We’re getting married!

Daniel and Madi met in July of 2024 playing pickleball with their friend group. It took a couple weeks of flirting before Daniel asked Madi for her phone number and on a date. Their first date was shooting in the hills surrounding pocatello and swing dancing. After a couple dates Madi friend-zoned Daniel. Their friend group kept doing things and the two started skiing/snowboarding together. Within a couple months Daniel and Madi became best friends. In January 2025, their relationship was made official. Since then, their relationship has been full of love, adventures, dancing, and more.

Not long after Madi and I started dating she invited me to come with a few teammates from her cross-country crew that she ran with in college to Moab and Arches National Park in Utah. I ecstatically agreed! One of our first adventures was to an arch where she had gone to rope swing in the past. She said we had to set the rope up ourselves which process I did not quite understand the magnitude of until we arrived. The arch was roughly 40 meters tall and required a multi-pitch rock climb expedition to reach the free repel at the top. I was still a novice at outdoor rock climbing (and quite nervous as well) but I could not back down when the love of my life made the request herself for me to climb with her. Luckily, Madi had a good deal of experience and is a patient woman because it took us a long while to reach the top, even having another group of climbers (rudely) pass us on the same route we were climbing because they just could not wait for me any longer and had to get to the top. Madi instructed me as we tag team climbed up the arch and finally made it to the top. To my dread, I saw where we would be free repelling from. The arch splits in two and then reconnects leaving a large crack in the middle. That was our starting point. Shimmying down on my butt to get to the edge of this 40-meter drop (which my brain kept telling me would be the veritable harbinger of my death), I finally made it and got hooked onto our repel rope attached to the chains at the edge. I reigned in my fears and left the solid ground of the top of the arch. I descended slowly with my life literally in my hands. I eventually made it to the bottom and after I yelled an “all clear” I observed as Madi gracefully descended from above like a professional. We enjoyed the rope swing after that and I am truly grateful that Madi got me to try something that historically terrified me but that I am now slowly overcoming.

A couple weeks into our relationship, Daniel and I went down to California to spend a weekend in Glamis. Glamis is a large desert of large sand dunes. Daniel explained to me that his family likes to go there and drives 4-wheelers, dune buggies, and dirt bikes around the dunes. It wasn't long after getting to Glamis that we got in John's, Daniel's Dad, Dune buggie, something I had never done before! In addition to the full body race car harness/seatbelt, I had to wear a strap on my wrist so that if the buggie rolled, my hand would not go out the open side door and get chopped off. The vehicle was insanely fast, you can even feel the G's from the power of the engine. It was so fun, so crazy, and something I didn't even know was a thing! 10/10 recommend and I cant wait to do it again!

Madi: It is very hard for me to only choose one memory! Daniel and I have done so much together! The big trips around Northern California, Moab, various national parks, and etc make our relationship so fun and eventful, but I fell in love with Daniel in the little moments. Because of this, I want to share one of those. One night when Daniel and I decided to stay at his house for a date night and not go out. We wanted to work on swing dancing moves so we can impress at the Wednesday night dancing venue. Somehow we turned on latin music and started "latin dancing," or what we pretended to be latin dancing, around the living room. At some point, I mentioned I saw a two person yoga stunt on Pinterest and Daniel was all for trying it. The rest of the night was full of failed and successful attempts at this yoga stunt, TONS of laughter, and a very memorable night! If i remember correctly we had Lord of the Rings playing on the TV at the same time. I often fall asleep during movies so this was one of our solutions. I love how much Daniel is down to try all my silly ideas even if it is living room yoga on a random afternoon. Daniel: My favorite memory of Madi has been an amalgamation of little memories. They have been observational and I am so lucky to have witnessed each one and I am grateful that she does it even when I am not there. I see it time and time again. She asked me to tag along visiting an older woman in the VA hospital just to go chat and make the woman feel noticed. She has moved seats in the middle of meetings to go sit by someone that she does not even know so they can feel loved. She treats my brother Steven, who has down syndrome, with so much kindness and positivity. She bakes these delicious banana bread chocolate chip muffins and gives them out to everybody. She has sacrificed doing things the way she wants to do for the people she loves without the need of a “thank you” or reward. That is just the kind of person she is and I am genuinely so fond of that quality of hers.