Let's rewind back to a few years ago. Nathan and I were just 12 or 13-years old. Sitting in a science class at Pacific Middle School, listening to the instructions for our assignment. Our teacher told us to partner up with someone. I wasn't fond of most of my options at my table, and choose to partner up with Nathan. Our assignment? To create a baby using a Punnett square. Nathan and I "created" a beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyed little girl. But unknown to me, Nathan developed a crush. And that was the start of Nathan and I's journey. Our love story began on the evening of September 13th, 2015. Nathan and I had reconnected that night over social media after years of hit and miss communication. Nathan asked me if I'd like to get together for a cup of coffee or a night drive. We both had no plans that evening and decided to meet up for a night drive. Nathan picked me up at my house, and we hit the road. Hours went by as we tattooed memories across the town. We drove the backroads of Ridgefield, stargazed from the top of the Vancouver lookout, channeled our inner 5-year old self's on the merry-go-round at Crown Park in Camas, and sat on a bench at the pier of the Sandy Swimming Hole in Washougal. We talked about everything. And at 7:00 AM, watched the sun rise. Shortly thereafter, Nathan dropped me off at home. By the time I crawled into bed to catch up on sleep, I had a text from Nathan asking to see me again that evening. And from that point on, our love has continued to grow.

I woke up to get ready for work, and he was still in bed. Nathan wasn't feeling well and stayed home from work. Reluctantly, I threw myself together and went to work. I had a long day ahead of me, having to coach later that night. All day long I received various texts from Nathan and Mckenzie. Nathan continuously checked-in to see how my day was, and Mckenzie kept insisting I wear something nice to practice that night for our "meeting". The only thing I was looking forward to was crashing on our couch and binge watching Netflix. It was almost time to leave for practice and Nathan was watching me get ready. I tried on a few different dresses, brushed my hair, and put on some mascara; all while complaining that I had to dress up for practice. I managed to throw myself together and was out the door. As I was leaving, one of Nathan's friends, Tim, arrived at our house. The boys claimed they were going to play a new video game while I was out. I thought nothing of it and left. As I turned onto the street for Union, I got a frantic call from Mckenzie that our practice facility was being used for an important school board meeting. I calmly said, "so we will find another place to practice". As we hung up, I heard faint noises in the background as Mckenzie and Noah frantically tried to get ahold of Shelly and Nathan to rearrange the pre-practiced proposal to be outside, instead of in the Student Union. We rolled our mats out onto the concrete and practiced outside on the warm spring day. Everything was going well. As practice was ending, Shelly and Noah came to get me, asking me to help them with something in the other building. I left Mckenzie in charge and we began walking away. Once we were in the girl's locker room, Shelly began to stall, asking me every cheer-related question she could. Little did I know, it was to allow Nathan, my family, our friends and my cheerleading team to set-up my flash mob proposal. Watch our proposal here: https://youtu.be/uzoapyFwqMY