How we met: We were 11 and 12 years old when our paths crossed for the first time in our middle school cafeteria. The first thing he [Cameron] ever said to me [Ellese] was that his friend liked me and wondered if I thought his friend was cute. This was the first time I ever laid eyes on him. And while I did not have a crush on his friend, I immediately developed a crush on him. And I have not stopped thinking about him since. Eventually, we had our middle school fling...twice. In 6th and 8th grade, thanks to band class and the summer league swim team. We found our way back to each other our sophomore year of high school, at 15 and 16 years old. He asked to drive me home after our swim team banquet and asked me to be his girlfriend on April 1st, 2016. We have been inseparable ever since! The proposal • January 7th, 2025: In 2024, Cameron and I started to plan a camping trip. We gathered the needed supplies over the year and settled on making a camping trip in January 2025 after visiting my Tia Tina and Uncle Roger in Colorado. January 2025 comes around and I [Ellese] have no clues or speculations about Cameron proposing on this trip, let alone proposing at all any time soon. I am telling EVERYONE that we are camping in Colorado for weeks. We check the weather every day in Monument, CO (where I was led to believe this campsite would be), we receive Christmas gifts related to camping, and the night before we stuff the car trunk full of camping gear! We are fully prepared to camp in 8-10 degrees F while it's snowing. The camping portion of our trip comes along and we drive from Saguache to Monument. I still suspect nothing the whole way although he was a nervous wreck on the inside. We get to Monument, CO and we drive into a neighborhood and I am thinking "why would the campsite be out here?". Suddenly, he pulls into the driveway of this stunning A-frame Airbnb. He booked this place 6 months before the trip and played along with the camping plans, pulling the ultimate prank. I am in disbelief because now we have a car full of useless camping gear and also ecstatic because we would have been freezing in a tent. We step out of the car together to walk to the front door, but before then, he turns me around in the driveway and gets down on one knee. Finally asking me the question we waited years for and of course I said, "YES!!!".