Many of you know this story, but for those of you that don't here goes. Let me take you back 9.5 years ago to April 2015 in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. Pan to the groom, Mike Bullock, who just moved from Syracuse to Farmington, New Mexico (of all places) to take a job with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as a Natural Resource Specialist in February of 2015. Pan to the the bride who had just moved to Cortez, Colorado to take a seasonal archaeologist position at Crow Canyon Research Center in April of 2015. Cortez and Farmington are approximately one hour from each other. The groom happened to start his position at the BLM at the same time as a Mike Porter (who yes is in fact a groomsman and our dear friend today). The bride played roller derby in Cortez and it's a small world in the Four Corners region and some of the roller derby players, unbeknownst to Sam, worked with Mike Bullock in the Farmington BLM office. For an added twist, Mike Porter happened to be seeing Sam's friend, Savannah. One fateful weekend (April 25th to be exact) there was a roller derby bout in Moab, Utah, approximately 2 hours north of Cortez. Savannah and Sam loaded up a Subaru to spend the weekend camping with the roller derby team and knocking people over on skates amongst the iconic red slick rock of Moab. Mike Porter received an invite to this roller derby bout/camping weekend from Savannah and Mike Porter brought Mike Bullock and another friend (I believe they also arrived in a Subaru). You might think Mike and Sam met at the roller derby bout, but you would be wrong, at least that isn't the entire story. Mike Bullock ignored Sam. Yup. For the entirety of the roller derby bout and frankly even at the after party, where he casually danced close, but not too close to Sam. Sam hitched a ride back with Mike Bullock to the camp site from the after party and Savannah and Mike Porter drove back in Savannah's car to the camp site (this was because Savannah twisted her ankle while playing roller derby and her Subaru was a stick shift and Sam can't drive a stick shift, so Mike Porter drove her car back to the camp site, but I digress). The evening is fairly uneventful and Mike Bullock is really nailing ignoring Sam. The next morning everyone packs up camp and decides to get breakfast in town. The line at Love Muffin Cafe (highly recommend if you are ever in the area) was where it all began. Sam and Mike begin chatting in line for breakfast and they realize they both like to order savory and sweet for breakfast, but often when ordering alone it is hard because you don't want to order two breakfasts. Mike orders sweet and Sam orders savory and ... they don't share... but they begin talking and finding out they both want a house in the city and house in the country. The conversation continues all morning and into the afternoon as they walk around Moab and find they have so much in common. Conversation comes naturally and although Mike insisted they had to leave early back to Farmington, he doesn't seem to be in a rush. At the end of a lovely day Mike asks for Sam's number and she says yes! This was the beginning of spending every weekend together for the rest of the spring and summer. At this point Sam had already been accepted into graduate school at CU Boulder, so she didn't think this summer fling would last. Little did she know it was the beginning of an epic love story, spanning 4 states, 6 cities, 7 moves, 5 years of long distance, 1 year of a break up, 1 pandemic, 2 cats and countless joys, hardships and laughter. The photo below is in fact our very first photo together taken on April 26th, 2015. Cheers to the next chapter.