Neither of us were necessarily looking to meet someone, but our mutual friend, Emily, thought we'd be great for each other and set us up on a blind date! We were supposed to go on our first date October 8, 2017; however, a few hours before we were set to meet, Anthony texted me and said he was on his way to the hospital. Turns out he injured his knee and required surgery the next morning (if you know Anthony, this probably does not come as a surprise to you). We ended up having our first date on October 15, exactly one week later. Now, just shy of our three year anniversary of meeting, we'll be getting married!

This past October we went on our first vacation together to Yosemite National Park. I had been looking forward to this trip for months, but not just because it was a vacation - I had high hopes that Anthony was going to propose. I talked to my coworkers, friends, and family about it, asking them if they thought he would too. Everyone told me not to get my hopes up, just in case it didn't happen. If it didn't, they said, they were sure Anthony had something else all planned out (if you know Anthony at all, you'd probably say the same). It was our first full day there and our plans were to first hit the valley, then do Mirror Lake, which is one of the hikes I told Anthony we HAD to do. Well, that was completely dried up. So we tried to do a few others, to no avail for various reasons (parking, closed for the season, etc.). So we ended up doing Sentinel Dome. Sentinel Dome was one I had never heard of. Halfway through the hike, I figured I had never heard of it because IT SUCKED. I almost died at least 10 times. But when we got to the top, I questioned why it wasn't the most popular hike in Yosemite! It was breathtaking and we had 360 degree views of what felt like the entire park. I asked a fellow tourist to get a picture of Anthony and I so we could have the view of Half Dome in the background in more than just a selfie... when I turned around, I saw Anthony on one knee!

I had known for a long time that I was going to pop the question and knew it had to be somewhere special. To me, our first vacation together would be the perfect time. After we decided on going to Yosemite in October, I knew that was the time and location I was going to do it. Unfortunately, I had to survive "wedding talk" at the 4 weddings I was a part of in the summer leading up to our vacation. Part of me was hoping that Taylor was expecting me to ask on our vacation so the engagement pressure wasn't too heavy during our time at these weddings. Fast forward to our vacation, once we touched down in Sacramento all we talked about was the plan for the next 3 days in Yosemite. I knew I wanted to ask the question the first day in the park. I had a few locations in mind: Bridal Veil falls, the Valley, and Mirror Lake. Bridal Veil and Mirror Lake were probably the top of the list because those were locations that Taylor really wanted to see. We left our campsite for Yosemite at 7:15 AM for our first day in the park. We hit Bridal Veil first. After a short 0.5 mile hike we admired Bridal Veil falls, it was about 33 degrees, the falls were barely flowing and the scene just didn't seem right. We walked back to the car and started heading toward the valley. We had read that sunrise is gorgeous in the valley. We got there just past sunrise but at this point the temp had risen to an astonishing 39 degrees. It was beautiful, but I was afraid if I did it there, I would see a better place later. I mean, it is only 9 AM in one of the most beautiful national parks in the world and this is only the 2nd or 3rd time we stepped out of the car. Our next stop, Mirror Lake. At this point Mirror Lake is the location I am going to pop the big question. We hiked about 2 miles one way just to find out that Mirror Lake was all dried up in the fall. At this point I was searching for other places. We decided that Glacier Point would be our next stop, an hour drive away.

After an hour long drive to Glacier Point I was super pumped to get this weight off of my shoulders. We rolled up to the parking lot to a long line. After 20 minutes, we realized this was the line for the parking lot. Once we became first in line, we entered the lot only to find that there was no parking left. It was a one way with people still waiting to get in to the lot! At this point it was 2:30 PM and we were on the complete other side of the park. On the way to Glacier Point I noticed tons of cars parked along side the road and more in a lot at the Sentinel Dome trailhead. I had not heard of Sentinel Dome but both me and Taylor had wanted to take in as much of Yosemite as we possibly could. I pulled the car off the side of the road and decided that we were going to try to hit the trail somewhere mid-trail. It was fairly open, so I felt like there was going to be no problem finding the trail (Taylor was not fond of this idea). After hiking down a fairly steep hill for quite a ways, we finally ran into some people and found the trail. We then started hiking back up hill the other direction. A couple miles into the hike, hangry and sweating, we both look up and see very tiny people in the distance; realizing that was where this trail was heading. At that point I thought, "man it would be perfect to ask up there!" After talking Taylor into continuing hiking on (along with encouragement from fellow hikers) we finally reached the Sentinel Dome trail peak. It was gorgeous! There was not a doubt in my mind that this was a top 5 view in Yosemite, if not the best. As Taylor found someone to take our picture, I grasped for the ring box out of my bag. I tried flashing it to the girl taking our picture to give her an indication of what I was about to do. As Taylor flipped her hair in preparation I got down on one knee and froze, stumbled over my words and asked her to spend forever with me. She responded with an "are you sure?", followed by a tear-filled yes.