We met volunteering for Hyalite Fire Department, but didn’t start dating until a couple years later. We shared our mutual love of music and memes with jam sessions on Spotify and staying up late talking about any and everything for a couple weeks before going on our first date. It is still unclear if it was intended as a date for either party. We went on a long drive with good music and conversation, including a very cool Star Wars video (link below). Juliette conveniently forgot her wallet and Conner paid for their sandwiches- strengthening the case for it being an unintentional date. https://youtu.be/1sFbLppuhhs?si=L10Ds_z6VGvRTHJA

We hauled our uhaul trailer from Montana to Grand Junction, Colorado to start our careers. It was a bittersweet goodbye to our wonderful Bozeman community. The first hike we did in our new home, we got completely lost. The Devil’s Kitchen is a 0.5 mile out and back trail in the National Monument rated as “easy” and “family friendly”. We learned very quickly that the desert is more difficult to follow a trail in and unlike many mountain hikes, the point is not always to get on top of a big rock or high point. We managed to cliff ourselves out in a box canyon before acknowledging that maaaaybe this wasn’t the right way. Turns out we had briefly stopped to admire the Devil’s Kitchen 15 minutes into the hike. We had a great time despite getting lost and sweaty and eventually got to our destination. It has become a fitting metaphor for how we tackle life together as a team. This is where Conner later proposed.

I complained the entire drive over and was not in the least bit suspicious of the fact Mack and Naomi wanted to go on a quick hike before a nice dinner and took Conner’s truck and we were going to meet them at the trailhead. It was only once we were nearly at the top and Conner was fumbling around in his pockets that the possibility crossed my mind. We got to the top where Naomi and Mack had put out beautiful roses and lavender bunches and were playing one of our favorite songs.