Of all the unlikely times and places to meet your future husband/wife, our paths first crossed in 2020 during COVID, right at the end of lock down. Naturally, in order to properly social distance, our first date was hammocking in a local park in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where we both found ourselves after graduating from university. As one could guess, we hit it off immediately and spent hours getting to know each other while swinging in our hammocks as we watched the boats float by from our view of the Merrimack River. One date led to another, which led to another, and as the summer matured into autumn so did our relationship. Before long we had our first real test of our relationship as Tessa began her master's degree and Ben moved back to Colorado for gainful employment. Nevertheless, our love held steady through many a Facetime dinner date and the occasional trip to see one another. It was during this long-distance that we skied together for the first time in Breckenridge (and we saw two moose!) and began to foster a love for enjoying all the Colorado mountains have to offer together. In 2021 we made the bold decision to begin living together as Tessa moved out to Colorado to start her own career...and so begun many years of adventuring! Ben also had the wonderful pleasure of now living with and slowly becoming best buddies with Meatloaf! Fast forward many more years and there are more adventures in Rockies and beyond in our photo albums than we can remember at most times. From Arapahoe Basin, to Moab, to Yellowstone, to Santa Fe, the past 5 years have been a wonderful adventure that we can't wait to continue for many years to come. Let's paint the scene: a trip to Costa Rica in April 2025. Ben and Tessa were enjoying their first full day road tripping across the beautiful county from a town just outside of San Jose to the Guanacaste Peninsula. After bumbling over ordering some Desayuno Tico and a Cafe con Leche in our less-than-perfect Spanish, Tessa rerouted the navigation to a serene waterfall that doubled as a cliff-jumping hole. So proceeded the jumping, swimming, and soaking in the breath-taking nature that we found ourselves in. Here, Ben decided that, despite his best judgement of not proposing next to a tall waterfall with many cracked and crevassed rocks, this was it. Here was the place that he was going to take the ring that he has stashed away safely in his fanny pack and pop the question to Tessa. Both sopping wet from swimming, we went to go dry off. After ruffling her hair in the towel, Tessa looked up and saw that Ben was on one knee, and we both couldn't have been happier. We both hope that you'll join us next summer in the celebration of our love of each other and of adventure as we get married in one of our favorite places in Colorado, the Gold Hill Inn. Can't wait to see you there.