It all started Friday night. Trent and I decided to do one of our greatest "Trent and Abby" things to do: drive around to anywhere and everywhere in his truck. It's a special treat for us to take his truck because we get to sit up higher (as opposed to his Saturn) so we can enjoy the scenery and each other's company. We started in Nappanee, headed to Elkhart, went through Mishawaka, and ended up at his house. (I thought) he felt bad about us not going out to eat or anything on a Friday night so he said, "Hey, why don't we just go out to eat Sunday night, since you don't have to work." That sounded good to me, a nice little date with my boyfriend on a Sunday night. I thought we would go to Logan's or something and didn't really think much more about it. Until Sunday morning...
I woke up at 9am to get a major load of spanish homework done for the week. I knew I would have a lot of time because Trent told me on Saturday that him and his dad and brother were going golfing at around noon and were playing 18 holes. This meant that it would take them about 4 hours to finish golfing. I was glad, it gave me time to finish my spanish homework. As I sat in my pajamas at the dining room table with sheets of spanish words spread out around me, I received a phone call from Trent at about 11:30am. He called to say that they were headed out to the golf course and mentioned something about our dinner date. He suggested that we went to a place in Syracuse called The Frog, "a nice italian restaurant" he said. He said he heard Mary and Jerry (a couple from our church who live on Lake Wawasee) talking about it and it sounded nice. I said, "aw man, a nice restaurant? That means I actually have to take a shower and not just wear my hair in a ponytail." He laughed and said, "Nope, you gotta shower." I agreed, he said he had to go, and we said our goodbyes.
After the conversation, I was very curious why we were going to a nice restaurant on a random Sunday night, something not typical at all for us. Then my thoughts and heart began to race. Could this be the night?! Is he taking me to a nice restaurant on the lake to propose to me?! I couldn't contain my excitement and texted my mom with "Trent's taking me to a nice restaurant in syracuse. this could be the night!" she texted back with, "let's hope so!" haha! Then, about a half hour later, my sister came home and when she walked in the door I said, "Well, I might be getting engaged tonight." haha! Then I proceeded to tell her what Trent told me on the phone.
The whole afternoon I debated with myself about what was going to happen that night. Were we or weren't we?? Ben called me at about 4pm and said he was home from Purdue and was coming over to return my car to me. I thought, "he's back kinda early", but it was a momentary passing thought and didn't think more of it. He came over and I was hesitant to tell him about Trent and I going out to dinner. I didn't want to lead on that I suspected something because I already knew Ben knew what Trent was planning. I didn't say a word and Ben left.
Trent got done golfing and picked me up at about 5:45pm. On the way to the lake, I noticed that Trent was awfully chatty. His mouth was running a mile a minute! But, sometimes that happens to him when we've haven't spent much time together. So, I didn't think too much of it except in the back of my mind thinking, "he might be nervous about tonight." I tried so hard not to get my hopes up because I would've been a little upset if it didn't happen that night. So I tried to remain calm and just think of it as a date night.
We got to Syracuse and I saw the parking lot to the restaurant. However, we drove past it and he turned down one of the lake roads. He said, "Oh crap, I took a wrong turn, I need to turn around in someone's driveway." So he pulled up to someone's driveway and said with an enormous grin, "Hey! This is Mary and Jerry's house!" As I was saying, "Trent, hurry up and turn around so these people don't see us in their driveway," he parked the truck and proceeded to open the door to get out. This was the moment that solidified my suspicions: we are definetely getting engaged tonight.
I was in shock and slowing got out of the truck, absolutely dumbfounded. I'm pretty sure I looked totally stunned when Mary greeted us at her door with a "Hey! I didn't expect to see you two here!" I smiled like a confused fool as we walked through their house to see Jerry sitting on the back porch. Jerry greeted us and Trent asked with a huge smile, "Hey do you think we could borrow your boat for the night?" Jerry replied, "Sure go ahead!" Then Trent led me to their pontoon, I sat down, still in shock and very confused. I noticed a table set up on the boat but didn't think anything of it because Mary said, "Sorry about the table, it's still there from boat church this morning." Trent steered the boat out of the channel and we were off.
As we were speeding down the lake, so many thoughts were running through my mind. Where are we going? Is he taking me to a restaurant by the lake? But why would we need to drive a boat to get there? I turned around to my smiling-like-a-fool boyfriend and simply said "Trickery!" We arrived at our destination between two docks and we plopped down the anchors. Once again, I was confused. Are we getting off the boat and eating in that gazebo over there? Is that amazing house over there a restaurant? Are we eating at all cuz I'm starving! Oh geez, we better get to eat. So I asked, "Are we eating?" about 5 times and Trent finally said that we were. We sat around on the anchored pontoon for a few minutes and watched boats drive by. I asked with a curious grin, "So, are we waiting on something?" He smiled back and lied, "I don't know." It started to get hot so I rolled up my pants, sat down on the side of the boat, and stuck my feet in the water. Trent thought it was a good idea so he sat down next to me and he took some pictures of our feet in the water. Not long after Trent suddenly stood up and said, "Hey, who's on that speed boat over there?"
I hesitated because I knew another surprise was on the way but eventually stood up to see Jerry driving the speed boat with Ben and Todd surprisingly on there as well. They were dressed up particularly well in black pants, white dress shirts, and black ties. I flashed a huge smile, I knew they had the food. Again, the moment Ben and Todd stepped onto our boat and Jerry drove away, I knew we were going to be eating dinner on our boat and Ben and Todd were our servers. However, I still didn't know when the questions was going to be asked.
It didn't take long because as Todd was setting the table and pouring the white grape juice, Trent layed down a linen napkin before me that was embroidered with pink lettering that said, "Abby Miller, will you marry me?" The ring was tied to a pink ribbon sewn onto the napkin. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes of course and the tears started to swell in my eyes. I was shocked at how emotional I got because I had been expecting him to propose ever since we picked out the ring a week after school ended. So, I said yes, we kissed and hugged, Ben took TONS of pictures, and we finally got to eat! It was absolutely perfect. I had no idea Trent would be so creative and propose to me on a boat! I thought for sure that he would propose on the 4th of July, but was wrong, and glad I was wrong!
Trent did such an amazing job but I know (from the conversation on the ride home) that he had a lot of help. His mom and dad made the food and helped him plan the engagement, hide the ring, and keep things under wraps. Ben and Todd did their parts making sure every detail was carried out as Trent had planned and keeping me out of "the know." And Phyllis was delighted to do her part and embroidered the napkins for Trent. Thank you all so much for making this truly the best night of my life. It was PERFECT. I love you all!
Well, time to go, we've got a wedding to plan!
Abby
