Engagement Night 12-23-2013

Hello Everyone!  Below is the story of Cody and my trip to Vegas this Christmas.... 

 

 

Where we got engaged on December 23rd 2013 at 6:20 pm!!!  :)  I know this because the Bellagio fountains go off every 30 minutes and right before he proposed our waiter said "We've got about... uh... 10 minutes until the fountains go off..."  but I'll get to that part later on in the blog.

  

 

 

During our trip we stayed at the Cosmopolitan hotel.  Which in my opinion is one of the nicest hotels on the strip.  It is relatively new and it's gorgeous.  It's also the only hotel on the strip that has balcony's.  Cody and I have been wanting to stay there since our first trip to Vegas.  It is located in the center of the strip right next to the Bellagio.

 

 

 

Originally we were supposed to have a balcony room on the 15th floor facing the Bellagio fountains.  Cody kept trying to talk me into getting a wrap around balcony suite, but it was super expensive and I didn't think it was worth it.  Cody had heard online that if you slipped the check in clerk $20 sometimes they would comp you and give you really good upgrades.  So we were like what the heck... we'll try it.  When we got to check in there was a long line so I stayed to the side to watch our bags and Cody waited in line to check in.  He was up there for a SUPER long time, and I was watching him and he was nodding his head a whole lot, so I was hoping that was a good sign.  Turns out... it was!!!  He came back to me with a poker face and I was like uh oh... maybe not, but then he said "well got good news we aren't staying in the room we were originally supposed to be in.  They upgraded us to a wrap around balcony suite on the 44th floor!!!"  WOOHOO!

 

 

 

I couldn't believe it!  It was the most gorgeous room that I've ever been in, and the view was unbelievable!  I walked in and I literally squealed looking around the room.  We ran out onto the balcony and enjoyed the view first and then I snapped a bunch of pictures of the room!

 

 

This was the view of the strip and fountains from our balcony!   I was so amazed by Cody.  I kept asking him... how'd you talk them into giving us this room???   And he said that the guy that checked us in had friends from Shaker Heights and that they were chatting about sports and Cleveland and that it was our first time staying at the hotel and that we always wanted to stay there, and that we really wanted a wrap around balcony suite but didn't want to pay $400 + a night for a room... so the guy said let me see what I can do and got us upgraded for an extra $25 a night which was a no brainer!  I was so impressed by his sweet talking skills I even took a picture of the view and put it on Facebook talking about how awesome he was for getting us this room...

 

 

 

What I found out later was that the guy also asked if we were celebrating anything during our trip, and Cody said  "Well.... actually...  we are going to get engaged tomorrow night too!"  So the guy got his manager and they made the deal for us!!!  It was unbelievable.  I think I'm ruined for hotels rooms forever.  They had plush towels, slippers, and robes.... the room itself was 1,300 sq feet and we had two bathrooms!  Not to mention the million dollar view. 

 

 

 

 

Here we are on the balcony.

 

 

Here is one side of our wrap around balcony...

 

 

And here is the other side...

 

 

Even though we were in Vegas it still gets pretty cold in the desert at night.  We had a bunch of blankets outside so that we could enjoy the pod/bed outside.

 

 

Here was our full kitchen and bar!  They gave us a completely brand new, never opened pot and pan set with full utensils and spatulas and what not.

 

 

Here was our dining room/living room.

 

 

 

 

 Here was our bed.  You can't see the view of the strip from the window in this picture, but trust me the view was awesome.  Even better was that it was sound and light proof.  You can't believe how loud and bright the strip is at night!  But once we shut the door and closed the blinds you'd never know where we were.  I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face after we turned off the lights.  I was in heaven!  The bed was super comfortable too!  I don't think I've ever slept so much on a vacation before!

  

 

Here was our massive bathroom.  I think this bathroom was bigger than some hotel rooms I've stayed in before!

 

 

Not to mention it had a private toilet area.

 

 

Ahh I loved sitting here and finishing up my book while looking out onto the strip.  :)

 

 

Cody loved laying on the comfy bed....

 

 

The strip from our bedroom view at night...

 

 

 

 The other side of the strip...

 

 

 

Long shot of our living area.

 

 

The hallway leading into our living area/the door to get out.

 

 

Other view.  Here I am standing at the entrance door.

 

 

Our second bathroom.  Sadly this "small" bathroom was still bigger than the bathrooms of the other hotels we stayed at in California.

 

 

 

 

Here we are on engagement night!  We had reservations to a fancy steak house called Prime at 5:00 pm.  I will admit when we were at home and Cody was looking at fancy places to eat at the Bellagio I was suspicious.  For those that don't know, the Bellagio has always been our favorite part of Vegas.  We have spent many a night sitting out in front of the Bellagio fountains and admiring them.  That was one of the main reasons why we wanted our hotel room to over look them this time.  Cody pitched the idea that we'd never really gone to a super fancy dinner in Vegas before and that since this was probably going to be our last time in Vegas we should go out somewhere really nice.  I remember thinking when he showed me on the prices on the menu... I was like hrmm... if he's taking me to that fancy of a dinner he better be proposing!  And I even thought that on the way there, I even casually tapped his pocket to see if I felt a ring box on the way walking to the restaurant.  I didn't feel it... and I won't lie... I was a little disappointed at the time, but I figured oh well... at least it'll be a nice dinner.

 

 

So we went into the restaurant and to my surprise we had a wonderful seat.  Perfect view of the fountains going off.  Looking back at this picture, I feel like I can sense he was a little bit nervous here.  Later on he told me that he was nervous all throughout dinner.

 

 

It was super pretty in the restaurant, and the waiters were all wearing tuxes and I think there were enough of them for every table there. 

 

 

 

  

All throughout dinner Cody kept saying that he wanted to go outside onto the patio to take pictures after dinner.  Only problem was that the patio was closed for the winter.  He kept saying that it would be cool to get pictures from the opposite view than what we normally get of the fountains, and of course... you know me... I love pictures...  so I was into it.  We asked the guy giving us our bread and refilling our waters (not our waiter) if we could go out there.  The guy said he'd ask, and he came back and said "No sorry, I asked the manager and he said it's closed for the season."  At this point, Cody was getting really agitated and I wasn't really sure why.  He kept saying well... I'm just going to go find the manager and ask him myself.  And I was like honey... it's only a picture... it's not that big of a deal... 

 

 

 

All throughout dinner, he kept saying how he wanted to ask.  And I told him that we'd ask our waiter before we gave him his tip that way he'd have a vested interest in getting us out there.  Well, Cody left me sitting at the table and ran up to our waiter and talked to him for a while...  Then he came back and said great news!  They are letting us go out!  I was like see... I knew all you had to do was ask our waiter.  Little did I know, that when Cody made his reservations he mentioned that he was going to do a proposal there, and our waiter was expecting him to talk to him about it.  So we went outside onto the patio, just us and our waiter and he was taking some pictures of us.

 

 

He took a couple and I was like ok.. that was nice... let's go.  And the waiter goes "Well we've got about... uh... 10 minutes until the fountains go off, why don't you sit down for a picture?"  And I'm thinking... wow this guy is great most people you ask to take a picture for you only take one or two and this guy is giving me poses to do...

 

 

So I sat down onto the chair, and Cody bent down next to me on one knee... and at first I wasn't sure if he was bending down for the picture or not, but then he said "Why don't we make this night really special," and he pulled out the ring and said "Will you marry me?"  I was shocked but not shocked at the same time.  I guess he knew that if he carried the ring box that I'd feel it so he had just had the ring in his pocket all night.

 

 

Everything happened so fast that it was hard for us to recall every single detail even right after it happened... but here is what I'm sure of...  I know that I squealed and that I quickly leaned in to kiss him. 

 

 

I put the ring right onto my finger... even before I looked at it.  I kind of recall either saying "No way or Oh my god"  Or maybe I even quickly said both phrases... I'm not 100% sure.

 

 

 

 

Here we are right after he proposed!  I was so excited and happy!  He proposed the exact way that I wanted him to.  The fancy dinner, at the Bellagio fountains, and even better he got someone to get pictures of the whole thing so that I can write this blog!!  :)  Yay!  You all know how much I love blogging and now scrapbooking!

 

 

 

It all happened so fast that it was really a blur.  It wasn't until we were walking away from the restaurant that I turned back to him and I said... "Did I even say yes yet???"  And he was like "well I sure hope so... " we both laughed and I was like "Well... YES!"  Then as we were walking towards the Bellagio I said, "Wait you asked my dad permission first right?"  and he said yeah that he went to see dad on a Monday.  He said that he called him and asked if he was going to be around, and that he wanted his opinion on a Christmas present he was giving me.  Then when he got there he showed dad the ring and said well I'm not really asking your opinion more like your permission, and dad gave him permission.  :)

 

 

Here is a close up of the ring.  We went over to the Bellagio afterwards to look at the Christmas decorations there and he was telling me all about the process he went through to get the ring.  I guess he's been working on getting the ring made for the past three months!  And he astounded me with all his knowledge about rings.  He said that he knows so much that he could be a gemologist.  He was telling me all about the properties of rings and all about diamond grades and all kinds of things.  I think I was more impressed with how much effort he went into and how much he researched rings than even the ring itself.  I only showed him a ring style that I liked one time in passing which was the three stone look, and at the time I didn't even think he was really paying attention to me.  Every time that we talked about getting engaged he kept saying not to rush him and that he didn't want to be pressured by everyone.  So I wasn't really sure when he was going to propose.  We had a rough timeline of our "life plan" together so I knew that it was coming sooner or later.   When I saw the ring I was impressed that he remembered and got me a ring that reflected what I liked.  But I'm not too surprised, because we both have pretty similar tastes.  I felt very loved with how much effort he put into it.  He told me that he looked at 15 different jewelers before he found the diamond that he liked.  The diamond itself is a full karat and from Belgium and on each side is a quarter karat diamond and then each side of the band has 5 smaller diamonds on it.  You can't really see the diamonds on the band in this picture, but it's the best picture we could get of the ring.  And trust me... we took NUMEROUS pictures of it once we got back to the hotel room so that we could send pictures out.  My poor mom... I texted her and said "I just got back from a fancy dinner from the Bellagio and guess what!?!?!"  Then I wanted to send her a picture of the ring to show her but I couldn't get a good one of it to send... she was texting and texting me... I'm shocked she didn't just call.  She was like are you engaged?!?!  Did you get married!?!   Haha sorry mom!  I guess I should have took the picture first and then sent her a text.  But finally I got a good picture to send to her haha.

 

 

I couldn't stop looking at the ring for the longest time!  I couldn't believe how pretty and shiny it is!!  :)   

 

 

Here we are at the Bellagio Christmas tree.  See the ring proudly displayed :)

 

 

 

Here we are back in our room. Cody was like keep your fingers straight!  I kept bending them funny and it made getting a picture of the ring harder haha.  That was why we finally put it back in the box which was hidden in our spare bathroom.  This was around the time where I started texting everyone and called my dad.

  

 

Love this picture!  Our view right after we got engaged!

 

 

Of course we ran back to Prime to get some pictures.  Here you can see the escalators leading down to the restaurant.  Cody said he picked this place so that we can come back to it some day and tell our kids the story of where we got engaged.  I guess the Bellagio has quite a few places to eat at but he thought this would be the best place to choose.

 

 

This is actually the same night about 2 hours after we ate dinner here.  We had tickets for a comedy show later on in the night so we changed into less fancy clothes.  This was in front of the Prime menu.  I had a Prime rib and Cody had bison. 

  

 

When we went to the comedy show apparently it was also a Burlesque show (half naked girls dancing)... they didn't advertise that part of it.  And we get there and the first act was a girl coming out to dance wearing hardly anything, and of course we were sitting on the aisle and she comes up to Cody and starts petting his head!  I was like hey lady that's my fiancé!  (and no I didn't actually say it... but I was excited to be able to think it)  haha

 

 

 

  Here we are at the end of a perfect night.  After he proposed he kept saying yes it all makes sense now doesn't it... the amazing room upgrade, the fancy dinner, my insisting that we go out onto the patio for pictures...  he said on his day off every Monday for the past three months he's been looking into rings and setting this all up and I kept telling him how sneaky he was because I really didn't have a clue that he was going to propose.  He was smart for leaving the ring box at the hotel, because I was trying to sniff out if he had any plans that night and he really surprised me.  It was a wonderful engagement night and I am so excited to marry my best friend in the whole world.  He is such a good guy and our proposal couldn't have been better.  I think that it really fit us perfectly.  Vegas is our favorite place in the world, and the fountains are our favorite part of Vegas and now it will forever be our spot.  :)   For those that are wondering we have not picked a date yet.  We are thinking sometime in 2015 but other than that nothing is set yet.   Congratulations to everyone else that got engaged over the Christmas time frame, including Cody's big brother Chance who got engaged the day after us.  :)  Looks like there are going to be some weddings in the Charles family in the next year or two! 

 

Early Fall

I realize that I haven't posted a blog in a few months so I thought I'd post one tonight.  I was checking my stats on my blog and for some reason I got 58 hits on October 8th!  No clue why!  But that's neat... I'm glad to see someone is checking out my blog.

 

 

In September we went back to New York for Cody's second cousin's wedding.  Here we are on Cody's mom's deck.  You can tell that this is her favorite spot to take pictures of us.  It's so funny we have so many pictures that are posed exactly like this in this spot.  Here is another one for the records. 

 

 

I think that Cody has finally given in to my picture taking.  He was telling me to hurry up and get ready so that we could come by his dad's and take pictures by this lake.  Unfortunately, it took me FOREVER to curl my hair so we didn't get too many pictures here.

 

 

Here we are right as we got to the wedding.  I'm glad that I brought my jacket with me.  It was an outdoor wedding, and it was a little cold out that night.

 

 

Here is Cody's sister, Krista, and I.  We were twins!  We both had curly hair and black dresses.  Isn't the scenery beautiful behind us?  I bet they got gorgeous wedding pictures.

 

 

I can't remember what Cody said... but you can tell I'm not happy with him.  Haha.

 

We got him to jump in with us.  I loved that he actually wore the tie all night long.  My handsome Bebesee.

 

 

Here are the girls.  Cody's aunt was so much fun all night.

 

 

Brandon walking JoAnn to her seat.

 

 

Here comes Bridget and her dad.  She was such a beautiful bride.

 

 

I loved the bridesmaids' dresses too.  They were gorgeous dresses... the color scheme was really clever, and it looked so pretty. The ceremony was outside, and we were lucky that the rain held out until after they took their pictures.  We were inside of the tent getting ready for dinner when it started to rain.

 

 

Here is my new favorite picture of Cody and I.  Hrmm I think I'm going to have to start curling my hair more often.

 

 

Here were our party favors.  That was a neat, personalized idea.  I bet it took them forever to make them for everyone at the wedding. I have this on my desk at work, and every time someone sees it they ask me who "Charles" is.  They think that it's our dog or something haha.

 

 

I LOVE the idea of the cupcakes. Instead of serving pieces of cake they had cupcakes, and then they had boxes for them for the guests to take home with them later on.  I thought this was a great idea.  I'd much rather eat a cupcake than a piece of cake.

 

 

I also liked that the bride and groom were the only ones that sat at the head table.  This allowed the bridal party to sit with their significant others.  I think this was a great idea.  Cody and I were discussing doing something like this or at least not having a head table at our wedding.  I really liked what my cousin, Aaron, did at his wedding too.

 

 

Here we are with Cody's dad.

 

 

The bar... that's where Cody spent most of his time at the wedding.  I swear, I tell him that I'm going to DD for him and he drinks like a crazy person.

 

 

 

After the wedding we went to Lydia's and they had a couple beers.  The drive from the wedding to Lydia's was the scariest thing that ever happened to me...  It was raining, dark, and the roads were twisty and turny.  I was so scared driving on those roads.  I don't think I'd been that stressed driving in a long time.  But I was happy once we got to Lydia's and hung out with everyone.

 

 

 

 Here we are.  You can tell he's been drinking all night in this picture. 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple months ago I went through all of my old pictures and made them digital.  I told Cody's mom that I wanted to do the same thing with Cody's old pictures so when we were there for the wedding she gave me a bunch of old photo albums to look through.  Here is Cody, Chance, and Sky.  I thought this was too funny.

 

 

Here's Cody and Chance

 

 

The boys with their grandpa.

 

 

Cody's grandma and grandpa.  I wished that I would have gotten to meet them.

 

 

Cody's old favorite cat and Lucy.

 

 

Hrmm... this is about the reaction that I get from him now.  Haha.

 

 

 

Here he is in 2004.  He still wears that jersey he has on in this picture on a daily basis now.  I thought it was funny that I came across this one.  I guess the last two pictures prove that things don't change too much.

 

 

 

 

You can see his long hair better in this picture.  Hehe I was teasing him about the long shaggy hair that he used to have.

 

 

 

Usually guys change a lot over the years, but looking through Cody's old pictures I could easily pick him out through the years.  He hasn't really changed that much, especially since his senior year.  I think that he might weigh a little bit less now, but you can still see that it's him.

 

 

Awwww this was my absolute favorite picture of him!!!  It's SO freaking adorable.  I love this picture.

 

 

Cody and his brother and sister at a pumpkin patch.  Cody's mom was talking about how people take pictures now, but they don't really get them developed anymore.  I know that I am definitely guilty of that.  I do a good job of posting my pictures on Facebook and then blogging about them, but I can see the value of having hard copies of special pictures printed out.  As we were looking through all of these albums it was hard for us to remember when pictures were taken or where they were when they took them.  This made me really want to start making a scrapbook.  I told Cody that I want him to get me scrapbooking supplies for my birthday.  I love my blog, and I think that is truly the best way to remember all of the details that happen... but I think having a scrapbook would be fun too.  I just hope that I'm creative enough to make it look good!  I think the key for me would be to put the date and then a short description of the pictures on the scrapbook page.  I think that I would stay with it, because I've done well with keeping up with this blog.  I'm a memory preserver...  it's something that I definitely see the value of having in the future.

 

 

 

 

As I was going through the pictures the kids were trying to help me.

 

 

Little Dave was showing me his favorite picture that he picked up.  You can see that it's sticks and dirt.  He's a true boy right there.

 

 

Shockingly the kids helping me didn't end up too well...

 

 

He realized that I was taking his picture and he hated it.  He hates it when I try to take his pictures.  To get pictures of him I have the sneak them.  Overall, we had a good trip to New York.  It was a long weekend, and we got to hang out with Chance and Amber quite a bit.  We stayed over their house until 3 am the day before the wedding.  We were playing a categories game where you put your phone on your forehead, and then a word comes up on your phone and everyone has to get you to guess the word, and you try to get as many words as you can in a minute.  We had a blast with it. The long weekend was a good time frame to be there. We got to spend time and see everyone, but the only part that sucked was having drive home so quickly.

 

 

Our house!!!  Yaaay!  I love that we now have our drive way and yard in!  I feel like we have a finished house now, except that we don't have our deck yet...  We debated on whether or not we wanted to put the yard in ourselves or if we wanted to hire a company to do it.  We had so many rocks in our yard, that we would have had to rent expensive equipment, a rock hound, to get rid of all of the rocks so we decided to just hire a company to do it.  We went with Calanni landscaping.  The owner was an Italian guy, and they did our yard.  We are pretty happy with it.  We haven't put any flowers in yet, because we put our yard in right before we left for New York.  We figured that anything we'd plant would get frozen in a couple weeks, so we didn't want to waste our money.  That's the same reason why we didn't put a deck up this year.  We figured that we would get it built and then winter would come and we wouldn't be able to use it anyway.  We decided to wait for the deck until the spring so that we can build our money up for it.  It's amazing how much money goes into a house!  It just seems like it's one expense after another.

 

 

Speaking of...   Cody gave me a lot of crap for it, but I love my pole decorations!  I am now a Pat Catan's enthusiast.  We went there the other day and I browsed around for hours trying to figure out how I wanted to decorate my pole.  I love the big bow and my "Give Thanks" sign.  Luckily I already had the garland from previous years.

 

 

By our door you can see our two Aldi's pumpkins and our scarecrow guy.  He kept trying to blow away, so I had to use the pumpkin to keep him in place.

 

 

My decorations for the inside of my house are a little bit weak.  I don't have a ton of Halloween decorations yet.  I'm excited to decorate for Christmas, because I actually feel like I might have enough decorations to decorate our whole big house.

 

 

I put my Thanksgiving decorations up too.  I really like how this serving wear looks.

 

 

Our table.  I love the pumpkin centerpiece.  I actually won this at Jacqueline's bridal shower last year.

 

 

Hehe!  My turkey!  I just got him at Cracker Barrel this year.

 

 

Isn't he cute?

 

 

My fireplace.  :)  I love my witch.  She's so pretty.  But like I said...  I need to expand my Halloween decorations over the next couple of years.  Just wait until Christmas...

 

 

 

One really cool thing that I got to do this fall was go back to Bowling Green to recruit students to work at Swagelok!  It was so neat to be on the other side of the career fair.  It was interesting to see how students approach employers, and what students resumes look like.  At first I was a little nervous about it, but towards the end of the day I felt better about judging whether someone should get an interview or not.  There were a couple of great candidates that came by.  I don't know who got an offer yet, but it will cool to see who our interns are next summer.

 

 

Cody and I went to our first haunted house with each other this weekend.  I can't believe we've been dating for over two years and that we've never been to one yet.  We ran into Hannah, Kyle, Sam, and Steph at Giant Eagle on Saturday and they were going to one later that night so we decided to go with them.  We had fun together there.  I have a love hate relationship with haunted houses.  I don't like haunted houses that are more than people just jumping out to scare you.  I hated Mansfield prison... but the one last night was pretty fun. 

 

 

Today we hung out with a bunch of our neighbors and tailgated/watched the Browns game.  It was fun to get to meet and hang out with people around the neighborhood.  Our next door neighbor, Dave, was teasing us that we were going to have a baby soon.  He was holding one of the neighbor's 7 month old baby, and he gave him to me to hold.  And he kept telling Cody "Uh oh you're in trouble now buddy.  There's something about a woman when she holds a little baby.  She's going to want one."  And we were kind of laughing and I told him that I wanted a ring first!  Haha.  We took stuffing balls over for everyone and they were a big hit.  I swear they are the easiest best appetizers that you can make.  1 bag of stove top stuffing, 1 lb of the ground meat of your choice, 1 cut of water, 1 egg, and 1 can of cranberry sauce.  You brown the meat and then mix all the ingredients together.  You place them onto a baking sheet in the shape of balls and cook them for 20 minutes.  They taste great hot or cold.  Super easy and super tasty.  We didn't have any left to bring home.  We had a fun time with everyone.  So far we've had a great fall.  I can't wait to see what Halloween is like in our new development.  We are gearing up for needing lots of candy!  We are also preparing for our trip to California and Las Vegas in December... we can't wait for it!