She Said YES!!!

I thought that I would take time out of my day to share with you the happiest moment of my life thus far. As you all know I went to Las Vegas with Mom, Dad and Victor to celebrate my 21st birthday. A few days before Victor called me at work to tell me that he had booked the Gondola ride in the Venetian hotel on Friday at 6:00pm as a surprise to my Mom. I was excited because I knew how excited my Mom would be. Little did I know....it would end up being the biggest surprise of MY life!
The morning of the 21st I decided to take my monthly shower. :o) As I was basking in the warmth of the water, Victor was in the room with Mom and Dad working up the nerve to ask Dad for my hand in marriage.
Victor told Mom and Dad how he admired how they raised all of us kids and that it would be an honor to be a part of our family....He also said that he admired me as an individual. I think Mom was already crying at this point....Then he asked if they wanted to see the ring and Mom (according to Victor) almost fell out of her chair. Dad said Yes for Victor to marry me by the way. All this while I was in the bathroom undoubtedly thinking about work.
5:30 rolls around and I notice Victor acting funny, sort of on edge but I don't think anything of it because he has been acting funny all trip. I attribute it to the fact that he is excited to be in Vegas. It is weird what sort of behavior you will overlook when you are not expecting anything.
Anyways, we walk up to the Gondola ride only to find a line. Victor tells me to wait in line while he goes and talks to one of the workers. I remember being annoyed at the fact that he left me at the back of the line and was standing at the front like a big nerd. I am thinking, why does he think we are special? We need to stand in line like everybody else. Especially since he tells me we are V.I.P (because he bought his tickets online) and when I tell this to the lady who is checking the tickets she takes one look at my ticket and then looks back at me like I am crazy. I then tell her I am with HIM (pointing at Victor at the front of line like he is a celebrity) and she walks away. After talking at the front of the line she comes back to us and opens the velvet rope for us to walk through. I felt so cool at the front of the line like I was at Disney World and got to cut to the front because I had somebody in a wheelchair with me...hehe but thats a story for another day! Anyways we are escorted into the Gondola by an Italian guy who turns out being our Gondolier.
He tells us that couples had to kiss under the bridges because it is considered good luck. As you may or not know Victor is not at all a fan of P.D.A. So you can imagine my surprise when he leaned over and kissed me under every bridge and before each kiss he whispered, I love you. When we were about to turn around the Gondola in the open part of the "river" the Gondolier says in his booming Italian voice, "I am going to sing a song now, okay?" As soon as he started singing a crowd started form around the open area of the river. (as you can see in the second picture) Then Victor reaches into his pocket, gets down on one knee in front of me and and as he is slipping the ring on my finger he says, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you" My mouth was hanging open (I stole a glance at Mom and Dad to see if they were as surprised as i was and was shocked to see that they had been informed beforehand) it was probably the only time in my life that I was ever speechless And I say "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it, I don't know what to say!!"
Victor says, "say Yes!" And I'm like, "OH OF COURSE, YES!!!" The gondolier yells out "she said YES!!!" And everyone around the fence started cheering and clapping and yelling, "let us see the ring!" So I held up my hand to recieve another cheer!! As we are going back to the beginning of the river, we are chased down by a woman asking us for our e-mail address to send us pictures of the proposal and those are the pics below. (dad was quick to hand her his business card) The gondolier announced "she said yes" two more times and we recieved more cheers and one more lady with pictures to send (although we haven't recieved those yet) Since we got back, Victor and I have been so happy, I think I told everyone that I could possibly tell. I can't wait to start a life with him and I am thrilled that part of my family could be there for that moment. I appreciate all of your Congratulations and I can't wait until we are closer to all of you. I love you all and miss you immensly. And remember, Buona Fortuna!!!