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Zach and McKenzie met when Zach was on his road trip back from post deployment leave. When Zach and his twin brother Sam wanted to go to Yellowstone they were disappointed to find out that it was closed. So they decided to drive up to Bozeman to stay with their childhood friend Taylor Lessard. At the time, McKenzie was living with Taylor and one another roommate. When they arrived McKenzie went to go introduce herself but was too smitten with the first sight of Zach she couldn't even enter the room and fled from the very interaction. Eventually Taylor forced their first interaction, and it was an instant attraction for both of them. Later in the night, they met up again to spend the evening with friends. After a night of flirting and dancing they end the night in deep conversation until the early morning hours. They spent the rest of the weekend inseparable, learning as much as they could about each other.

Before Zach left the weekend they met, he asked McKenzie to be his date for his Marine Corps Ball in Las Vegas, Nevada. She made him wait but eventually she said yes. His commented in reply was, "I know, I already bought the ticket. I knew you needed to get there on your own though." So she flew down and they spend a fun day and evening eating In-n-Out, going to the Mob Museum, and meeting all of his friends at the Ball. Before she left to fly back to Montana, she invited him to Thanksgiving with her family she figured he seemed too good to be true, surely her family would scare him away...

Let's be frank, Zach asked McKenzie to be "more" the day after they had met, but she made him wait. Again he asked during the Marine Corps Ball, and again at Thanksgiving. But she wanted to make sure her walk with God was not sidetracked and that he, himself was also truly walking with God before they moved forward. After spending Thanksgiving together and receiving raving review from McKenzie's family, she invited him to her college graduation. Again they would spent the next 3 week until then talking for hours on the phone, that's all they could do from 1,009.5 miles apart. When Zach flew in the night before graduation, McKenzie met him at the bottom of the stairs with signs asking him to "Be Mine?". From there the long distance began...

After months of flying back and forth to see each other, Zach was just about finished up with his time in the Marines. Come late June he was allowed a month in Bozeman to move there, find work, housing, and to spend some uninterrupted time with McKenzie. Which conveniently fell during the weekend of her birthday and their seven month anniversary. On the day of the proposal, McKenzie had planned a hike with her two best friends Shelby and Sydney. Zach claimed to be going to a local gun show with our friend Jonathan. However he used this time to recruit Jonathan and our friend Tom to help set up signs and a flower path at the top of the trail McKenzie was hiking. The boys hid, Jonathan with his camera, and when McKenzie rounded the corner, Zach popped up and headed her way. At first she was confused then it finally hit her once Zach dropped to one knee. Without words or hesitation, she tackled him in response to his question. You could say this was her way of saying Yes!