On a cold autumn night several friends gathered together for a dinner party. I had been cooking for days (or so it felt) and I was unenthused when my friend told me she had invited someone I had never met, David Murphy. He arrived wearing an Ankylosaurus t-shirt, and sparked my interest from the moment we shook hands. After a late night of laughter and French onion soup we exchanged numbers. He called me the next day and set up a "real" date. We've been together ever since. Now that I've made you cringe from a cliche, let me say that we have worked hard at our relationship for the last 6 years. We have fought through plenty of challenges, and the road to where we are now has not been carefree. Each step of our journey has built the foundation that our relationship rests on, and in each step we grow closer together. We are looking forward to sharing more of our story with you at the wedding!

David planned a mountain drive and picnic for us to celebrate 4th of July weekend. Our first stop after leaving our apartment in Denver was to drive 1 hour to our old stomping ground, Fort Collins. We had breakfast at the Silver Grill. Continuing our journey, we drove up the canyon towards Walden. As we have done in the past, we stopped at Sleeping Elephant Mountain and put our feet in the river while Adelaide, our sweet greyhound mix, explored the wilderness around us. The skies were wide and blue, a picturesque day in our beautiful state. Hours later we reached the overlook where we normally have picnics. I looked through the binoculars to see if I could spot a moose. When I turned around, David was down on one knee! Everything happened very quickly after I turned around and before I knew it I had a ring on my finger and we were having a picnic! Happy and in love, we took the long way home.

TBD