Our story starts the modern way — with a Facebook message. With a little courage and a funny GIF. I messaged Kody with a clip of a girl saying "me trying to flirt" - and luckily it worked! We’d known of each other through mutual friends, but that little message changed everything. Not long after, Kody came over with pizza. I was too nervous to eat, but the conversation came easy. It felt like visiting with an old friend — we laughed, talked for hours, and realized how much we had in common. At the time, we were living miles apart — Kody in Dickinson, North Dakota and me in Forsyth, Montana — but we made it work. We talked on the phone every day and spent weekends together whenever we could. When we were together, we did what we loved most: helping friends on their ranches, riding horses, and taking care of cattle. We spent a lot of time talking about our future — whether I’d move to North Dakota or Kody would head west. But when Kody stopped in Leadore, Idaho to visit an old friend’s ranch on his way to Boise, we started dreaming about something bigger: building a life ranching together in the mountains. A few months later, we both quit our jobs, loaded up the horse trailer, and headed for Idaho to work at Leadore Angus. It’s been the best adventure yet — and now we can’t wait to start the next one: marriage

Kody told me we needed to ride out into the mountains to check on the heifers at Little 8 Mile. I’m not exactly a morning person, so even though he brought me coffee in bed and was being extra sweet, I was a little cranky until we made it to the barn and got the horses saddled. We rode up through a long trail in the woods that opened into a clearing along the Continental Divide — one of those breathtaking spots where the mountains seem to stretch on forever. Kody suggested we ride off the trail to see if we could spot any cows. Just as we were about to move on, he told me my horse had a stone in her shoe. When I got off to check, I turned around to find him on one knee. Kody asked me to marry him right there in the mountains — with the horses nearby, the sun coming up, and the most perfect view you could imagine. It couldn’t have been more us.