Wes and I worked together, but didn't really know each other in the office at all. I had seen his name on the sales leaderboard, but probably couldn't have picked him out of a crowd. Luckily, we had mutual friends in the office and both agreed to spend way too much money for concert tickets in Chicago. We packed our bags and hit the road in July of 2017. We spent a few days in Chicago with our friends listening to music, hitting the beach, and eating way too much food. I thought he was cute, so I did the only reasonable thing... I took a picture of him on the beach and suggested he use it on his dating profile... smooth move, Jen. I liked him right from the start, but friends advised me.... "if he's a nice guy, don't do anything". So I didn't. Except plan group game nights and try to come up with an excuse to invite him to things that wouldn't be weird! Group events turned into solo hangs, but we never called them dates. We went hiking, out to dinner, and we even started watching shows together. We spent a lot of our free time together but it was never clear if either of us were actually interested in anything more than friendship. In November, we went back to Chicago together for another concert and had our first kiss. Right after, Wes asked me if he could take me on a real date.... as if we hadn't been doing that for the last 4 months. Haha. He took me rollerskating, which was painfully embarrassing for me, but we had a blast. A few weeks later, I met some of his childhood friends and he asked me to be his girlfriend. And the rest is history!

Wes had to pull out all the stops to surprise me! I was on to him... and maybe a little pushy when it came to getting engaged. He booked a "surprise date" which I was told was an early Christmas present. Needless to say, I was a little nervous and had my suspicions about what MIGHT happen that day. He took me to the Indianapolis Zoo and had booked a private Sloth Encounter for the two of us. We hung out with Sammy the sloth for a bit, and he even pet my hair!! (Sammy, not Wes, lol) On the way out, Wes informed me that the visit with a sloth was my ONLY surprise for the day. So, I did the only thing a girl could do.... and double checked that there was nothing he might want to ask me later. He shook his head and sighed, reminding me that it would happen soon... but not today. I accepted this as we proceeded to the parking lot to head home. It was then that I saw something red underneath his tire. It was one of those old school picture viewers, with the disc and clicker thing, you know what I'm talking about. I should have known then something was up, but I figured some kid dropped it out on their way out of the zoo. I pleaded with Wes not to pick it up because it was probably covered with snot and covid. Of course, he started looking at it anyway. He made his way around to the passenger side where I was standing and said I had to check it out. Begrudgingly, I took the viewfinder and was shocked at what I saw! It was photos of us from our first date, travels around the world, our first place together, and of course our 3 kitties. When I took it away from my face he was down on one knee, right in the zoo parking lot. Neither of us can remember what he said, but it was something about being slow like a sloth to do this and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him, which I joyfully agreed to!