hand, wrapped in tissue paper...
Cindy: Eric did a great gladiator pose, although I'm not sure why he's pointing up. Maybe it means he's number one.
Eric: Ok, Cindy, look left and I'll kneel down and take a picture (I couldn't unwrap the ring in time).
Cindy: I hope he hurries up. I'm getting cold over here! (To my credit, I did sit still for a while here...)
Eric: So, the whole kneeling picture taking/proposing idea fell through the cracks and I had to dance a little/unwrap the ring behind her back a little before I could drop to a knee.
Cindy: Eric started dancing with me in this grassy area near a stream. It was fun, but then he kept dancing, and dancing...then he was messing with something behind my back and I could hear rustling of paper or plastic or something...I didn't know what was happening. Then it started to dawn on me and next thing I know he's kneeling down and putting a ring on my finger!
Eric: Look at that bag...empty at last!
Cindy: I had no idea! Haha, great times. Looking back I can see why he was doing all the strange things he was, but I couldn't figure out why he wanted so many pictures of me down by flowers. I just thought he liked the flowers a lot :o)
Eric: Compare this picture to the one of us by the waterfall and you can see the relief and happiness that finally proposing brought.
Cindy: I was cold, but happy! He caught me off guard and it was a great surprise! Now we'd just go on back to my apartment so he could almost break his nose and end up in the ER just hours after he proposed!
Gator Boots and my pimped out Gucci suits...
Gators, gators, and more gators
This swedish cow slobbered big time on Cindy's hand. Needless to say, I didn't feed this beast.
Me and the Zebra just chillin'.
Brooklyn fed every animal that was hungry and was going crazy when the Emu and Ostrich started pecking all of the feed out of the cup.
Cindy held the the gator without a problem.
Check it out! We have the same grin.
