On Carly's birthday, August 30, 2013, Ronn took her out to a nice dinner at The Melting Pot in Brea, CA. As far as she knew, this was her birthday celebration they both had a great time. Little did she know there was much more in store .... much more.
Here's what she thought was going on the day after her birthday.......
Ronn had to work DJing a corproprate picnic in San Dimas, CA. Carly's mom planned to take her out to get a pedicure and manicure for her birthday along with her sisters and grandmother. The plan was to meet back at Carly's parent's house afterwards for cake when Ronn was done with his job, and the girls were done with their pampering. That's what she thought anyway :-)
Before we move on, a little back story .....
Carly LOVES games. She loves competing and she loves to win stuff. Doesn't matter what it is, if there's a prize involved, she's playing!
Ronn often has Carly help with the events when he does DJ'ing or Photography. Carly is getting quite good at taking pictures, and is an awesome assistant at events where Ronn leads games. Ronn does quite a few corporate picnics for James Events (an event production company in Orange County) and Carly has helped at a bunch of these. If you've ever been to a company picnic, you know there are a ton of games like the water balloon toss, potato sack race, limbo and hoola-hoop contests, etc. Just about every time Carly helps out she would say "That is so much fun, I want to play". So, Ronn set out to give her her wish and created "CARLY'S SUPER BIG ADVENTURE PARTY"
Ronn arranged with James Events to use one of their private parks located near Irvine Lake. It's a beautiful secluded park with a lake you can boat and fish on. While the girls were out being pampered, Ronn was hard at work ...not at the job in San Dimas like Carly thought, but at the park where the big adventure was to take place. The family had been informed of the plans ahead of time and everyone knew what was going on, everyone except Carly that is :-)
When Carly and the girls arrived back home, a DVD was ready to play on the TV, and an envelope was placed on the table. To see the video Ronn created you can click on the video at the bottom of the page. After the video was played Carly was blindfolded, put in the car, and off they went to find Ronn.
They arrived to find Ronn had set up the park with games, decorations, and of course music. He set up 11 different games that Carly, her family, the boyfriends, and Amanda would compete in. Each game would award the participants with points that would then be totaled up to give 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, complete with a Ribbons, and a Gold Medal.
Here's the games that were planned.
FRISBEE GOLF
LAWN SKI RACING
BOAT RACE
ANIMAL SHOUT OUT
PLUG THE HOLES
PYRAMID RELAY
MOVING ON UP
SHOE SCRAMBLE
OBSTACLE COURSE
ROLLY POLY
GIANT JENGA
Carly and the family arrived at the park and Carly was all smiles. She knows Ronn pretty well and while she didn't know for sure what was planned, she did have some idea where they might be was going.
The weekend before all of this took place, Ronn and Carly were at this exact park providing the entertainment for a company party. She once again said how much she'd love to play the games instead of just leading them and even said how nice the park was and that it would be fun to do something there sometime. Ronn of course replied that, yes it would be fun, but James Events would never allow any of the employees to use the park, all the while laughing inside because he knew that they would be using the park the following weekend for all the fun! Even during the party, Ronn would leave Carly to run the DJ booth while he was out arranging things and getting keys and such that he would need to prepare. Carly was none the wiser :-)
So, everyone arrives, the blindfold comes off and it's time to play the games. The idea was play the games, tally up the scores and fudge the numbers a little so that Carly would take 1st place and play the all important GOLD MEDAL ROUND. Unfortunately Carly did not do very well and it was obvious that she would come in no where near 1st. Matter of fact, she came in 10th place, out of 12. lol
THE RESULTS
1. Matt
2. Eric
3. Bill
4. Ronn
5. Tyler
6. Simone
7. Trent
8. Amanda
9. Kelsey
10. Carly
11. Jamie
12. Russ
It was important that Carly play the Gold Medal Round to win the Gold Medal, so Ronn asked Matt if he wouldn't mind letting Carly play the final round since it was her birthday. He agreed. Although the family knew something was up, Ronn never did come out and say that he planned to propose that day, or even how he might go about doing it. All they were told is that they would want to be there for Carly's birthday "and another surprise"
Before game play started for the day, Ronn showed everyone the ultimate prize. It was a gold medal that the 1st place winner would receive after completing the "Final Challenge". He then placed that medal into a black box and there it sat throughout the day.
On the next page of this website, "THE PROPOSAL", you will see a video of Carly competing to win the gold medal. It consisted of putting together a Jigsaw Puzzle and then, once put together, a picture puzzle that needed to be solved. While she was playing the game, Ronn took out the medal that was in the box and replaced it with the engagement ring. This ring was just an inexpensive ring she could wear until the two of them would go and pick out one together.
Click on the PROPOSAL to see how it went.