We met at Mac's Tavern in Davenport, Iowa while out having drinks with some friends. I think we can definitely agree it was not love at first sight, as we did not end up staying together. However, we did rekindle the flame in December, 2014 while some mutual friends were celebrating their graduation from St. Ambrose, and we have not looked back since!

**Written by Chris** When Annie and I first moved to Montana, she mentioned there was a national park up in Canada called Banff. The way she said it made it sound like it was made up, so I never really took her seriously. After living here for a few months, I did in fact verify that it was a real park. Between the lakes and the mountains, it looked like it was a special place. After about a month of trying to make subtle hints that we should take a trip up to Banff, I realized my only option was to come up with an elaborate plan to get her up there for a weekend. After sending a couple of emails to a hotel trying to explain the situation, I decided to call and ask the direct question to the concierge - "can you guys send me a fake email saying I won a 2 night trip, so my girlfriend wont ask questions why we are spontaneously staying at a nice hotel in Banff for the weekend?" After speaking with Amy from Fairmont Banff Springs about 50 times, we came up with a plan that would get Annie up there! The day it was happening it was tough to contain my excitement. I was telling everyone I knew, that today was the day. As we set out on the hike where it all went down, I was ecstatic that the weather was awesome AND she was just as happy to see the scenery. I asked, and she said yes! We got back to the hotel room to tell Phil and our families that she said yes - I quickly realized that this was turning out to be the best day of my life.