It’s been long over due

Alex and I met while we were working Mayo-back up daycare center in Rochester, MN. I was in the preschool age room, a group of kids and I were looking outside the window at the playground. The school age kids were outside running around and I noticed a college age man playing with them. I immediately got nervous because at the time there were only women who worked at the daycare center...that I knew of. I found out that his name was Alex Evan, my boss’s son. Alex and I made eye contact and smiled at one another. If you ask Alex he will tell you that at that moment, he texted his best friend Michael, who would also join in on that summer working along-side us, “who’s the new cute girl with the beautiful smile who works at the daycare?”. I thought he was completely out of my league and he would never date somebody who works for his mother. One day Alex baked me cupcakes decorated green and pink for a science project the school aged kids were doing. I wanted zuchini bread but cupcakes had to suffice. He told me that the green was to represent the zuchini ans pick because I am a girl. Our relationship took off by the end of that summer. Read about the proposal and I’ll tell you about our first date there. Now here comes my favorite part! We don’t know when we got together officially. It honestly happened so naturally, we went on our first date and from there were together every single day after that. I remember one day in September Alex referred to me as his “girlfriend”, my first thought was “oh well apparently I’m his girlfriend officially”! Haha! I love the fact that we don’t have a date of when we became an exclusive couple. From the beginning, we both just knew that we were meant to be together!

It was a rainy Saturday morning around 7:00 am. We had just woken up and let the dogs out. Alex asked me “do you want to go walk the dogs at the quarries today?”. I thought to myself, “today of all days..? It’s pouring rain, every other time I’ve asked him to go numerous times (on gorgeous days) he says no, so why today? Nicole, don’t question it. He actually wants to go now so just go along with it”. We got ready, loaded up the pups and headed out. While on our walk in the woods, we talked about numerous things. Casual conversation, events coming up, what he was going to do over the weekend since I had a baby shower to attend, etc. Eventually we came upon a dock overlooking one of the quarries. The cliffs were enormous, the fall leaves were all sorts of colors, there was fog rolling on top of the water. We were the only ones there. Everything was still, not a sound was to be heard. Stunning is just one word to describe the setting. Alex started talking about our first date; which happens to be walking Thor, our oldest pup, for 3 hours at Quarry Hill Park in Rochester. Are you starting to notice any similarities??? He explained that in our first date he knew then and there that we were going to fall deeply in love and we are each others perfect person. I was facing the beautiful lake listening to this story and when I turned around he was on one knee asking to spend the rest of my life with him. The moment was so incredibly perfect. We didn’t care about the rain, the cold breeze, or the dogs wanting to get off the dock. All I could focus on was him. He told me the reason he picked the setting was because he wanted it to be like the beginning of our relationship, resembling our first date. Entering this new chapter of life and our relationship with just us, our crazy, loving dogs and the quiet, calm nature surrounding us. We are getting married ya’ll!!!!!!