Garrett and I were set up through a pair of mutual friends. We started out messaging on Facebook to get to know each other and eventually met in person. Garrett asked me to a lunch date at the Sushi Train and I said yes. It was...super awkward. We had no idea what to say! Then I tried to eat a giant piece of sushi in one bite...and totally failed. He started laughing and suddenly the awkwardness was gone. We started talking about work, family, video games, everything! After lunch, Garrett asked if I would like to see a place where a rare pokemon pops up in Pokemon Go. Absolutely. We drove around for hours, walked in the rain, he even gave me a piggy back ride down to the river so my shoes wouldn't get muddy! Soon enough, we got hungry again. We got some fast food and found out we had been on this date for 6 hours!! The longest date either of us had ever had. Since then, we've been stuck together like glue.

We had made plans with my parents to go to the Dominican republic for a week long vacation. I had been waiting for the best time to propose and made plans to do so on the trip. l did give Ana fair warning that the proposal was inevitable but with no inclination as to when. I had thought to propose on the flight out/back, during one of the fancy dinners, or written it on the beach in the morning. I eventually settled on none of it and went with the element of surprise. The whole family was scheduled for an all day event of boating, snorkeling, swimming, and eating. We stopped at a sand bar to swim and I saw my opportunity. Luckily, while I was climbing into the water, my brother-in-law had stepped on some broken coral (he was okay by the way, thanks Russell). I pretended to do the same and went to one knee. Ana didn't suspect a thing as I brought up the box and asked her to marry me. After what seemed like hours, she collected herself enough to say yes. Then I found a crab and it pinched my sister (she was also okay, thanks Lauren!)