Thursday, July 31, 2008

Relaxing in New Braunfels!

Well, we have had an eventful for summer. After getting engaged, Nathan and I traveled back down I-35 for Amber and Cliff's wedding in Austin. It was a beautiful wedding, and we had a wonderful time seeing friends, visiting, even kayaking in Town Lake. The very next weekend, we migrated south again to New Braunfels! Nathan and I met Claire and David for a fun-filled weekend in New Braunfels, Gruene and Wimberly! On Friday night the four of us two-stepped our way through Gruene, TX. We ate a wonderful dinner on the river and then danced in the oldest dance hall in Texas, Gruene Hall...

On Saturday morning, we shopped in Gruene, and then headed to the country for a wine tasting at Dry Comal Creek. Needless to say, we had fun trying Texas wines and relaxing on the back porch of the winery!
Then off to Wimberly for Alathea and Justin's wedding! Their wedding was at Old Glory Ranch. It was a beautiful setting and wonderful evening. We had a great time catching up with friends, dancing and celebrating the newlyweds!




Rene' and Chalker matched the boys, so of course they had to pose for pictures and dance a few times!



Friends!!!!
It was so fun getting to share our engagement with close friends...



Congratulations, Justin and Alathea!
On Sunday morning, Claire, David, Nathan and I headed north and stopped in San Marcos for some shopping!! Three hours later, we said our goodbyes and headed home. We had a wonderful mini-vacation!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Big Celebration

It takes a lot to throw off Whitney and one of the hardest things was to get the celebration party together without her knowing it...especially getting her family there. Claire took care of all the legistics of the party because I was focusing on really getting the proposal down. It couldn't have gotten done without her (thanks Claire!) and for everybody else for throwing Whitney off pretty much all month.

While driving down to Arlington, I still had to withhold information from Whitney. We talked about how I talked to her parents and she kept on asking me, "Did they know it was happening today?" I replied with a yes but still had to reveal as little information as possible. Her brother, Jeff, and his family left from their Florida vacation early to get to the party and her parents lied about being in Atlanta, GA, all week while taking camp at Jeff's house in Norman.

Needless to say, she was shocked to see both her family and mine there! I'll let the pictures do the talking...

David greeting us...









I think she was a bit happy to see her family...

















We were both quite happy... We couldn't have asked for a more perfect moment!









The Grahams with the Chandlers.... The Jacksons, Benedicts and Rose family.











The friends who helped make it happen....

With friends and family like this, we love being Nathan and Whitney...

Monday, July 7, 2008

He proposed!

On Friday, July 4th, Nathan I went to a wedding in Austin, Texas. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Nathan's friends, celebrating Abel's wedding, watching fireworks and playing guitar hero. On Saturday, July 5th, we started our drive home to Arlington. I "thought" we were going to stop in Waco to watch clips of Kourtney's new movie and eat dinner with her and Adam. Nathan and I drove to the Smith's house, hurriedly got ready and raced to the Mayborn Museum on Baylor's campus to watch Kourtney's movie (so I thought)! We went into the museum and a cute little museum attendant showed us into a full movie theater with stadium seating. Nathan and I sat down, the lights went out and Kourtney disappeared. Then a movie started...a movie with all of my favorite movies...all of my favorite tv shows...my favorite song...



I was scared to assume it was for me. Nathan and I sat in the dark watching the movie, not talking, not looking at eachother. The lights came on, and Nathan got down on one knee! He proposed, I said "YES!" And he gave me a beautiful ring!
Then we had an hour and half to drive to Arlington. We both calmed down and had a great time driving up I-35. We called our parents, family and friends. It was really strange saying, "Dad, I'm engaged." I was so sad that my parents weren't going to get to see my ring and see me on my engagement day. Nathan told me to call Claire and tell her we were on our way. The Benedict's, Rose's, Jackson's, Coon's, Jennifer, Beau and Stacey were waiting at the Benedict's for us to arrive! When we walked in the backyard, everyone greeted us on the porch of the game room. They all cheered, we hugged, they high-fived Nathan, and then I saw Tommy, my nephew in my face. I looked up and Mom and Dad were there! So was Jeff and Debbie, Maddie and Tommy! Nathan's Mom and Dad were there too! And Jessie and Marc, Nathan's sister and brother-in-law! It was an amazing party, and we are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. I am thrilled to be Nathan and Whitney...

We are getting married!!

Nathan and I are engaged to be married! We are creating this page to share fun stories, pictures and even engagement "movies" with our friends and families.
If you know me well you know I love to tell stories. When I share stories about Nathan with my co-workers, one of my supervisors always rolls his eyes and says, "Whitney, you are so spoiled." And I sarcastically respond, "Oh, please, you know it is hard being me."
Throughout our relationship, we have had a remarkable time getting to know one another. We have become friends with eachother friends, shared family holidays, taken numerous roadtrips and watched countless hours of our favorite tv shows and movies! It has been so wonderful, we find ourselves constantly saying, "Man, it is so hard being us..."