We're celebrating our wedding!

Amanda and I knew each other through mutual friends at work. Eventually, we went on our first date, which was a baseball game: the Colorado Rockies versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. Being a lifelong and loyal Cubs fan, her Dodgers fervor sent me to trepidation-town but I loved that she was just as into baseball as I was, and so when she suggested mid-game that we tour the stadium by walking a lap, I knew this was the start of something special since that meant missing some of what was a close game. We both said later that while that was our first date, it felt like we had been to hundred of games together and the rest is history.

I knew Amanda was the one right away. I have never been so sure of anything in my life. Except, perhaps, that flying in an airplane is terrifying and anyone who pretends it is not is a liar. We had been talking about marriage; who would propose; and when and how we might want to get married since we were still in the middle of the pandemic. We had talked about the spring of 2021, but that Thanksgiving, I secretly bought her ring and had it sent to our friends' house. Once the ring arrived, we had planned a hike and I secretly worked with our friend to plan how I would propose. I wanted to propose on a hike so it could be just us, and especially so Duke and Jackson could be there with us. My friend and I had a secret code phrase so she knew when to get the ring out. It was, "Ellen, do you have any snacks?" Simple and effective, we thought. That morning, however, Amanda got up early, just to pack our backpacks and include some nice snacks. This meant, when we were standing up on the mountain and I asked Ellen if she had any snacks, Amanda's face turned confused and disappointed until she saw the ring box come out of Ellen's backpack. Neither of us remember exactly what we said, but it was one of the best days of my life.

2020 was weird, y'all. We got married on April 10, 2021. We applied for our marriage license online and then had a Microsoft Teams meeting where we were interviewed, asked if we were related (yes, really), and then had to hold up our driver's licenses to have the person take a screenshot. Talk about romantic! Kidding aside, it was very romantic. We started the process of being married and it was wonderful. Vaccines were just starting to roll out to the wider population and so we didn't want to ask anyone to come out and make it a big thing. We each had a witness and our friend Ellen was our officiant. We gathered and signed the marriage license at a small restaurant here in Lafayette, CO. Amanda quoted both Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift in her vows. We wanted to wait until things got a little better with COVID to do the party and so we pegged the date for exactly one year later to celebrate with everyone. This Delta variant is something else, and we are monitoring it, but for right now we are so excited to share our love story with all of you.