We met at Lakeridge High School in Erica's sophomore and Garrison's junior year, and began talking that spring. Garrison was head over heels for Erica all summer, and by the end of the summer Erica was head over heels too.

Any relationship has to start with a proper date, and after much effort on his part, Erica said yes to going on a date with Garrison. He prepared a picnic, she drove, and Grammy took pictures before hand - and we went to Foothills Park in Lake Oswego where Garrison asked Erica to officially be his girlfriend.

Walking around the Rocks area of Sydney, Australia with Max and Bryce on our trip down under in June, 2016, I took a moment to pause from our usual joking around to tell my best friends that I knew Erica was the one for me, and that someday we'd get married. Ever since meeting her I knew she was the one, but hadn't ever communicated it to anyone before. Fast forward 4 years to the exact same location, with the harbor and opera house in the background, I got down on one knee and asked if we spend the rest of our lives together. But that wasn't the only surprise I had planned. On our return trip I had only purchased tickets from Sydney to Honolulu, with plans to nonrev the rest of the way. Only hours after the proposal in Sydney, a bunch of Erica's friends were boarding flights to Hawaii themselves to meet us for a weekend of celebration. We rented a big house on water on Oahu, and flew home to a world on the brink of being shutdown by Covid.