We're getting married!!

Back in May of 2019, the infamous Tinder App brought the two of us together. Mike started the conversation with the pick-up line of the century: "Hi Meg! How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice!" I contemplated not responding to his nerdy pick up line, but I decided I would play along, and I am glad that I did! Our first date was at a local Brewery in Reno. Little did we know that it was Trivia Night and the whole restaurant would be packed. Luckily, a group of older ladies invited us to join their team thinking we would help them win trivia...together we only knew the answer to one question. Turns out we both are terrible trivia players but we did find out we, mostly Meg, loves pretzels and beer cheese. This was also when Mike discovered Meg's love for chicken tenders and as much as he has tried to broaden her horizons, she will still order chicken tenders 9/10 times.

After 6 months of being apart, Mike was finally able to plan a trip back after his first deployment. We decided on Canada. While Mike was in Japan, Meg was in charge of planning the trip and booking the Airbnb's. The first one was located in a town called Golden. We had booked the cabin about a month in advance. About two weeks before Mike left Japan, he told Meg that one of his buddies in Japan had a cousin that lived in the same town as the Airbnb that we were staying at! This cousin offered to take us on a hike that would be a hidden gem that tourist wouldn't know about and Meg was stoked. The morning of the hike, we got all our things together and met up with the cousin, Amy. We hiked about 4.5 miles in through the forest, along a river, through a valley and up to Diana Lake. When we were about halfway in, Meg said to Mike, "Dang, too bad you didn't bring your camera!" About 30 minutes later, Amy whipped out her camera and Mike looked to Meg and said, "Oh, look! Amy has one, we can ask her to send any cool pictures to us". After hiking through the beautiful Larch trees, we made it to our destination, Diana Lake. We all had a little snack and were admiring the beautiful lake. After noticing Amy starting to pack up, Meg asked her to take a picture of her and Mike. She first took a picture on Mike's phone, and we posed for the picture like we normally would, arms wrapped around each other smiling at the camera. Amy then said, "Let me take one on my camera too!" As Amy brought up the camera, Mike leaned in for a kiss...This was not typical of us to have a stranger take a picture of us and to pose for a kiss. Mike then looked at Meg and said, "I love you". Meg thought what is he doing, just smile for the picture! Meg replied, "I love you too?" Next thing, Mike was down on his knee! After the proposal, Amy said, "Finally, I don't have to lie anymore! I am not a cousin of anyone in Japan, I'm actually a professional photographer!" Meg was shocked to say the least!

After the wedding, I will be going back to Japan with Mike. We will be living there for about a year or so until Mike's orders are over. We are beyond excited to start our married life together and to be able to do so in Japan! We can't wait to explore and learn about a new culture and to share it with all of you!