Yay! We're getting married!

We met through mutual friends back when we were young and silly, and we fell for each other quickly. Our personalities fit so well together, and it took hardly any time to realize we both brought out the best in one another. Later, we decided since we are the same age (Megan is only 8 days older!) and both grew up in the Raleigh area, our paths must have crossed well before we even knew it. After hanging out for a few weeks, Michael asked Megan to be his girlfriend in February 2009, but she notoriously replied "lets talk about it again in a couple months". (Come on, he seemed too good to be true!) They continued to enjoy each others company and learn more about each other over the next couple months. Michael never asked Megan to be his girlfriend again though (did she make a mistake?!) On May 9, 2009 on Megan's 21st birthday while celebrating downtown Wilmington, Michael surprised her with his gift - he would take her on a weekend away in a couple weeks to see one of her favorite bands - Dave Matthews Band in Virginia Beach (this part of the night she remembers very well). They continued to party the night away (she thinks they had lots of fun?). When it was time to go home, Megan was a bit of a mess (I mean, 21 remember?!). Michael was trying his best to treat someone who was stubbornly drunk, but Megan, after barely making it out of the car, insisted on not being moved from where she was....She was in the driveway on the ground. Repeated tries of Michael moving her failed (she doesn't remember this at all). Michael's best solution was to bring pillows and blankets out to the driveway and camp out with her (photo evidence on our photos page). When morning came, Megan woke up in her bed with no recollection of this. After being told and shown the photo evidence (and maybe partly because of Dave Matthews), Megan decided she needed to make Michael her boyfriend that day, officially.

Since 2009, we have had plenty of time to grow and strengthen our relationship and our love. We have already been with each other through ups and downs, better and worse, sickness and health, rich and poor...and it has all brought us closer together and solidified that we are meant for one other. Within our first year together, Michael was able to convince Megan to go backpacking with him. That first backpack trip to Fontana Lake immediately had them hooked. Since then, there has been many more backpacking trips together including multiple NC trips (Grayson Highlands with the ponies!), the Triple Crowns in VA, Grand Canyon, and our epic Northover Ridge/Canada trip! We love hiking and backpacking, camping, kayaking, trying new restaurants, cooking at home together, live music, or just watching tv curled up with Charlie and Rhea - as long as we are together!

We were in Canada on a backpacking/hiking trip. For part of the trip, the group had to accomplish a two night/three day backpack around Upper Kananaskis Lake and up along Northover Ridge. We had all seen videos prior to The Ridge, read blogs (kind of), but nothing prepared us for what we were faced with. The day before we hit The Ridge we crossed over a slippery, snowy glacier, that with one bad step may have ended with someone at the bottom of a rocky slope. We had no idea that after sleeping that experience off that we were faced with an even more difficult task. The hike up with our backpacks was testing - think more cold and snow, lots of elevation, lots of rocks, and the closer we got the top, the windier it got. The Ridge looked treacherous and once moving across it, was even more treacherous than it appeared. There was barely space wide enough for one width of a hiking boot, and if the rocks were not already breaking off in shards, it sure looked like they could at any moment. The weight of our backpacks on each of us made the scoot across The Ridge even more challenging, as you shift your weight, the backpack shifts weight, and again, any misplaced step could end very poorly because there were steep and far drop offs on our left and your right. Most of the group decided it best to literally scoot on our butts and stay low for more assurance that we would not make one of those wrong steps. Even this tactic was not easy and no less scary with our feet getting caught on the steps up and down on rocks and the weight of our backpacks. We made it across Northover Ridge though (amazing views with British Columbia on one side and Alberta on the other. It was totally worth it...10/10 will never do again...) We have some more great stories from the descent down the mountain and walked along a beautiful trail to our camp for the night, which was Three Isles Lake. (story cont. in The Proposal pt. 2)

After getting to Three Isles Lake Campground, we could finally relax, make some hot food, and rehash the days events (this is quite possibly the most rewarding part of backpacking, besides killer views, and will forever validate why we do it in the first place). The group set up tents and camp for later, and took all of our cooking gear down the short walk to the lake and settled onto a huge rock to cook dinner. We got our Backpacker's Pantry Pad Thai (the v v best flavor) prepped with hot water and had to let it sit for 20 minutes. After we sealed up the bag, Michael announced he was going to stretch his legs and take a little walk by the water's edge, and asked Megan if she wanted to join. She said no. Actually, she said "no, I've been walking all day, I don't want to walk anymore." She quickly changed her mind though, and decided if they had to wait for food anyways, she may as well join him! After walking around the lake, to a little further than ear's shot of the rest of the group, Michael got down on one knee, and asked Megan to marry him. (Megan doesn't remember the exact words that were exchanged, she kind of blacked out from shock and excitement and happiness and overwhelming emotions). But even if she did remember she wouldn't share. So we ate Pad Thai, drank whiskey, watched the sun go down, and talked about everything we had seen that day. Over dinner Michael admitted that going into the trip, he had wanted to propose on Northover Ridge. But after seeing and living through the difficulty of it all, he had to come up with a "Plan B". There are no other words for how it turned out other than it was perfect.