We're Getting Married!

While Makayla and Colton attended high schools that were only 45 minutes apart, they had recognized each other from school events but never actually met each other until they decided to work at Indian Creek Camp in summer of 2014. During the first week of camp, the Camp Director randomly chose groups to be together to accomplish several safety drills to prepare for campers in the coming weeks - and it just happened to be that Colton and Makayla were placed in the same group. Their team did well and kept all the fake victims and dummies safe throughout the afternoon; however, the last drill seemed a bit different. The team was gathered in by the pool, and the drill began without many instructions other than finding what was wrong in the situation. Colton spotted the dummy first at the bottom of the pool and, being the brave one of the group, jumped in (without a life-saving guard float!) to retrieve the "drowned victim." Feeling like she should help, Makayla followed suit and jumped in to help, as she was one of the other lifeguards in the group and it looked like Colton might appreciate a bit of assistance. While there were several learning experiences to be had during the debrief for this drill, it ended with Colton offering a handshake and introduction to Makayla with a "thanks for not leaving me hanging!" and awkwardly laughing together at their mistakes. While Colton and Makayla continued to improve their lifeguard skills that summer, Colton has a particularly oblivious nature and the relationship didn't take off until the following summer of 2015, when their best friends decided to play match-maker and figured out every possible way to set up their breaks at the same time. After another summer of getting to know each other at one of their favorite places on earth, Colton (finally) asked Makayla to be his girlfriend on their first weekend back at school while at Lookout Mountain. Of course she said yes!

After thinking of many different ways of how to ask Makayla to marry him, Colton decided to propose at Lookout Mountain where their adventure as boyfriend and girlfriend began. His sister Kristen helped him plan the details, including a trail of pictures of their memories together. These pictures included their first pictures at camp together and many of their adventures that followed. Each picture was labeled with a date and sweet caption such as, “Our first hike together," or a heartfelt message telling her how much she means to Colton. While he distracted Makayla that Saturday morning, Kristen and their good friends Nathan and Jessica were busy setting up the pictures in order throughout the trail. With the sun slowly setting in the sky Colton rushed Makayla to Lookout Mountain and made her close her eyes during the drive, which she didn't exactly appreciate. When they arrived at Lookout Mountain they had to climb the fence (as the Government had shut down earlier that week) but Colton wasn't going to let that ruin the day. At this point, Colton noticed his stomach had begun to hurt - but from excitement and anticipation rather than nervousness! He led Makayla to the front of the trail and when she saw the pictures, she began to figure out what was going on. Colton held her hand and led her through the trail as Makayla was looking at the pictures and reading the captions. She smiled at Colton as they both looked back on each of these memories together and their "song" began playing on a hidden speaker. This was the song they danced to one night on the dock at camp years ago. The trail of pictures led them to their spot at the edge of the mountain where a vase of flowers was placed with one last caption. Makayla turned around to pick up the vase and read, “January 20, 2018. This is the day that I asked you to marry me.” When she turned around Colton was on one knee and had the ring out. Colton proposed to the girl of his dreams and she thankfully said yes!