***ENGAGED!!***

As many of you already know, my girlfriend SY came out to Hawaii on September 1^st to spend the Labor Day weekend and a bit of vacation time with me. Little did she know, I had a big surprise for her.
On September 3^rd we went down to Kakaako beach park to watch the sun set (pictured above), and I shared with her some things I had written in a small blue notebook. Then, as the sun touched down over the water, I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me.

Her answer was a quick and very self-controlled "Yes," which kind of surprised me -- I had thought she would have been more emotional. (Later she explained she was just too shocked to react like that.) Then we went off to a Thai restaurant we had eaten at the last time she was here.
I bought the 0.539 carat, super-ideal cut, "I" color, "S1" clarity diamond separate from the white gold ring, and then had it set along with two Swiss-blue topazes (her birthstone). The topazed are about the same color as my eyes, which I thought was neat.

There's more to come later, as I go through all the pictures from our time together, so stay tuned....