We're getting married!

We met when we were both in Alex & John's wedding 07/09/22. Austin asked Deidre out for coffee to Sidecar the next morning where they quickly hit it off and talked mostly about CrossFit (Deidre was going to the CrossFit Games in a month and Austin was newer to the sport and spent all his freetime in the gym). Deidre returned to Iowa City, and a couple weeks later Austin came down for a "real" date to Big Grove. The two never really stopped talking after that and Austin found himself making frequent trips to Iowa City before eventually moving there. Traveling is one of our favorite things to do together. In December 2022 we took our first trip together to NYC for Christmas time- a trip we had both always dreamed of doing; it lived up to all our expectations! After 2023 CrossFit Semifinals we went to Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs, CA. In July 2023 we went out to Mt. Rainier for Cody & Luke's wedding! Austin has learned to love hiking.. at least the views at the end of the hikes haha. In September 2024 we went out to visit Hanna (& Nate) in Colorado, where Austin somehow managed to surprise me with a proposal! The trip started off rough when we spent the first day on an unexpected off-roading adventure for ~7 hours.. (Deidre can tell you about this if you wish..). But the following days we did the Via Ferrata in Ouray and climbed Red Mountain #3. Saturday, September 21st was engagement day! We planned to hike Blue Lakes Trail in Ridgway, a hard 9 mile hike, but leads to rewarding views. On the way up we took a second to admire the first lake from a higher ledge/viewpoint of the trial; it was a beautiful, sunny day. We kept hiking and by the time we reached the second and third lakes the weather had flipped.. it was now sleeting, windy, cold, and started thundering. Austin had thought about proposing at the 3rd lake, but had to change on the fly when Deidre decided they should get moving back down the mountain to avoid the storm. Austin all of a sudden was very persistent on stopping at the 1st lake overlook again to get a picture, but Deidre wasn't having it and did NOT want to stop since she was worried it would start lightning.. Reluctantly, Deidre ended up agreeing to snap a quick picture, and good thing she did! Very much to her surprise Austin pulled out the ring and asked her to marry him:) Photo/video credits to Hanna. The next day we celebrated by exploring Maroon Bells in Aspen and soaking up all the beautiful fall foliage before heading back to Iowa the next day. About a month later we went on a trip we had planned with Cody & Luke to Hawaii (where Deidre thought he would pop the question), so I decided to call that our little "engagement moon" before getting started on all things wedding planning. Countless coffee, kombucha, and CrossFit dates later here we are... GETTING MARRIED. We can't wait to celebrate this time in our lives with our closest friends and family!