After spending a couple of weeks in Utah with close family friends (shoutout Hobbs family!), my Mom flew out to Utah to bridesmaid dress shop for my sister Erica's wedding. We had a fun week together and on the day that we were supposed to fly home, our flight out of SLC got delayed 7 hours! 😒 We eventually made it to Chicago, but wayyyyy too late to make our connecting flight, so United put us in a hotel room overnight (for a short nap before a 6am flight). Bored in the hotel room, I began swiping on Mutual (think Tinder for LDS people!). I matched with a boy I thought was ohhhhh so handsome 🤩. And he had such kind eyes and a sweet smile. I screenshot the match page (which I had never done) because there was just something about him, and I wanted to remember to message him later! Clearly, I know a good thing when I see it 😎 He was planning on deleting the app, but thankfully we messaged on Mutual for a bit and then he asked for my phone number. We texted lots and started FaceTiming on Sundays. We liked each other right away but were wary of the distance. About a month later I drove 8 lonnnng hours for our first date and we spent the weekend together at Notre Dame. After that, we travelled all over to meet up and be together - Ohio for Thanksgiving, Niagara Falls for my sisters wedding, Utah to meet the fam and holidays, New York City for work and fun, Detroit for Valentines Day, 3 months separated due to borders/COVID, Utah for the summer, Canada for Christmas & quarantine, California to move etc. Soon, we'll be together permanently in the same place, and we can't wait! 💕

We spent the morning doing a trail run/walk with one of Trav's co-workers amd a group of runners. I was thrilled when we met up with the group after and there were 100 dogs running around. I sat in the dirt and snuggled each of them and it was THE BEST. This was part of Trav’s master plan because he knows how much I love doggos (and miss Mowgli and Mazie) 🥺. We went home to get cleaned up and we decided we'd go check out this cool park Trav had found in San Diego! We drove to Balboa Park, parked the car, and strolled towards (what I thought was) the entrance of the park. We walked into a green garden area and our friend from YSA (shoutout Chase Rippy!) was standing at the entrance. I was stunned and completely surprised to see her there. She handed me a rose and told me to follow the trail of roses! In the hedges around the outside of the garden were roses 🌹 with notes attached to them where Trav wrote things he loves/appreciates about me. It was so dang cute! There were a whole bunch of people standing around watching and waiting to see what was going to happen. Our friends from YSA that helped set up on Trav's behalf (shoutout Jenni Snyder, Vali Stewart, Jeff Snyder!) had told onlookers there would be a proposal and not to touch the roses in the bushes! Before I could go pick up a rose, I often had to wait for a random person to finish reading it first hahahha. 😂 We got to the center of the garden beside a fountain and there were photos of us, a vase for my flowers, champagne glasses, yummy desserts, and some of my favourite love songs playing over a speaker! Travis got down on one knee and asked me to spend eternity with him.🤩 All the spectators that hung around erupted into applause! We spent some time with our friends, took some photos, and enjoyed the park! Then Travis and I called our families and went to dinner. I honestly didnt have any expectations for how he would eventually propose, but if I could dream up a perfect scenario, this would be it! ❤️