2 Lies 3 Surprises: How He Asked Me...and all that jazz...

It's Wednesday...and I turn 23 tomorrow.
This past weekend was quite possibly the best weekend of my life...so far. ;)
Here is my story:
So...I'm going to have to back up a bit. John and I have been talking about marriage for several months now. In fact, we bought the ring in September...but he still wanted to officially propose (and I aint complaining). John asked what I wanted for my birthday (about 700 times) and the only thing I wanted was to go to Victoria BC and stay overnight. I've always wanted to stay in Victoria since I was little and...Victoria is just awesome in general. I also really wanted to go and have high tea at the Empress hotel. He told me he got a good military discount on a semi decent hotel but he said tea at the Empress was VERY expensive and suggested we go to a local tea house which I was fine with. On Saturday, we got up at 5am and took the ferry over to Canada. While we were in the customs line, the custom's officer asked how long we were staying. We said one night. He asked where we were staying...and John said "Oh we're staying at the Empress." Now...I know better than to question something while in a customs line so I kept my mouth shut but I was thinking "What the crap, John? WHY the heck would you LIE to a customs officer? You know better than that. Heck, I know better than that..." As we exited the building and began walking along the beautiful Victoria waterfront I finally confronted him.
"Why did you tell them that?"
"Tell them what?" He was totally smirking.
"Tell them that we were staying at the Empress?"
"....because we ARE staying at the Empress..." Now I must preface that I've ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS FRIGGIN ALWAYS wanted to stay at the Empress. The Empress FAIRMONT, might I add. It's one of those fairy tale castley hotels that just rocks socks off and is where the Queen stays when she visits Victoria: in a word: NICE. So as soon as I realized John was serious and not kidding around, I BURST into tears (which was very embarrassing because...it's still JUST a hotel...but still) and giddily walked with John over to the Empress where we were able to check in WAY early which was awesome. Since we got up at 5am, I hadn't taken any time to pretty myself up and I decided now would be a good time (being in a swanky hotel and all) especially since we were going to tea later on (and riding the ferry had swept my hair into a flurry of horror). While I did that John called to verify our tea reservations at the tea house. When he got off the phone he said, "Man! That was so cool! When they answered the phone, they said 'Hello Mr. Wheeler, how may we help you?'"
"NO way...that's so awesome!" I said. (You can totally tell we're tourists...) But then I started thinking about it...and I thought "Why would the tea house know who he was as they picked up the phone?" And then it dawned on me.
"John...are we having tea at the Empress?" Another smirk.
"Rachel...why would we stay at the Empress if we weren't having TEA at the Empress?" So yeah...needless to say I was SO excited because tea at the Empress is literally the best place to have tea in all of Victoria. And it's where I've always wanted to go for tea.
We had some time to kill before our reservations and John wanted to go to a nearby park named Beacon Hill Park...so we set off in search of the world's tallest totem pole (one of my many favorite things about John...when he visits a place, he RESEARCHES the heck out of it and finds all the cool things to go see and do)...which actually turned out to be quite the scavenger hunt because Beacon Hill Park turned out to be rather big. But we finally spotted it, took pictures and then John suggested we start back since we did a fair amount of walking and it might take a bit to get back to the hotel. We enjoyed the scenery and the day had really cleared up to be stunningly beautiful at this point so we stopped frequently to take pictures. Near the end of the park, we crossed a beautiful stone bridge and we decided to stop and take pictures off the bridge because the view was amazing. After a few pictures, I stopped and just leaned on the rail and enjoyed the view...and John fumbled around behind me...which I tried to ignore. Now this entire trip I had a feeling he MIGHT ask. But I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment if he DIDN'T ask...and get all sad and ruin the entire trip of awesomeness. So I just kept talking myself out of it each time it popped in my head...which was rather frequent. Anyway...leaning there on the bridge...I battled with my brain and convinced myself John was just taking pictures...he then told me to close my eyes...I continued my inner-argument with the defense of "this trip IS my birthday present so maybe he has a card for me!...or something..."...I closed my eyes and he took my hand and turned me around and told me to open them. There he was on his knees with his big grin and our sparkly ring that we picked out together. I couldn't help but burst into tears (again) and say "oh my gosh"...I must say I am such a dazzlement with words. (And yes I know that isn't a word.)
"Rachel Laurie Jackson, will you spend the rest of your life with me?" I blubbered a reply (this is not a reference to whales in any way) which somewhat resembled "yes" and hugged him as tightly as I could. (I must add that the fact that he used my FULL name was just perfect because he always uses my full name in...well...every card he's EVER given me I think...) Thankfully no one was on the bridge when this all happened but of course right when I started really crying, a family appeared out of nowhere and decided to admire the scenery...but thankfully they didn't stay long. After many mushy details I won't go into, I pulled myself together and John pulled me back to the Empress for tea...and we spent the rest of the afternoon sipping tea and giving each other lovey eyes and blushing grins. Summary: Quite possibly the best weekend in history.