Every moment and experience in your life is uniquely yours. Others will share it with you, but no one’s will be exactly the same. When I thought Karl might propose in New Zealand 🇳🇿 I did the thing I thought I should and painted my nails so that they’d be pretty. By the end of the first week of adventures without a proposal, they were chipped and broken, but full of stories of mountain 🏔️ biking 🚴‍♀️ down steep hills, rope burns from cave spelunking, and blisters from river rafting paddles. When Karl proposed in Queenstown on the canyon swing, it was pouring rain 🌧️ and we both ended up completely drenched, but the moment was perfect. We were on an adventure as we had been for the duration of our dating experience. We took a picture together right after we’d taken off the harnessing, but still over looking the valley and I captured one of my hand, broken nails and chipped polish. This is who I am and am so happy I get to share it uniquely with Karl.

Manchester State Park holds a special place for us because it was where we celebrated our first Valentines Date together. Karl asked what I wanted to do for Valentines and I said have a campfire and roast marshmallows. Even through it was the middle of the wet northwest winter, Karl took me to the state park for a camp fire. I wanted to give him a small gift for the first Valentines and I bought him a book with Dad Jokes because we both love them. When I went to the car to get out the present, I tripped over the concrete parking block and as I fell into the mud I heard Karl say, “you’re falling for me!” After retrieving his present and mine from the car we unwrapped them and realized we had bought each other the exact same book of Dad Jokes.