See you in Montana!

Technically we "met" during our last year together at the University of Montana where we were both taking classes through the geography department. However, Ethan for some strange reason thought Lauren was a foreign exchange student from Germany. There was indeed a foreign exchange student from Germany who looked kind of like Lauren but it was not Lauren. Anyways. Fast forward to the very tail end of the school year in 2015. Ethan was in the midst of playing music all over town at bars and breweries with his then band, Local Yokel. Ethan distinctly recalls Lauren making eyes at him after a show at the Top Hat and Lauren distinctly recalls telling her friends that she purposefully made eyes at Ethan after the show. The next day at another show at Draughtworks Brewery, Ethan noticed Lauren with some mutual friends at a table with a cheeseburger in one hand and a beer in the other. Ethan was in love. He walked over with plenty of liquid courage and a cheesy (no pun intended) pick-up line on his mind. Needless to say, four years later we are still making eyes at each other and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives.

Ethan and I had planned on taking a day trip to soak at Quinn's Hot Springs. It was late October and had been raining for days on end so we figured it would be a perfect activity to get us out of Missoula. The night before, I got Ethan to confess that he had booked us a room to stay at Quinn's for the night so we could go to a Halloween party at the bar. Flash forward to the next day, it was beautiful and clear, perfect to go on a hike that Ethan had scoped out before we could check in to Quinn’s. We stopped at Windmill Bakery to grab one of their world famous donuts (seriously if you have never had one before, go get one) and started to head towards Quinn’s. Since we had so much time to kill, I suggested we make a stop at the Bison Range since it was such a beautiful day. To our surprise the longer loop that takes you along the west side of the Bison Range was open and I had never driven it before. We made our way up the winding road until we almost made it to the top and decided to stop to walk out to a vista point. I got out of the car first and slowly hiked along, enjoying the day while Ethan sped ahead of me. When we made it to the end of the trail, I was looking around enjoying the views when I looked down and Ethan as on his knee! I can’t remember much of what he said because I was too excited and apparently kept repeating, “Are you serious??!”. I finally said yes as we stood and enjoyed the moment together, taking in sunshine and mountain views. We never made it to the Halloween party that night but instead enjoyed wine by the river and enjoyed a delicious meal together and were in bed by nine, typical of us.