I rolled out of bed early this particular morning, the sun was already and well for me dawn is nature's way of telling you to go to bed. I was at camp so early mornings should be normal, but then again it was a Saturday. I had reason to get up though, it was indeed about to become a very important day. I quickly went about the preparation for my day: along with the usual needs such as shaving and showering I packed a picnic lunch for two. Creating the sandwiches was easy enough and I had been fortunate enough to have prepared everything else the day before making this lunch an easy one to make. I slipped a special something into a side pocket of the cooler and carefully concealed the pocket's contents. An exciting day was ahead of me, and I was off to meet the girl I love for some breakfast before we left.

It's been a while since I've had Captain Crunch, and I was a bit surprised as to how much it sticks to the top of ones teeth. I decided some brushing was in order for said choppers thanks to this cereal and as a result of my teeth cleaning we left her house a bit later than was originally intended. We had quite a distance to travel and Sugar had some meetings she needed to attend in the morning. It seemed that a late arrival was inevitable, but there was no fixing that now, the only thing to do was drive.

The drive was nice but that was to be expected, it's always nicer when you have company then when you're alone and in my case there is no better company than to be with Sugar. Unfortunately the morning was ominous at best, it rained for much of the drive, and when we finally reached our destination it was much colder than I would have liked. She had things to do though and I hoped that while she was gone the weather would turn warmer and drier. This wait seemed to last forever. Of course the anticipation of the week previous had been bad enough but now the day was here and it seemed almost too much to take. Fortunately I was equipped with a laptop and a movie to take my mind off of the events that were about to transpire.

Several hours later we were ready to make the trip to our picnic locale. I had picked Letchworth Park a while back and I hoped that by the time we got there the weather would be a bit more cooperative. Again the traveling was fun and after not all that long we pulled into the entrance of the park. I had chosen to enter on the free side for this trip and decided that it would allow for the easiest access to where I ultimately wanted to go - the lower falls.

After exiting the car I grabbed our lunch and we prepared to leave for our picnic. Neither of us was really all that hungry though, and we both knew it. As I picked up the cooler, Sugar asked me if I really wanted to bring the food and carry it around all day. I said that I did, and in a major twist of humor she proceeded to ask me several more times. Now I like a good lunch as much as the next guy but that was not why I was bringing our lunch with us so I had to make it clear that I did in fact want to carry this bulky bag around with us, she ultimately let me have my way and we began to walk down one of the many trails.

We had traveled this trail once before on our only previous trip to the park, and there were many memories along the way. We passed a stream that I had gone searching for rocks in and looked out over the gorge in places that we had seen and all along the way we talked and had a fantastic time. Slowly but surely we made our way toward the falls, crossing the footbridge and moving up into another forested area. There were several people already mulling around about the falls to my disappointment but they fortunately chose to not stay long.

The moment I had waited for had finally arrived. I began to speak and I can’t say whether the words that came out of my mouth were particularly poetic or not, but I did manage to say something. Then I quietly pulled from the side pocket of that cooler the very object that I had taken so much care to hide that morning. I slowly sank to one knee and uttered the words that I had been looking forward to saying for some time: "Laura Anne Puffer, will you marry me?" As I held the ring box in one hand and her hand in the other, I looked up at her to see a look of shock, amazement, wonder, and the biggest smile I have ever seen on her face. "It would be my honor," she replied which brought one of the biggest smiles I've ever had to my face.

We embraced and I slowly, and with somewhat shaky hands, slipped the ring on her finger. Mist from the falls caught us as we kissed and the sun came out from behind the clouds to glisten off of us and to show the sparkle in the ring. It was without a doubt the best Saturday of my life, and I was now happy to know that another great Saturday would be coming in eight months. We were engaged and we were going to be spending the rest of our lives with each other, and it was certainly a day where our smiles would not go away.