December 20

The planning that went on that day! Here was Dave's to-do list:

1. Get up.

2. Go to work.

3. Ask Christopher for his blessing.

4. Help McKenna with her dead battery.

5. Date night out with McKenna.

6. Secretly have her family there immediately after proposal.

7. Propose.

8. End bachelorhood.

Did it go exactly as planned? No.

He finally made it over to work to speak to Christopher and to Shaina. Dad and I kept our mouths shut about the whole thing so it was a surprise to them also. In fact, they wanted to know why I was hanging out at work for so long. The reason he came over to see Christopher was that when Christopher was about to propose to Shaina a few years earlier, Chris made a very special gesture in speaking to McKenna privately about his upcoming proposal. We had told Dave of that and he wanted to include her sibling in the secret, too. Quite a guy, huh? Both Christopher and Shaina were bowled over by the fact Dave was showing up at our business in the middle of the day and what's that? YOU'RE ASKING MY SISTER TO MARRY YOU? Hey, Dave, we're gonna be related!!

Because of the dead battery issue with McKenna, Dave was running late at a multitude of errands he wanted to accomplish that day before the evening's activities commenced. Oh, what am I saying? Dave ALWAYS runs late. There was no difference that day.

He had wanted the four of us to be waiting at a little pub next to the river that evening so that when he and McKenna walked into it after the proposal she would be surprised to see her family. So that evening the plan was that he would take Kenna out to dinner and at some point when dinner was winding down, he would excuse himself and then call us to "Come On Down!"

Here is where it gets funny. He expected dinner to last until 8pm and that was the agreed upon time that we would go downtown. At 6:30 (!) he calls and whispers into the phone that they had eaten all that they could and he couldn't find anything more to talk about...get down here now!!!!

Well, crap! Bob and I call Christopher and Shaina, tell them to race to downtown, no, that won't do, it will take too long...crap....just come to our house and we'll all meet up there. Bob and I raced downtown with me bringing my trusty camera along. (Seriously? You think I wouldn't have it with me?) We worried that we wouldn't find any parking spaces on First Street and we'd have to park in the parking building then race back down to the pub. But wait! Right there, on the street, IN FRONT OF THE PLAZA WHERE DAVE IS PROPOSING RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE IS A PARKING SPACE!

Bob and I quietly walked up to the entrance of the plaze, froze in place and watched as Dave asked McKenna to marry him. With me clicking away the camera. A. they are blurry. B. it was dark. C. my flash wouldn't carry that far.

When she accepted the proposal and he put it on her finger (both of them shaking) they hugged. And I kept taking pictures, using the flash. I just should have used a flare because Dave looked up, saw us, and showed McKenna who was there.

This is what Cloud Nine looks like:

We went into the pub and just chatted away about what had happened and were you surprised? Dave are you still nervous? Endless questions and comments and all of us were talking and interrupting each other. McKenna had to call her brother...just had to.

And here is what Sisterly Love looks like:

After a few more minutes at the pub, we all went to our place where Christopher and Shaina were waiting. Along with the Champagne!

Can I borrow your suitcase?

One evening, December 19 to be exact, we got a call from Dave. Could he come over after work to grab our big suitcase? They needed it for their trip (yes, I KNOW!) to Costa Rica the day after Christmas. Bob took that call, hung up, and told me that Dave was coming over and to fix a plate for him... you know that Dave, he's always hungry.



"Ha! Wouldn't it be funny if he was coming over to ask for our blessing?" - Me




"yeah, HA!" - Dad

Yes, we had been talking between ourselves about the possibility of the two of them getting married. Plus, McKenna revealed that they had been 'talking' about looking at engagement rings so my question above wasn't totally telepathic. I wish. Now at that point in the evening, I started to get a little anxious for his arrival. Maybe it was all wishful thinking. Maybe all he wanted was dinner and our suitcase. Maybe I was being a dillweed. Probably.

Dave arrived and we promptly sat him down with dinner at the counter while we all chitchatted. We talked about the economy, his business, plans for Christmas day, and their up coming trip. The three of us sat at the counter enjoying each other's company. But wait, he's toying with his food. What? Doesn't he like braised short ribs? Seriously? Short ribs? How could someone not---

"Well you guys know how much I love your daughter..." Dave said nervously.

That was all it took to get the waterworks flowing freely. It got REAL quiet as we let him continue speaking.

"Because of that, I'd like to ask you for your blessing. I'd like to marry McKenna."

I continued looking down at my feet because, well, I was crying and trying not to blubber all over everyone. Bob got up and went to Dave shaking his hand. I leaned over and hugged him hard. "Of course. You have our blessings. We love you, honey!"

The relief in that room, that house was GINORMOUS. All of us started talking at once. When? Where? and most importantly, "Dave, did you bring the ring to show us?"

He never did finish his short ribs.

December 2007

McKenna graduated (take a deep breath...it is possible to put two kids through school without killing them) early in December. And as a graduation gift to her, she recieved diamond earrings. Yes, I'm telling you, this guy is good!

You probably experience the lack of weekends in December just like we do. Every weekend is CRAMMED with outtings or parties or travel. We have traditions: cutting down Christmas trees, seeing the Nutcracker, family holiday parties, decorating the tree. The year before, Dave could not make it with us to see the Nutcracker but this December, he would. This would be another new family experience for him. This tradition started when McKenna was very little (8? 9?) when it was a special Mother/Daughter date. We enjoyed it so much that we enticed Dad and Chris to join us the following year. Every year since then (oh, we might have missed a couple) we see the Nutcracker. Shaina also fell in love with this tradition and so we hoped that our luck didn't run out with Mr. Dave.








This would be second year that he accompanied us to cut Christmas trees. Each year it seems that we encounter great weather to do this cold cold task. This year was no different.




But now, things beyond our control (ok, MY control) were happening.

Fast Forward

I'm going to tell you right now. These two travel. A lot. Mucho. Often. More than I ever have. Brats. For her birthday, they went to Hawaii. After we just got back! He has a home in Costa Rica that had just been built so they have gone there. Again...many many times. "To decorate" she says. I say BS. They go to have fun. And they do. They have more stamps on their passports than I could ever hope for. In 2007, they celebrated their first year of dating. At this time the questions start popping up. So this is the guy, huh? Are you talking "K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes (rhymes with schmarriage)" Dave also travels with the family, again, this time to the Tetons. This would be the real test. Either he falls in love with it, like Shaina did, or not. And we all held our breath on his reaction to these mountains:

Ta DA! He likes it, he really likes it! As most of you know, this has been our family's retreat for many years. We relax, refresh, rejuvenate, and well, drink. Dave became entrenched with the family. We loved having him with us; we bonded as one unit. Christopher and Dave became closer while the two girls put their heads together and gossiped. At this point, we couldn't have even considered him not being with us.

McKenna started her last semester at UNR for a December graduation. All through that autumn, they were inseparatable. Family dinners on Sunday became more loud, more fun with his sense of humor. Or us teasing him over something. We found out that he has an incredible sweet tooth or better yet, he is a junk food junkie. My kinda guy.

Family Vacation

What other way then to really get to know a person but to spend a week in close confines together? By the time February rolled around, 6 months into the relationship, Dad and I took the whole family on vacation. We opted to rent a house instead of hotel rooms. Now this house was great. Great views of the ocean complete with whale sightings, pool, hot tub, 3 bedrooms....one of which had twin beds. Guess who got that room?

Newbies.

Learning to play hearts. And fitting in very nicely with the fam. In fact, he was family at this point. We fell in love with him very easily.

And this? Because we have sick senses of humor. Thanks, Chris.

It's getting serious. No, really.

They both came to us to tell us that they were going to take a vacation together, right after the Christmas holiday. In fact, they were spending New Year's Eve in Miami. (Side note: I have never been out of Reno on New Year's Eve and yet, here my daughter is partying the night away in freaking Miami Florida! But I'm not bitter. Nope, not me.) Here they are.

Then? Then they jetted off to Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. Oh, and by the way, my pretty little princess here also took up scuba diving because McDreamy here dives.

But here is where they told each other the 'L' word.

Halloween

Hmmm. This one is gonna be fun to publish. So we're going on 2 1/2 months of dating when Halloween rolled around. They talked of going to a Halloween party complete with costumes. "What fun!" I thought, "we used to do stuff like that, too". Apparently, back in the Jurrassic period when McKenna's dad and I were dating, we never thought to do this:

Voted Sexiest Couple at this particular Halloween party. Hubba Hubba.

You had me at puppies

After a few weeks of dating, Dave decided that he wanted a dog. Not just any dog...a big dog. Not wolfhound size, but certainly larger than my Yorkies. He wanted a golden retriever and off he and McKenna went to look at a litter of puppies. They both picked out a little female. Blonde, brown eyes...sound like anyone to you? Anyone, Anyone? Bueller? Nevermind. Here they are, Dave, McKenna and Kadence. (Named after a certain new girlfriend with curly hair that loves to RUN).

So exactly how old is he?

We love to kid Dave about his age. That perhaps he's closer to our age than McKenna's. It's not true of course, but we could fluster him about it in the beginning. Let's just say that I'm old enough to be his mother not older sister. Unless of course, his parents started really really young. Like 5.

McKenna started coming home and talking about this guy. This guy that suddenly popped up out of nowhere. And she'd talk about him NON-STOP. Do you understand me when I said non-stop. Literally...she would not SHUTUP already about him. Out to movies, out to dinner, out for drives....I could hear Sandra Dee in my head, "OOOOh...he's so dreamy!" Bob and I talked about it, smiling at each other..just maybe, we'd say. Just maybe.

The day came when she told us, slightly nervously, that this GUY was coming over to meet us.

"Ah, like, this is important to you, honey?"

"yeah, mom, it's important. Please talk to Dad and make sure that he doesn't scare him."

To all of my family: really? Bob scare anyone? really?

But it was so very apparent that this was an Important Thing. Ok, we'll do our best and off we went to work outside on the bbq. (Note to self: if you're about to meet your future son-in-law, put on some makeup, dammit! oh, and deoderant! and a bra would have been a good idea, too.) After a little while we heard some commotion in the house and, voila, there he was stepping outside, reaching his hand out to shake ours, and OMG he's older than McKenna!

Mama Bear and Papa Bear became, oh, shall we say, slightly territorial of our little baby girl? Because, hell-o mighty, um, this age difference? Didn't expect that.

Dave, I know that you'll be reading this at some point. We really weren't shocked...just tilted a bit. And you'll understand more when you have a little girl all your own. But we were so very impressed on how you handled yourself. I motioned a thumbs up to McKenna because, yes, he is dreamy, honey.

A few more weeks of dating and more information shared with each other. Like, "my mom's crazy about taking pictures and then scrapbooking them. If you know what's good for you, you'll always go along with her photo ops. It's just easier that way." and with that, here...on their way out to Apple Hill in the autumn.

I titled this one "Fall-ing For You"..get it? Fall? Autumn? Look, if I have to explain it all the time, it's just not funny.

Did I tell you about their first child?

In the beginning

Currently we are 18 days away from McKenna's wedding day. What that simple phrase does to my heart! 'McKenna's wedding day' just brings tears of joy to me. I recall being extremely pregnant with her and not knowing whether I carried a girl or a boy. We already had our bright little son, Christopher, and the little girl my heart wanted was a wish in the middle of the night. I wanted a girl to give the name we came up with. I wanted a girl who's hair I could braid. I wanted a girl I could pass down my wedding dress. I wanted a little girl that I could show how to play jacks with. I wanted a GIRL! Well, God heard me and gave us McKenna Lynn. She was feisty from the get go. She had many faces to show us but the one we could rely on the most started when she was, oh, about two. Like this one:

or this one:

And I'll bet money on it that the 2008 v.5 of that frown is on her face right now reading this!

On with the story. A few years back she and I were talking about LOVE and the fact that she'd been looking high and low for it and, God, Reno sucks for eligible men! She ranted and raved about how she'd prefer to live anywhere else because all anyone did here was party and drink. And it was all the same crowd, no new faces, nothing stimulating or interesting to her. Her focus was to graduate from college in a minimum amount of time and then to travel. She'd love to have someone travel with her...a soul mate...the love of her life. Her high school friends were going off into so many different directions and McKenna's social life was shrinking. She made new friends here and there, but her gal pals from high school knew her inside and out. She also did a complete about-face regarding how she treated her body and how she ate (and drank). She was on her way to become a fitness guru.

Skip ahead to Hot August Nights 2006. Our family was absolutely reeling in the wake of two of McKenna's grandparents dying a few months apart earlier that year. She decided to go out with her girl friends for dinner and drinks and to watch all the old classic cars drive around. One of her girl friends knew another group of guys who were into the HAN cars and would she like to meet up with that group? They were older but her friend vouched for whole gang. In fact, members from both groups decided that some matchmaking should be going on. Only, the bad part? They paired McKenna up with someone and had Dave paired up with someone else. Not each other. Throughout the evening the two groups laughed and talked and talked some more. Both McKenna and Dave eyed each other and made occasional small talk. When it became obvious that the other was so much more interesting than the one the group decided for them was. (My God, that was an awkward sentence). ANYWAY, they became more focused on each other. To the extent that they pretty much left the others in another dimension. Literally from that moment on, they have been together. It wasn't pretty when the original girl to be set up with Dave started to make waves about wanting him. McKenna began to feel, that perhaps, just maybe, was she being too hasty? But with every question she asked herself over the justice of it all, she kept coming back to..."well, I LIKE him. I really do!"

What their conscience told them to do and what their souls told them to do were the same thing. Get to know each other better, because, DAMN, this feels good and it feels right.

So what do you think happened when she told us all about him and his age?