We're getting married!

Dan's friend Jim who happens to be married to my friend Melissa thought it would be a good idea if Dan and I met. So, I asked them to host a 4th of July BBQ in 2019 so that I could have a soft introduction to him. A few weeks later, we arranged a day at the lake where the adults and kids could meet and have some fun. Fortunately, I had enough to drink that I wasn't too afraid to text him with my phone number and asked if he wanted to talk outside of hanging out with Melissa and Jim. Convinced I made a mistake as I hadn't gotten a response in a couple days I began to doubt that anything would happen. It turned out he was away celebrating his son's birthday and didn't see my text. So, he did eventually respond. We started talking on the phone mostly while he was working overnights driving. We spent countless hours on the phone for several weeks when I finally got up the courage to ask if he wanted to hang out in person some time. We had our first date on August 17, 2019 and life has been an adventure since then. We have gone on many trips and at our annual Bedford, PA Fall Festival trip in 2023, he proposed. Of course, I said yes!

I made all the first moves LOL. I asked him for the first date, first kiss, and said I love you first. He is a little shy for anyone that doesn't know :)

My most memorable date is our very first date. I picked him up and we spent the day in Lancaster. We visited Kitchen Kettle, had dinner at Red Robin, did the putting greens and played a few rounds of bowling. What makes it so memorable? 1) summer in Lancaster doesn't smell so good with all the horse and buggies LOL 2) I beat him at the putting greens even with bees chasing me in heels and 3) It was only after we were dating for a bit that I realized how tired he must have been on that date because of work but he never showed it.

We have gone so many places but our trip to Las Vegas and Arizona would have to be the most memorable. We flew to Vegas and stayed there for a few days. We did superhero-style ziplining, watched people get spanked for not eating all their food and thoroughly enjoyed the syringe jello shots and triple shot patron frozen strawberry drinks. We then moved on to the Hoover Dam and we were SUPPOSED to take a train to the Grand Canyon in Williams, AZ. Unfortunately, a freak snow storm caused a major pileup on the only road in or out of Williams and we spent 14.5 hours sitting on the road. We decided we had had enough and drove 2.5 hours the other way and did the Sky Walk at the Grand Canyon. We never fought that entire time.

It was the last day of our annual Bedford, PA Fall Festival trip in October, 2023. We took a ride out to Blue Knob State Park and hiked out to an overlook. It was unbelievably windy and cold. She was cranky most of the way out to the overlook. I set up my camera and started taking pictures. I had her sit on the wall and sat down beside her and started taking pictures. I then said "I guess I should get down on one knee?". She was confused and turned to me and I was down on my knee and asked her if she would marry me. She started to cry and said yes. She was definitely not as cranky going back to the car.