Where do I start???

Had a wonderful weekend. We headed southwest to Oregon, IL to Lake Ladonna Family resort. I hopped a ride with Matt and Tina because Dan was going to be meeting me there a bit later. Fifteen of us headed down, and were on 4 sites. It looked like a little shanty town because there were six couples and then three individuals....a total of nine tents!!!! Couple gazebos, four picnic tables, 16 chairs, six cars, 16 cases of beer, two grills, 40 brats, 64 hot dogs, and a partridge in a pear tree!!! Anyway, we had a wonderful time and all the girls sat and talked wedding stuff, because two of the girls (Adria & Heather) have upcoming weddings, Amalia was just married in July, and then Sam and myself, just dating, and Tina, married 13 years! There was lots of talk of how the proposals went and how the wedding plans were going. Jokingly, I told Dan to take notes :)

We headed home today for an early birthday dinner with the folks. Dad asked me what I wanted and all I asked for was chive potatoes. Dad made a BBQ beef roast on the grill, corn on the cob and chive potatoes. I ate too much at dinner and was overstuffed. I was helping with dishes and mom says to me that we have birthday cake....I said "I ate too much, lets just have cake later, I'm too full now." Then dad was totally insistant that there's always room for chocolate cake. I was not really in the mood to argue (surprisingly) so I sat down at the table. Mom asks if we should sing and Dawn tells me 29 candles is too many to put on the cake. The entire time, I'm sitting at the table and Dan is standing next to me, they all sang Happy Birthday to me and I was about to tell Dan to put the cake down already!!! As they finished the song, Dan put down the cake and I looked at it...it had a ton of writing....Well, I didn't look directly at him, the cake said...."Happy Birthday Amy, Will You Marry Me??" As my eyes welled with tears and I turned toward him, he was on his knee with a ring in his hand, asking me to marry him and make him the happiest man in the world. I said "yes, yes of course I will!!" then of course I planted a kiss on him.

We all celebrated with champagne and the cake that I didn't want to eat. Shortly after all of us had eaten, I asked my parents and Dan....did anyone take a picture of this???? No one thought to take the picture!!!!! I have included a picture of the half eaten cake, please use your imagination with the rest of the cake reading "Will you marry me? I guess Dan asked my Dad's permission to marry me at the Ryan Family Picnic and he's been plotting ever since. Dad was in on the whole thing and Mom found out yesterday!

So, Dan and I are officially engaged!! Yeah!!! No dates are set yet. We have so many Ryan
weddings in 2008, who knows whats gonna happen!!!!