THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Rachel was living in Wichita, KS and was out in Old Town one Friday night. Her friend and co-worker Devon showed up at the bar Public with some guy dressed in a suit (we still have no idea why he was wearing that.) Rachel referred to him as "Devon's fun friend" for at least a month because he seemed like the life of the party that night. She eventually learned his name was Cole and realized he knew a lot of the people she worked with. The two started bumping into each other more and more that summer. The perks of living in a small city where everyone hangs out at the same bars!

Rachel was anchoring the morning news in Wichita at the time and had a crazy sleep schedule, but managed to stay up late enough to take an evening walk with Cole to Vagabond Café, a funky little coffee shop/bar. They each had a drink and played a few games of Uno. Rachel was a little thrown off when Cole said he didn't know how to play Uno but decided to give him a chance anyway. Even though this wasn't an official "date", Rachel and Cole decided this is their unofficial anniversary and now try to recreate that night every year on October 3rd.

Ah the early days of the pandemic. After more than a month living in quarantine, Cole suggested planning a picnic in the park on Rachel's day off. Rachel assumed Cole was just bored and was looking for any excuse to leave the house. She thought it was a little odd when he hinted at dressing somewhat nice for a picnic but again, assumed he was bored from being stuck in the house for so long. They set up a picnic blanket in Washington Park in Denver and even brought their dog Luna along. Rachel noticed Cole wasn't eating much of the food she had prepped and packed. She was pretty annoyed when he said he wasn't that hungry. About five minutes later, she turned around to find Cole on one knee. She could tell he was nervous and just wanted to say "YES" as soon as she could! With extreme social distancing in place, there was nobody around to celebrate with them. However, they asked a random girl in the park to snap a few photos which turned out to be pretty good! Getting engaged at the beginning of COVID was something neither of them will ever forget and brought so much joy to an otherwise dark time.