2 Tents, 2 Dogs, and a Ring

On Friday, Mark and I took Guinness camping with one of my co-workers, Jacob, his girlfriend Danae, and their dog Dozer to Red River Gorge. This was no easy camping either. We packed our giant bags full of supplies and hiked to a campsite for the night. Mark made a campfire and we enjoyed brats, s'mores (Guinness tried his very first marshmallow...it's in the picture below), swinging in the hammock, practicing on the slack line, and dodging the rain (yes, it rained on us quite a bit Friday night).
Little did Danae know, but Jacob had told me Thursday that he was going to propose to Danae Saturday morning from their favorite lookout spot of the Gorge. He asked me to take pictures of the whole thing. I was so nervous for him Saturday morning and kept thinking I was going to do something to mess it up, but once we got up to the lookout spot (and Danae was done taking pictures), Jacob took her over towards the ledge and started talking to her. She started crying instantly and then he got down on one knee. It was absolutely beautiful and Mark and I felt so honored to be able to be there and celebrate such an exciting time in their relationship. Congratulations Jacob and Danae!!!
After all of the excitement, we set off to do some more hiking. We went down into and over to the other side of the Gorge to Double Arch. It was a long hike and was made even more difficult with those heavy packs, but it was definitely worth it. The view was amazing and there was such a sense of accomplishment when we got to the other side and saw how far we had just hiked. The dogs really enjoyed being able to hike together and did a really great job. Most of the time they were not a leash unless we started getting into the cliffs. Guinness enjoyed jumping in the creek and at one point face planted into a giant mud puddle (of course). He really started to find his stride after a while and was jumping over logs and up rocks. What a trooper! His dad and I were so proud! All in all we hiked around 8 miles or so. None of us really kept track, but we all knew that we were tired. The dogs were extremely exhausted on the way home and Guinness is still sleeping more than normal. We had a great time and look forward to many more trips like that this summer.