We first met at Linfield College in the Starbucks on campus. Our first impressions of each other were "I definitely DON'T want to be friends with her." Ali didn't take any bullshit and I was completely full of it. Our friendship was a constant battle, but Ali taught me to stand up for myself. She taught me that my voice was important and worth being heard. I softened Ali up. I gave her a lot of opportunities to be patient (lol). She learned to lean into people and fight for them. Over the next few years we spent a lot of time together. We traveled to the desert with over 75 middle schoolers together many times. We were long distance friends in different countries and time zones for 4 months. We drank gallons of coffee together. We debated over Jesus and fought A LOT for our friendship. And through all of it we fell in love. In crazy, time-stopping, love. Our story has been messy, chaotic, vulnerable, exciting, and transforming. And we are so excited to wake up each day and choose each other. We are so excited to celebrate the next chapter of our story with all of you.

We planned an epic 3 week trip for the last bit of the summer. We were going to really live into the lesbian stereotype and hike all over the west side of the country wishing we had a Subaru and a dog. We had trained all spring to climb South Sister together. Ali decided she was going to propose at the top of the mountain, after the sweat and exhausted muscles and months of training. HOWEVER. Four days before we were going to climb the mountain, we were on the far rim of Crater Lake when our car broke down. After hours of deliberation, and an overheating car, we drove defeated back to Eugene to take it to a mechanic. Determined to not let a day go to waste, we planned a day date....not realizing we had recreated our very first date. We had breakfast (lol shocker) at our favorite spot, went to Target, got our nails done, and drove out to an orchard to pick peaches. Back in the rows of peach trees Ali handed me her phone with headphones, and pressed play. It was a 7 minute audio of all of our family and friends telling me how much they loved me, how excited they were for me. I bawled. Sitting on a jacket in the trees with tears running down my face, Ali proposed. It wasn't the top of South Sister, but it was such a powerful symbol of how far we had come, sitting in the same orchard we had two years back, sneaking kisses between the trees. There we were, choosing to love each other for the rest of our lives.