After a long first day of orientation for medical school, Priscilla went to the laundry room to take a break and do her laundry. "Hey, it's Priscilla, right?" a blonde man asked as he walked in and started loading the washer next to hers. While Priscilla didn't immediately recognize Brad (who recognized the cute girl from his classmates' profiles online), she went home between wash and dry cycles and called her mom to tell her about this cute guy from her class whose name she already couldn't remember.

On a friends' trip to New Orleans for spring break, Priscilla and Brad found themselves as the only single people in a group of 12. They spent most of their three days in NoLa at each other's side, talking about everything under the sun. After days spent together out of necessity, they gravitated toward each other and became inseparable by the drive home. The pandemic struck as they departed New Orleans, and suddenly the world was in quarantine. Living just steps from each other (with that trusty laundry room between them), they spent much of the pandemic isolated together. Priscilla invited Brad over for home-cooked dinner and they spent hours talking. Brad went home on those nights realizing that this was the first real connection he'd built in a long time, and convinced himself that a relationship was the only logical next step. Little did he know, Priscilla had been plotting this for months, and made her way to Brad's heart the only way she knows how: food.

Just a month or so after starting to date, Brad had a *brilliant* idea. He would introduce Priscilla, his new girlfriend with a brittle bone condition, to his favorite pastime - hiking/climbing wet, slippery slopes in the woods and sleeping in cold tents with coyotes nearby. Brad paid for his decisions when coyotes started heckling them from not-so-far-away at 2 am, and he defended their lives with an axe sitting staunchly at the entrance to their tent. Luckily for him, the coyote retreated, and Priscilla did not immediately leave him when they arrived safely home. Instead, she fell in love with this person who understood her limitations, challenged her, and made her feel safe and supported in this exhilarating [read: terrifying] new hobby. Once Priscilla decided she loved pushing her limits and exploring this new interest with Brad, they were unstoppable. They went on to complete two cross-country road trips, traversed 16 national parks, explored countless state parks and national forests, and camped in conditions from 19 degree Colorado valleys to 100 degree deserts of Death Valley. With Brad at her side with a strong arm to pull on, hand to hold onto, back to cling to, and backpack to carry ALL of her stuff, she discovered they could do anything.

As they were getting ready to embark on their second cross-country road trip, Priscilla couldn't help but wonder if Brad would propose while they were out west. They'd been talking about weddings and the future, and even rings for months. Surely, Brad has a plan. "It'll be on a mountain, or on a cliff, or in a slot canyon maybe" Priscilla speculated. They loved it out west, where so many of their memories had been made and where so much of their love story blossomed. The trip started with hikes and breathtaking views, each one ending without a ring. They were about halfway through their trip when Priscilla asked Brad where they were heading next. He said he wasn't sure and looked up more hikes and trails nearby, and Priscilla came to a devastating conclusion: Brad had no plan. She accepted this reality and helped him search. "This one looks nice," Brad said, refusing to share pictures of the hike he'd found for them. They set out for the Angel's Palace Trail at Kodachrome State Park. The hike was full of picture perfect landings, but a few unclear markers led them off the trail and after a while of meandering, Brad decided it was time to break for lunch. As they pulled further off the trail, they cut through some trees to a clearing with a beautiful view of the landscape. A passerby must have also been lost, because he followed the two to their lunch spot and Brad asked the gentleman to take their picture. He was happy to help and started snapping pictures until he noticed Brad get down on a knee and captured the proposal on video, which was fortunate because Priscilla was too overcome with joy to remember any of the sweet words Brad said. What she did remember was the last line, ending with "will you marry me?" What Priscilla didn't know was that Brad had carried her beautiful, beloved engagement ring in his zippered pocket for days on multiple hikes. Each opportunity had it's own fault; downpour in Bryce Canyon, a dog paw crisis in Palo Duro Canyon, a last minute trail change in Arches, attacking tumbleweed in Santa Fe National Forest, all while Brad carried the ring patiently waiting for his perfect moment. In the end, this perfect moment came on a cliff in Utah just as Priscilla imagined it. P.S. If our wonderful fellow hiker-turned-photographer, Fletcher, is reading this, you're invited to our wedding!