How’d it happen?

Hi Everyone,
From 35000 feet onboard a southwest airlines flight, I would like to say thanks to everyone for their kind wishes and congratulations for Robin and me. As most of you have heard by now, I surprised Robin Hasson, our lower camp girls head counselor, in class Friday morning. Here is the whole story-

Robin is a 1st grade teacher down in Florida just outside of fort lauderdale. I met her class a few weeks ago when I was staying with Robin for a week. They are awesome students and a nice group of kids! Anyway, when I went into school a few weeks ago, I showed them on a map where I travel to, pretty much all around the world! That means they know all of the secret where in the world locations I am going to this winter! Each year, I become a correspondent for Robin’s classes and make a different set of videos special to show her class while I am travelling. Last year for example they got a kick out of me in red square with the Russian hat on!

So when I went to London 2 weeks ago, I figured I can make the excuse to Robin that I wanted to read a book about London to her students, (shout out to Ali for the idea!) Only problem was that we figured out this plan after I had already returned! So, Matt Unger and I looked long and hard and found a kids guide to London sightseeing on Amazon.com

The book arrived just in time (wed night) and luckily it was perfect. It had a 2 line rhyming poem for each place in London! So I showed up to Robins class with this book and spent 15 minutes reading it. When we came to the end, I said there was one more page. On it was a picture of Robin and me with the poem- one more thing for your class to see, Robin will you marry me!

She was caught so off guard and asked me wait- is this for real? I got down on one knee and pulled out her engagement ring and I think at that point it hit her! She began to cry and hug me. After a minute both her principal and I yelled out- you didn’t answer the question! I think her exact answer was “yes, of course”. The principal asked the students if they knew what was going on and one first grader yelled out “miss Hasson just got married”! We said not quite and then enjoyed a great cake with her class.

Robin and I had a cruise prearranged for the weekend and so we had a chance to relax and absorb the fact that we are engaged. I will admit once during the cruise I still said girlfriend, but I will get the fiancé thing down soon!

In closing, I just want to say (although I think it goes without saying) how much camp means to us both. As many of you know, Robin and I met at camp in the summer of 2003 when I was evening activities director and Robin was the girls head counselor. We have been best of friends since that point and realized one summer that we were meant to be together after all those years of being good friends. Camp means the world to us and so it is so exciting to be able to share this story with all of you. Now I promise this blog won’t turn into a wedding planning website but perhaps I will highlight some of the funnier moments throughout the process.

Thanks to all of you- campers, counselors, administration, staff, and camp families for your support and well wishes! A special thank you to JayCal for providing up to the minute coverage and updates on this blog during our very special day!