Welcome to our Forever!

We met at work. As Steph was walking down one of the isles Alex decided it was now or never to introduce himself and try setting up a conversation around one of Steph's old jobs and what he did the past weekend, installing an irrigation system. The punch line did not land at this time. A second chance was made when some coworkers invited everyone in our department to dinner at Buffalo wild wings. As Alex come strolling in late, he saw the only seat left was right next to Stephanie. With a perfect set up, his phone beat him to the shot of making conversation by notifying him to 'water plants' which is later to be found out goes off every Thursday. This became conversation between the two which then led to Steph team messaging at work for the first time to remind him to water his plants. Months later, Alex had a guys poker Friday night with some close coworkers and after a couple drinks one particular coworker had to firmly slap Alex on the shoulder with the following statement of 'Just ask her out already!'. Come that Monday Alex had asked the question and the first date was the following Wednesday right before Christmas shut down.

Alex planned everything almost perfectly. About year ago, the couple made plans to go to Scotland after a particularly rough week at work. As the vacation got closer Alex realized he was ready to ask her to marry him and this was the perfect set up. The day of was marked as a hiking day in the highlands of Scotland. Alex stated he wanted to bring his camera and tripod to take nice pictures of us as a couple where there wouldn't be others around. He also suggested to dress nicer than usual. Steph did not see the bigger picture or what this was leading to. After a long drive down the highlands, a sit in lunch, and a quick bathroom break it was time to start this hike starting at the lowest point and going up. The goal was to hike to the beginning of a river to see the mid-way waterfall and the starting waterfall. Not even a quarter of the way Steph said she was having some internal issues. Upon arrival to the mid-way falls Alex gave Steph the option of stopping or moving forward given the current issue. It was agreed to stop. Internally Alex started panicking as this was not the original plan and couldn’t have guessed that Stephs bowel movements were going to foil everything. Now it was time to improvise. As Alex led Stephanie down to the waterfall, he took his time setting up the tripod and camera while getting Steph into position. After applying the 10 sec auto button Alex jumped down to meet her on the edge. Once the first photo was taken with the couple side by side, Alex got out the box to open in front of Steph to continue to get down on one knee. Stephs mind had shut off upon seeing the ring and decided to question Alex about what this ‘thing’ was and who it was for. Alex did not plan for this either. When Steph finally allowed Alex to woo her in his proposal, he was only able to get out 80% of what he originally wanted to tell her however in the end she did say yes. This was not the end as expected. On the way back, planning for a nice dinner, on a one car lane Alex went to go around a poorly parked camper and slipped off the road only to over correct and accidently slicing the tire. The next 6 hours were a series of phone calls, a needed bathroom break, eating a small dinner in the car, and driving back. This will always be remembered fondly.