While in college, both Paul and Emily spent their summers working as counselors at Clydehurst Christian Ranch in the most beautiful state of Montana. Paul worked there in 2009, 2010, and 2012. Emily worked at CCR in 2014. But their paths did not intersect until July 1, 2017 when they were both asked to come back to Clydehurst and work as substitute counselors for high school week. (Well technically, they were both at camp and ran the Back From the Bridges race at Clydehurst in July 2014, but they didn't know it and never actually met each other!) Paul had the older Nebraska boys in his cabin and Emily had all the older Nebraska girls in hers. These campers did what high schoolers do and schemed all week trying to set Emily up with Paul. On the last day of camp, Paul accepted a dare from his campers to ask Emily for her phone number, and so started the best of friendships.

Emily works out every Tuesday and Thursday like clockwork. Paul and Emily’s friend, Maggie, had secretly been trying to get Emily to cancel her Thursday class for several days, but she wouldn’t budge. So Paul contacted the studio and had them call Emily and tell her that Thursday evening classes would have to be cancelled due to a “system re-boot.” Maggie finally convinced Emily to go on a walk with her Thursday evening instead. They drove to Indian Painted Rocks Trailhead in Spokane where Emily got out of the car thinking they were going on a walk and Maggie began to drive away. As Emily started to get really confused, out popped Paul from behind the outhouse! He wasn’t supposed to arrive until Friday, but he showed up early to surprise Emily for their one-year anniversary. Since Paul’s car was parked on the other side of the park, they proceeded to walk the 1.7 miles to the other side. (All the while, Emily made sure Paul didn’t forget about how hungry she was.) When they were almost to the other side, Paul told Emily to turn away and take a couple of steps while he took a picture. When she finally turned back around, Paul was down on one knee. Emily screamed, then cried, and finally managed to get out a “yes!” Paul then led Emily up a hill to where he had a picnic set up to drink wine, eat Flying Goat pizza, and watch the most beautiful sunset they had ever seen together. The whole evening was a dream!