Man oh man, this vacation started months before we actually left for Vegas, with the help of some close friends (Heiko & Krista) and family (thanks mom) the planning and shopping for rings started, if you ever have to go shopping I recommend Jewels by Maxime and Spences, so sneaking out to grab the rings and get some sizing’s and re sizing’s and another re sizing done wasn’t easy at first, but thanks to the bike I the excuses were easier and easier, “Going out for a ride, be back later” was a common phrase in the house for a few weeks.

So all being said and done we now fast forward to September, Heiko became my Ring mule, sneaking the rings past security, if anyone’s wondering why I had visions of security pulling my bag apart in front of Vicki and then the jig would be up, so Heiko slipped the rings inside one of their bags and then things fell into place from there, Heiko and Krista met up with us while Vicki was using the facilities so the hand off of the ring was simple and we didn’t need to do the sleight of hand we’d been practicing for weeks in advance (yeah right). And now we fast forward to the flight, I’m sitting there happily watching the heads of the people in the rows ahead of me and I see Heiko get up and talk to a flight attendant whose face immediately lit up, either things are going my way or he’s now arranged some extracurricular activity for when we land in Vegas, so walking back Heiko gives me the thumbs up and taps his watch and shrugs, either that means “things are a go, but we don’t know when” or “woot I got the hottie but I’m not sure when I can ditch the wife and kid safely” oh god I hoped it was the first. After a little while I see her motion him up to the front of the plane (great I’m hoping for a nice proposal and he’s about to join the mile high club) now the comedy begins, he starts motioning to his wife I can see his lips spell out “what seat?” then his fingers motion 23?, a look of confusion and the act repeats himself… 3 more times. And then I think, this must be a go, woot! A few minutes later the pilot comes on with a mid flight announcement “thanks to a tail wind it looks like we’ll be coming into Las Vegas about 10 minutes early, the temperature is about 39c… oh and Vicki Mingo, James was wondering if you’d marry him.” And Yahoo instant celebrity status.

For the most part things went well with planning the wedding, though getting into the courthouse was a little interesting, the salesmen were all over us as we approached the courthouse, they were trying to get us to come to their chapels, the only saving grace we had from one super pushy salesman that was offering to “show us the chapel, and then give us a ride back to our hotel” (yeah, first one is always free, but once they have you hooked see if you can get away.) but fortunately we lied our way out of it “we’d love to but we’ve got friends back on Freemont Street waiting for us, and they stopped pressuring us, but by the time we were done we had a collection of pamphlets that could choke a horse.

After succumbing to pressure (Vicki and Heiko wouldn’t let up) we booked for the bridge of the Enterprise and that was so easy, one call, 3 attempts for them to get the credit card right (sigh) and we were a go, and nothing but the rest of the vacation to enjoy.