Mike and I met on the first day of 6th grade. We were really close friends for a few years until we started hanging out and driving around just the two of us. Mike asked me to be his girlfriend our sophomore year of high school which was an easy YES! I started college at Brookings and Mike went to Mitchell, however, he was just as much a jackrabbit and spent almost every weekend in Brookings. In 2016 I got accepted into nursing school in Rapid City. Long distance was tough for awhile but Mike and I both fell in love with the Black Hills and he decided to move across the state in 2018. We haven’t looked back since and absolutely love living out west! The summer of 2020 we decided to buy a house together in Rapid City (yes, we like to do things a little backwards). In January of 2021, Mike FINALLY proposed.

The night before, we went out for drinks with some friends and got on the topic of engagement rings and proposals. I was giving Mike a hard time about him taking forever to propose, I didn't even think he was looking at rings at that point. Little did I know, I was the only one at the table that didn't know he was going to propose the very next day. We had planned a hike to Stratobowl, it was snowing but was still a nice day. Mike and Andrew went to the gym that morning, as I was waiting for them to get back I sent Mike a TikTok of a cute proposal. He had suspicions that I knew what was happening but I was completely clueless (and that was definitely not the first time I had sent him proposal ideas). Andrew kept saying "we need to get family pictures on the hike", I didn't think anything of it but it was all part of the plan. Andrew said he was taking a picture of us but was actually taking a video, as I was trying to figure out what he was doing I didn't notice Mike kneeling behind me.