Scott A. Roberts

As I’ve previously posted, Christine’s Christmas present from me this year was a downhill ski trip to Wisconsin this weekend.  We drove out to Wausau, WI after work on Friday and stayed at the Everest Inn.  I stayed here last time I was in Wausau, and it was just as charming as I remembered.  We got a nice room on the top floor with a private bathroom and enjoyed some good food and conversation throughout the weekend with the Innkeepers and other residents.

The weather forecast predicted a very cold weekend for skiing on Saturday, and it turned out to be very accurate; the temperature was around -10F when we left the Inn in the morning.  Knowing this beforehand, we both dressed appropriately and the skiing was very nice, other than some chilly winds when I picked up speed.

Surprisingly, I actually remembered how to ski fairly well, especially considering the only time that I’d done it before was one day two years ago.  I very quickly gained control on the green hills and we did them all morning.  Unfortunately, last time I skied, I was racing bicycles and was in quite decent shape.  Now, however, is a different story.  After we finished our lunch break, I was already getting quite sore and my abductor muscles were starting to cramp, particularly when I was trying to cut across the snow to slow down.  Unfortunately, this is also when I tried to move on to the blue runs, and that combination didn’t work out too well.  I felt like I had the skill to navigate them, but the muscles just wouldn’t respond properly.  Two trips down the blues, and it was back to the green for the (short) remainder of the day.

Towards the end of our day, Christine saw the Enchanted Forrest on the map and wanted to try it.  It was a wooded area towards the bottom of the hill that was designed for you to ski through and make it back to the lift at the bottom.  We decided to test it out, and found ourselves alone for the first time all day.  I figured that this was as good of a time as ever, and asked Christine to marry me.  She said yes, and now we’re officially engaged!

I had been planning on proposing for quite a while now and pretty much planned this weekend for that purpose.  I couldn’t have hoped for better circumstances or a better reaction from Christine!  She said yes immediately and I managed to completely surprised her.  We had not discussed the subject at all, and I managed to plan everything and shop for the ring without tipping her off.  Thanks to some ring sizing tips from the internet, a lot of on-the-job diamond research, and help from the very nice Susan at Wedding Day Diamonds.

The rest of the weekend was great, too.  We had an awesome celebratory dinner at Red Eye Brewing, which was an awesome Pizza/Brewpub.  Do go there if you’re ever in the area.  I grabbed my geocache for January, even through a foot of snow.  We also stopped by Madison, WI “on our way home” to see Christine’s sister and tell her in person.  Christine thinks that all “official” engagement photos should involve robots.  What do you think?

As far as plans, lay off a bit, would you?  We’ve talked some, but haven’t decided much of anything about the details yet.  Probably thinking spring/summer 2010 in Minnesota, but don’t hold us to it … could turn out to be next month in Delaware for all I know.  I’ll keep you all up to date.  But don’t worry, I get tired of weddings like the rest of you, so I’m not going to turn this blog into a wedding blog, and neither is Christine.  We’re both too engineery to do that.

Of course, there are pictures from the awesome weekend.  Check them out.

2009-01-24 Skiing in WI and Engagement