Celebrate

A mutual friend brought Nathan to Sam's student gallery exhibition opening on Carnegie Mellon's campus at the end of her senior year of undergraduate school. That same friend later told Sam that Nathan thought she was beautiful. They started talking online for a few weeks before agreeing to meet for their first date at Nathan's favorite restaurant Ali Baba on May 27, 2006.

We closed on our fixer-upper house in late 2009 and ultimately found a wonderful community of friends and neighbors. The house still has quite a bit of fixer upping to be done.

For Nathan's 40th birthday in 2018, Sam bought him a 10-day train trip through Western Canada from Vancouver to Calgary. When they took that trip together in May 2019, one day in Jasper, they took a gondola lift up to a vista near the peak of a mountain called The Whistler's. After grabbing some lunch, they planned to hike to the actual peak of the mountain. After hiking for just a little bit, Sam realized she misjudged her energy level with the altitude and picked out a bench partway up that she deemed a sufficient destination. When they reached the bench, they took a few "ussies" and other photos, before Nathan reached into his pocket and said, "Now that we've got some time alone, I have a question to ask you." Sam's jaw dropped. He opened the box and said, "Will you marry me?" to which Sam responded, "W H A T?!" She was so surprised with mouth agape that Nathan had to ask again. And she finally said, "Yes!"