Good Times at the Dead Sea

Here are a few more fun photos at the Dead Sea with my future in-laws. Little did I know that in a few hours I would be engaged. I still can't believe it!!

The Big Question!!

I am happy to say that I am officially engaged!! It was the most beautiful and romantic moment of my life so far. Brian managed after 7 years of knowing each other to completely surprise me to the point that I was speechless. His parents are still in town and we all went down to the Dead Sea last night to stay at a very beautiful hotel. Halfway through the day Brian told me that the hotel asked him to do a photo shoot of our balcony set up with room service and in exchange we could eat the food afterwards. As Brian has done this for many jobs in the past I was not suspicious at all. The crazy thing is that while he was setting up, I was helping arrange the flowers for the shoot. Next thing I know he tells me his parents are coming over for some champagne to watch the sun set before the photo shoot. As we sit down Brian says he wants to take a picture of all of us. As I am posing for the picture I look over and Brian is holding a ring and says, "we should get married". He then waited for my reply until I said, "you didn't ask me a question yet". After he realized his blunder he asked me if I would marry him and of course I said YES. I slowly found out that the whole thing was set up and there was no photo shoot. We then had the most delicious Thai food brought to our room and spent the night eating, drinking and celebrating. On top of all of this, my engagement ring was his great-grandmothers and Brian's mom gave it to Brian for the big occasion. I still can't believe it and am feeling so incredibly lucky and blessed right now! Brian had a remote control and at the moment he asked me he took these pictures ( if you look carefully you can see it in his one hand). Leave it to the professional photographer to capture this moment on camera!!!

The Duke's Paradise

Brian's parents are in town so a few days ago we took a drive to the most northern part of Jordan to a town called Umm Qais. The Duke (a friend of ours) owns property that has a natural hot spring on it. Many years ago he designed several small villas on the property and then re-routed the hot spring to run through the small community. There is a large pool that has a small waterfall running into it. The day we were there was rather full of people so I didn't get a good picture of the main pool. We will be going back some time soon and I will add a few more pictures. The top picture is inside The Duke's private bathroom. He has a huge tub that is filled with the hot spring water and as you can see, several murals on the walls and doors. This was one of the most beautiful places I have been to in Jordan yet.