2012
“A certain tall gentleman meets a beautiful redhead in their first class at Georgetown”
2013
I can't stop this feeling
Deep inside of me
Girl, you just don't realize
What you do to me
When you hold me
In your arms so tight
You let me know
Everything's all right
I'm hooked on a feeling
I'm high on believing
That you're in love with me
"Hooked on a feeling" - Blue swede (1974)
Gabe: I realized I was in love with Elle so quickly in our relationship that I couldn't really believe what I was feeling; I guess some things in life really do work out like that--you know it when you have it, and I knew it as soon as I stumbled down a flight of stairs with some goat cheese on a plate singing to myself, and there she was, laughing her head off and recording me with the most beautiful look in her eyes I've ever seen. And I didn't look back.
Elle: Gabe and I first exchanged 'I love yous' on a dingy New York City subway. We hadn't been dating for very long, but he's never really been a hesitant person (at least not like I am) so he found a moment and went for it. All the same, I wouldn't have changed it, and I too have never looked back.
P.S. I still have that recording.
2015
A new family member...
Comes home for the first time--and life would never be the same.
2017
Gabe: The day I proposed I had everything set up--I had my Grandmother Clare's ring (polished and re-sized), I had flown Elle's parents in and kept it all secret (somehow!). So we drive to the national arboretum, because it was such an important place for me, symbolically--it's where we walked together with Logan before I left for New York, and where I understood, really, truly, that this was my family and how I wanted to spend my life.
Elle: It started to snow right as Gabe and I were arriving at the Arboretum, so as we got out of the car I was a little apprehensive. I'd asked him before we left which boots I should wear, my cuter leather ones or the ones with the good treads, and he definitely recommended the leather. Off we go on our walk with Logan in the snow, and as we were heading up a hill and I'm sliding around with no treads Gabe starts telling me how happy he is and how much he loves our little family. Amazingly, the lone interruption in his sweet speech in the romantic snowfall wasn't me falling down; it was Logan stopping for a potty break.
Gabe: Thankfully that was Logan's only disruption, and we were able to hide it in the snow. As we approached the crest of the hill on that walk I told Elle to stop, told her how much she means to me, how much I love her, how excited I was to have her in my life and my family, and asked her to marry me.
And you know what--she said yes!
