I had no idea that one day I would fall in love with the girl in the back seat of my car on our way to a church retreat. A month after that day in my car I ran into Samara again at Cougar Country (the local drive-in), and managed to get her to say yes to swing dancing that Wednesday night. That night we stayed up till 4am in my car just talking about life and basically everything else you can talk about at 4am. That was the start to it all. We continued to hang out/go on late night dates to Applebee’s since it was the only place open late enough for her to go to since she wasn’t 21 yet, as well as bringing her on her dream date to the Nutcracker. Overall of the hang outs/dates I got to truly see who Samara was and that is where she really hooked me. I couldn’t get over how caring, sweet and real she was. I have never seen someone sacrifice more for others than she does every day caring for the girls in her life. While we dated, we talked about what marriage would look like and talked as if it was just a thought until I couldn’t take it being just a thought anymore and had to make it a reality. Despite Samara’s impossible requirements that she needed in order to be proposed to, such as getting her nails done, her hair done on top of having it filmed and pictures taken, I managed to still surprise her. I had her friend take her out to get her nails and hair done while I set everything up on Alki Beach for a sunset proposal. She had a hint that I might propose, so I told her that I had to bring my family from the airport to Ferndale so I couldn’t see her until later that night which worked. I had a friend videoing and one taking photos when she got there. I had signs set up in the sand with five special dates in our relationship and the last being July 20th with question marked around it. I was standing in a heart of rose petals with our song playing in the background. When she got to me I got down on one knee and got the single greatest YES that I will ever get.