It All Started On A Bench...

As you will all come to realize, I am a SUPER sentimental person. I pretty much document any and all events, milestones, ect. which I am sure really annoys some people, but “oh well”. I feel like the story behind an important moment is the best part of a memory, so here are some of my favorites. And they all begin with…a bench.

I guess I should start with our engagement (just bare with me!) On September 7th, Brendon surprised me with an impromptu birthday trip to New York City. We were living in Boston at the time, so we were only a hop, skip and a Jet Blue flight away. On the plane, I joked about going to the diamond district for which I received the same eye roll I had gotten ten times before that. After taking all forms of transportation (excluding boat), we finally made it to the hotel. We put our bags down and were off in search of food (you will also learn I am a giant foodie and can't go longer than 2 hours without eating- #sorrynotsorry). I suggested we grab some sandwiches and head to Central Park because it was quick and I was wearing a black maxi dress in 85 degree weather which turned my outfit into a sweat tent. We had walked for about 20 minutes in no particular direction (I thought) and ended up in front of the boathouse. While we sat stuffing out faces, a girl and her new fiancée came to shore where their family greeted them. I obviously gushed with joy for this stranger and said "OMG! Isn't that so cute!?". The response I got: "Yea, cool". I didn't say it out loud, but my inner unmarried 20 something self was screaming "UGH RUDE!" We gathered our stuff and started walking. At that point, Brendon was a little ahead of me. When I caught up to him, two high school girls approached us and told us they were taking a survey on LOVE and they wanted to ask us some questions. In true Nikki fashion, I negotiated a photo op out of it and all parties walked away happy. As we sat on a bench in front of Conservatory Pond, I swiped through the three pictures the girls had just taken of us (I knew I could count on high school girls to capture the perfect "long way" photo of us). I have to add that this entire time my hopeless romantic husband was talking about us, and how much he loved me, all while I posted pictures on Facebook. The next thing I knew, he was fumbling through his bag and down on one knee! The other people in the park must have thought he was breaking up with me because I was SOOOOOOOOOBING uncontrollably. I was so stunned, that B had to actually remind me to answer “yes” or “no”. Obvi we all know the answer I gave.

Flash forward to a year later, we spent our wedding weekend in NYC and returned to the same bench. A year after that, I was three months pregnant and a few weeks ago we brought our little bear to visit the place where it all started.

New York City holds and will always hold a special place in my heart and we definitely wanted Landon’s first visit to be during Christmas time!