We met online in October a month after Ashley moved to Colorado. We talked for a week via text before speaking on the phone for the first time. The first time we spoke on the phone we talked for over 4 hours. We learned that our birthdays are only one day apart and that we shared the same zest for life. We made a date to meet for the first time the next week.

On Tuesday 10/22/2018 we went on our first date to a pumpkin carving maze and scavenger hunt. That same week we saw each other three more times. On Wednesday we went to an outdoor yoga class (Ashley's first time doing yoga!) and on Friday we went to the Denver zoo for their "Boo at the zoo" Halloween event. The following week we celebrated our first holiday together, Halloween, at a party with friends in Fort Collins. Ashley dressed as Tom Cruise from Risky Business and Amanda was Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After this week, we were hooked! We spent at least 4 nights a week together from then on!

We celebrated our official one year anniversary on 11/13/2019. In our first year together we had so many adventures! We tried snowshoeing together for the first time, Ashley learned to snowboard with Amanda, we began playing tennis together, camping, paddle boarding, hiking, and went on our first backpacking trip. We went on two big road trips (and lots of little ones!) We went to Chicago to see a few of our favorite bands in concert (The Paper Kites, and Wild Rivers), and we drove from California back to Colorado while stopping in three National Parks (Great Sequoia, Grand Canyon, and Petrified Forest) hence our love for National Parks grew, and our goal of visiting all 62 of them! That first year we visited 5 more (St. Louis Arch, Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, Arches, and Canyonlands)

In our second year, our love for adventure grew and we celebrated a few big milestones! In our second year we continued with our National Park tour, visiting four more parks despite COVID-19 holding up and changing many of our plans. We visited Yellowstone, Black Canyon, Capital Reef, and Grand Tetons (and found our favorite place so far!). We went on many backpacking trips, including our biggest one yet (40 miles in 4 days in the Cirque of the Towers in Wyoming). We began building a teardrop camper from scratch, and we bought our first house together! We spent many hours during quarantine remodeling the house and doing many projects.

A few days before our two year anniversary, Ashley proposed to Amanda. We went to Loveland Pass and hiked to a beautiful lake. Despite the freezing cold and the snow blowing in, Ashley got down on one knee and asked Amanda to be her forever. Of course, Amanda said YES!