Brandon & I happened to both visit Golden, CO to celebrate our friends' birthdays! Brandon's friend, Shane, had a birthday two days after my friend, Codi. Codi and Shane happened to have mutual friends, so the groups were going downtown to celebrate them. Although Brandon lived in Iowa at the time, we had enjoyed our weekend of getting to know each other, and we didn't want the conversation to end. A month after, I snuck away to Iowa when my parents were out of town on vacation. The 10-hour drive to a state I'd never been to before was daunting, but this ended up being an amazing long weekend of exploring Iowa & continuing to develop our relationship. Shortly after, we decided to take the plunge and buy tickets to Iceland in October of that year (even though we were not officially dating). Three months before the Iceland trip, Brandon asked me to be his girlfriend at a Rockies game (7/8/2017). We thoroughly enjoyed our first vacation together as a couple come October, and considering we didn't want to kill each other after the trip (you know how hard traveling with people can be), we knew we were in love! Brandon felt the same way because he told me he loved me for the first time at the black sand beach during our trip. We dated for a year long distance as I completed my undergrad. We have had multiple moves to and from CO & IA- never fully settling somewhere together for long. Thankfully we had a strong foundation from our time of long-distance dating and could always feel right at home with each other, even when that wasn't the case. Over the years, we have built our little fur family, with Kona joining us in 2019 and Mouse in 2021. We always stayed busy, with family, friends, house projects, hobbies, and travel (mostly between CO & IA)- which is how seven years has flown by. We know that many of our closest friends and family think we should have gotten married years ago, but we have always been so happy and engulfed in our love, regardless of title. Plus, you know us and our timelines... At the end of 2023 we decided that settling in one place together is where we wanted & needed to be. We designed a ring together at the Wedel's family Jewler in Longmont mid 2023 (around our six-year anniversary). We both really enjoyed this process, and being the rock nerds we are, we got to geek out and learn about all kinds of stones. We agreed that Brandon would pick it up, and I would get to see it when he proposed. I was hoping it wouldn't be long, and in September 2023 while visiting Tahoe, I got my wish! Brandon asked me to marry him as we were hiking around Emerald Bay State Park (this is actually where my parents got married). Although we never felt like engagement would be a big change for us, we have been very blissful, and we know that marriage will be another amazing journey in our lives. We are so grateful for the love and life we have built over the last seven years, and we cannot wait to celebrate with our closest friends and family in an intimate celebration.