Laura was waitressing at Max's in Beacon when her friend Alison came in with a friend from out of town. Laura saw him standing near the bar and thought "Who's that? He's cute!" After she realized it was Alison's friend Mike they got to know each other and immediately got along. After a year or so of casual friendship, Mike invited Laura on an early morning winter hike up Hunter Mountain in the Catskills. Laura rented crampons and got up at 5am to drive an hour to meet him for the hike. It was cold — really cold... like, -17 degrees — and absolutely beautiful with pine trees loaded with fresh snow. They got a chance to really talk to each other on the long hike and everything fell into place after that!

Mike surprised Laura with a getaway for her 36th birthday. He set up a babysitter for the kids (thanks Grandma and Grandpa G!) and drove to an airbnb in the Adirondaks, where they had spent some time camping and hiking in the years before. It was around Thanksgiving and it hadn't yet snowed in Ulster county, but when they got to the airbnb it was steadily snowing, and very beautiful. After a series of setbacks (having to find a new place to sleep for the night, loosing a wallet, and a minor mama breakdown), Mike took Laura on a — you guessed it — cold and snowy hike up Hurricane Mountain. It was very windy and freezing at the top. Laura suggested they call it quits at a lower summit, but Mike insisted they make it all the way up. At the top, both with ice encrusted clothes and hair, Mike got down on one knee and asked Laura to marry him.