JD and Rylie first met in middle school (try to find the picture in the collage on the "Us" page!), but their earliest memories of each other were refereeing youth soccer at the local community fields in early high school. At 16, new driver JD was parking before his first game Sunday morning, and lightly tapped another parked vehicle in the lot. Feeling like leaving a note would be the right thing to do, he approached Rylie to ask her advice and see if she had a pen and paper. Rylie asked to look at the damage, and when she couldn’t find a single scratch, dent, or dink said to forget it, that he didn’t need to overthink or stress out about it (a dynamic that remains typical of their relationship today). Sophomore year of high school Rylie and JD became friends in their advanced algebra class, where they sat nearby and often helped each other understand lessons and class assignments. They still didn’t know each other very well, but when JD’s English class assigned a written homework assignment with the prompt ‘write about someone who has positively influenced your life,’ JD wrote it about Rylie saying “her smile and laugh brings more than she knows to my day (2014).” Their friendship grew stronger and carried on for about another year and a half, starting as a group of friends studying math and environmental science, which eventually led into evening excursions to the trails for runs, and to Scoop for a shared double waffle cup. JD first professed his ‘likeness’ to Rylie at Central Field behind home plate in Fairfax, and Rylie … simply changed the topic of conversation. By Christmas, JD was spending a lot of time at the Neely household, and spent several evenings decorating holiday cookies with Rylie’s family (even when she was out at dance or soccer practice). They had many other friend dates that included lots of swimming at Alpine Lake, midnight canoe paddles on Bolinas lagoon, climbing into the Redwood tree nets and countless late night card games. The summer before senior year of high school, they finally shared their first kiss and shortly thereafter officially became boyfriend and girlfriend :) College came with its hurdles and immense growth, however they always handled their separations from a strong base of friendship. Even with its growing pains, they shared fun times skiing in the Cascades, camping on the Oregon Coast, road tripping up and down I-5 and exploring all the Pacific Northwest had to offer. In 2020, after graduating college, Rylie and JD moved to Bozeman, where they began a whole new chapter, skiing in the mountains and out to cabins in the forests with friends, floating sparkly rivers in the spring, and basking in the late summer sunsets. It was a real dream. After two years away they have landed back in Bozeman, happy to be steeped in old friendship and community once again. <3 We are very excited for the next chapter, and look forward to celebrating it with all of you!