Check out part I, part II and part III if you need to get caught up.

Sometime during 2009, I decided that David need to take me to the Biltmore house.

How had I lived two hours from this place my entire life and never been to visit?  So, I literally brought it up like every 4.5 seconds.  We heard Biltmore commercials on the radio non-stop and David would always roll his eyes at me.  We were driving to Atlanta for Thanksgiving that year and saw several billboard signs advertising the Biltmore.  I’m telling you, it was reminding us at every turn that we needed to visit.  {Keep in mind we’re going away from the Biltmore and somehow there’s sign on the interstate for it.}  I was convinced that David had no interest.  Not to mention that I was coaching basketball so that doesn’t exactly leave much free time for random trips to castles.  So I continued to give him a hard time about not taking me, knowing that it really didn’t fit in our plans anyway.

A couple days before Christmas, David came to my apartment on Sunday with a wrapped Christmas present {thanks, Kay!} and told me I needed to open it.   I love surprises; I’m not even a little tempted to open presents early.  I had no interest.  Zero.  Christmas was Friday that week so I was set on waiting until then.  After a couple hours of this conversation going back and forth, I finally agreed as long as there was a reason I was opening it early, I would oblige.

Inside the wrapped gift, I found a Biltmore catalog and I learned that he was taking me there on Wednesday.  Jackpot.  This was what I had been wanting for months.  {Ok, ok, I see why I had to open it early.}  And at Christmastime?  That place is decorated to the max!

Wednesday finally rolled around and we grabbed lunch at Zaxbys in Asheville.  I mean, really… you didn’t think there was any other option, did you?

 While David ordered, I had to run back out to the truck to grab something.  He swears it was a cardigan because I was cold… I don’t really remember.   When I came back in, he asked, “You lock the doors?”  I told him I did because really… why wouldn’t I have locked them?  After lunch, we get back out to the truck to discover that I did not lock the truck.

So this man, who never gets irritated/annoyed/upset/frustrated has the slightest edge in his voice, “Babe.  You didn’t lock it back.”  Ooops.  But really?  Why is this a big deal?  Let’s just move on and get there.

Once we got to the Biltmore, we walked around outside… there’s snow on the ground.  It was better than I could have imagined.  And freezing!  I snuggled up to him as much as I could.

We took a tour the house.  That thing is crazy amazing on the inside too.  You also get the history of the family and the story behind what happened in the rooms too.  There’s these huge Christmas trees in the lobby.  Seriously, so much fun.

After touring the house, we also did a wine tasting and checked out the Christmas trees at the Inn.  If you’ve never been, the Biltmore is an expansive estate to say the least.  So when you want to get from one place to the next, you pretty much have to ride this shuttle thing.   And I conked out on his shoulder… but not before we got a picture!

Ok, here’s the good stuff.

So around 4ish that afternoon, David was hungry.  And on this beautiful estate, snacks were difficult to be found.  We learned of a gift shop at the Inn and made our way there.  $6 for an individual sized bag of chips.  I mean, how ridiculous is that?  So… I had just woken up from my little shuttle snooze, David’s spending $6 on like 9 chips… and I was slightly annoyed.  {Opposites attract, remember?  I get annoyed, he rarely does.}

It was nice and warm inside this gift shop; in contrast to the outdoors where we had spent most of the day.  This will be nice.  Ohhhh no… David was set on finding a rainbow he saw while riding the shuttle.  So we headed out to the patio area but that wasn’t good enough for David.  We had to make our way down some trail and once again, I’m freezing and thinking, seriously?  Just eat the stupid chips.  Of course there was nowhere to sit on the trial so we came back to the patio area and I plopped down on his lap… gotta conserve body heat when you’re hanging out outside in Asheville in December!   He quickly shoved me off, saying “How bout you sit over there.”  Ugh.

Before I even realized what’s happening, he’s down on one knee, “Will you marry me?”

“Is this for real?”  I mean, there wasn’t even a ring.  {I think he was worried that I would dream up some other way to ruin this perfect day if he waited another second.  First, I left the truck unlocked… not know it had valuable bling in it.  Then I tried to snuggle with him all afternoon walking around and not realizing he had a big box in his pocket that he was trying to keep hidden from me.  After that, I fell asleep on the shuttle.  Then I sat on his lap so there was no way he could get down on one knee.  Oops… I didn’t know any of this at the time…}

There was actually a ring… just not out of the box at the same time the question came out.  And not just any ring… the most gorgeous ring.  And a rainbow which is one of my favorite details of the day because rainbow’s symbolize God’s promises.

As soon as he proposed, a waitress brought us champagne.  I mean, if that’s not straight out of a movie, I don’t know what is.

We finished out the evening by calling our family and friends.

And then we headed off to dinner.  

And the only thing I remember about the rest of that evening is that I had a rock on my finger… I was sure everyone noticed it.   I mean, how could you not?

And then I slept maybe two hours that night.  {Too busy looking at my finger.}

This was such a fun trip down memory lane.  It’s funny how you forget the little details until you sit down to write about it.  I still love thinking back on that day.  He put so much thought into the details of it and I had no idea it was coming.  It was the perfect day for us.

And since basketball brought us together… we met at a game, went to a game for our first date {we’ve been to a few since then, too}, coached together… how fitting is it that today is the first official day of the season for the high school girls?  I’m about to get into coaching mode!  Amber {the head coach} and I have spent lots of time in the off-season preparing for this year.  Bring it on!