3 Years Ago Today I Made the Best Decision of My Life (VIDEO)

The payoff was way more than I expected, too!

If you know my wife, Danielle, and I at all, then you know we love sports.

Actually, just typing that last sentence doesn't do it justice because it's more like an obsession. Our first couple of dates revolved around watching the Vikings in the fall, then the Wild over the winter and eventually taking off work for the opening days of March Madness tournament in the spring and spending our entire day at Buffalo Wild Wings.

See what I mean? Obsessed.

Soon baseball season came and it was then I realized I had a keeper because she wanted to partake in my crazy tradition of attending Opening Day/Home Openers at Target Field for the Twins.

At the time I'd bought the ring, we were living up in Fargo, N.D., and were miles away from our friends and family in Minnesota and I wanted an audience with all of them to witness the decision I'd made - so it was then I began brainstorming ways I could propose.

I eventually spoke to one of my best friends, Abby, someone who I'd accompanied to several Home Openers before, and decided that I would propose at that year's Opening Day.

We worked out the details ahead of time that our large group of friends would take our traditional group photo at the gold glove outside of Gate 34, and then I would ask Danielle for a quick photo of just us two.

So after everyone scattered to get their cell phones ready for the big moment, here's what Abby captured:

Danielle says she sounds like a squealing donkey, but all I hear is happiness :)

However, if you notice in the video, there's cameras roaming around our special moment like vultures to a dead carcass... and this is where things get really interesting... because little did I know WCCO-TV had witnessed the entire proposal!

Soon we were pulled away and interviewed by CBS and were told our story would make the evening news.

I always said wanted an audience with my proposal, but having the entire Twin Cities metro-area and beyond was way more than I ever expected.

In any case, we walked around the whole ballpark that beautiful afternoon and she flashed her ring to any bystander and fan she could.

The Twins lost that day, but I came out the real winner because I scored the woman of my dreams, and we'll always have this story to tell our kids.