Sandy Creek Falls

Guess what...

We are now ENGAGED!

Laura's email announcing the engagement to her family:

As my mom has probably already told you, Christian and I have decided to get engaged! I know this is hot on the heels of Natalie and Hillal's good news, but don't worry, our wedding probably won't be for a while (2 years? It's very TBA).

Ever since we started this trip, we have been spending almost 24 hours in each other's company (except when I got the job with Greenpeace). It's been amazing - to see the world with a man I love and who loves me, who sees beauty in places I wouldn't look, and who knows how to lift my spirits with a smile or a laugh. We celebrated our fifth anniversary in May.

The engagement happened at Tjaynera (Sandy Creek) Falls in Litchfield National Park, Australia. We had been "pre-engaged" before this (it happened over eggs and Christian jokingly insisted it was not a good time to get engaged because his hair didn't look good that morning). It was day one of our Northern Territory Tour with Mom and Dad, and we had a couple of hours sitting out on the rocks near the falls. The scenery was beautiful and serene, and Christian's hair looked good as he had just been swimming. So we decided this was a good spot to get fully engaged. No ring, just a promise. It was nice to tell Mom and Dad when we swum back to shore. The funny thing is, we kept being in more beautiful spots over the course of our Australia trip and kept saying, "This would have been a good spot to get engaged too!".

While it makes me nervous to promise the rest of my life to someone, I look at Christian and remember the beautiful person I am entrusting it to and feel in love.

I love you, my family, and happy to share this good news with you all.
Love,

Laura

Christian's email announcing the engagement to his friends:

a little update to say hi.

miss you guys. just got back from Australia.

I just told seth online...

I would like to call you all to tell you all the good news....

but I cant...

so...



Laura and I are....


officially...

ENGAGED!!!

Crazy yes... but we are both pretty excited about the decision...

The wedding isn't going to happen anytime in the near future, but we decided to promise to ourselves and to all our famiy and friends that we will... eventually!... Probably in a couple years... But yeah its a pretty funny story how we decided... It all started a cold morning about a month ago. Laura and I were discussing "things" over runny eggs, when she pops the question. A bit of role revesal, but it is 2006!... I pondered the question briefly while scratching my unkept hair. I replied, "I'm sorry, I cannot say yes... my hair looks terrible today... we shouldn't get engaged over runny eggs and messy hair!!! where is the romance in this!" But after a brief discussion we decided to get pre-engaged, meaning that eventually... one day we will get engaged. We told some of our friends in Wellington, and they would pass jokes like, "Gee Christian, your hair is looking quite good today. Wink. Wink."

Soooo... Early on in our travels in Australia, we visited the first waterfall of the trip (there were alot), Sandy Creek Falls... and we swam out to the base of the waterfall and sat on the rocks just beside the falls. She said, "your hair is looking particually good today."... so i asked her! after a brief discussion, watery eyes and hearts pounding like a bees trapped in window... we are engaged.

love you guys.
christian

Thanks Bob & Ellen for an unforgettable trip.

Tjaynera (Sandy Creek) Falls