Avery and Luke met on the first day of orientation for grad school at Oregon Health and Science University. They were in the same orientation group, and Avery immediately noticed Luke with his giant smile and bubbly personality talking with his new classmates. She was talking with one about running, and Luke bounded up to them and excitedly exclaimed "I'm a runner too!" They learned about a running group through their local gym, but when they went to check it out they found it was a group of 60-year-old men, so they made an excuse and left to run just the two of them. This started countless mornings of getting up at the crack of dawn to run all over Portland, and slowly extending their mornings to include exploring new coffee and breakfast places (maybe a little excuse to spend more time together...) One day Luke planned a spontaneous camping trip to Mt Hood, and Avery decided to go with him. They spent their day exploring the mountain, hiking, laughing, and realizing there seemed to be more layers to them than just running buddies. A couple months later after another spontaneous trip to the Alvord Desert, they realized they had something special. They decided to make it "official" on June 26, 2018 while swinging in a park in northeast Portland. As Luke said "we went from running buddies to life buddies!"

Avery and Luke went to visit his family at their vacation house in Telluride, CO. Telluride has always been a special place for Luke - their family has had that house his entire life, and has always been one of his favorite places in the world. The first time he took Avery there, she was blown away by how magical this beautiful mountain town was, and each trip they took there just made it more and more special to them. They had arrived super late after driving from Arizona, but Luke insisted they do a nice morning hike. They went up their favorite trail Jud Wiebe, and climbed to the top where there were a ton of other hikers also taking in the beautiful view of the mountains. As they headed back down, Luke suggested they go down a side trail. "I just want to see where it goes, maybe there's a creek or something." Avery didn't think anything of it, Luke loves exploring so this wasn't anything new! They walked a little ways down into a field covered in aspen trees, with a golden blanket of leaves on the ground. Avery was taking in the beautiful fall scenery when Luke suddenly smiled, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him. After a very emotional few moments, she finally got out her "YES!" They wanted to remember this spot forever, so using a key from Avery's pocket they carved their initials into an aspen stump. They practically ran down the mountain, and celebrated with Luke's grandparents and twin sister Rachel who brought over champagne. It was absolutely the best day ever!