We met on a dating app called Tinder while we were both living in Boise, Idaho. We caught each other's attention due to the fact that we both mentioned we were looking for someone special in our biographies. We "swiped right" on January 13th, 2016. Jon was the first to reach out, and we started chatting.

We wasted no time in planning our first date, and decided that the following week would be perfect. When he came to pick me up he asked to meet our dog Charlie and I remember being so excited that he was very obviously a "dog person." We went to The Village in Meridian, which is an upscale shopping center with beautiful water features and several restaurants. We started with sushi at Kona Grill, talked NON-stop, and then moved to the Yardhouse for beers. We decided to try a flight of beer, which came with artfully worded descriptions of each beer we were sampling. This is where I first saw a glimpse of his goofy personality, because he proceeded to read each description to me out loud while doing his best "beer snob" impression. We had our first kiss on our way out when we stopped to get warm by a glass fire pit. Each time we go to The Village, we still make a point to get a quick kiss by that fire pit :)

Something we always struggled with when we were newly dating was living separately from each other. We wanted to be practical and make sure we didn't rush into living together, but we also completely dreaded saying goodbye and sleeping alone. In November 2017 we decided it might be a good option to try staying together throughout the week and alternating whose house we stayed at week to week. Each week one of us packed up our kitty and moved in. This was the best experience, because we learned that living together was truly something we enjoyed and wanted to commit to. We formally moved in together February of 2017.

Even before moving in together, we had discussed wanting to make a big change involving both of us getting out of our comfort zone and moving to a different state or country. Throughout college I had planned to move to Ireland for about a year, and was excited to hear that Jon shared my interest of experiencing a different culture for an extended period of time. We started extensively researching our top picks: Sweden and Ireland. After months of learning the ropes, we discovered that either move would require us to choose between staying for 30 days or two years. We reluctantly agreed that a 2-year commitment was a lot, and decided to look into another area of interest that we shared - the Pacific Northwest. In the summer of 2017 we came to the conclusion that we wanted to live in the Portland metro area. We made plans and began telling our loved ones. We made several trips to the area, falling in love with it more and more each time. On March 31st 2018 we woke up, packed our last remaining items into the biggest U-haul truck available, loaded up two stressed-out cats and a sedated dog, and said goodbye to Boise and Idaho.

Our proposal story occurred over a crazy and pretty stressful weekend full of ups and downs. We had planned to spend the weekend in Idaho celebrating my dad's birthday and visiting with loved ones. We planned a birthday BBQ, invited all of our closest friends and family, and headed out for Idaho on a Thursday evening. We were near a tiny desert town called Arlington when Jon's car broke down. After spending two hours attempting to get a tow truck sent to us, it began to get dark and we realized we needed to consider other options. Around that point a jacked-up jeep pulled off the road and the man driving asked if he could help us out. We explained that we probably needed coolant, and he and his girlfriend offered to drive further down the highway to buy it for us. They returned with the coolant in addition to a large jug of cold water for our dogs. After adding coolant to the engine we attempted to start the car. When nothing happened, they offered to tow us into Arlington. The woman offered to steer Jon's car during this process, as the two of them had towed cars together before and their tow rope was about half the length that it should be. This meant that we were driving down the interstate just three feet from the bumper of their car. (Would not recommend.) After reaching Arlington and realizing the only gas station was closed, our new friends offered to drive another 30 miles and back to bring us oil. (Insert major panic attack for me here because we were parked near a popular train route and I have a pretty intense phobia of trains.)

When the oil didn't work, we started to worry about where we would spend the night and also about the fact that Jon had an important dentist appointment the following morning. Our friends offered to take us, our giant dogs, and all of our junk to Baker (just 1.5 hrs from our destination.) We had started to piece together the fact that our new friends had careers in a not-so-legal industry, but they had already showed us so much genuine kindness. We took them up on their offer and ended up driving all throughout the night. At one point we were awoken to the noise and realization that the woman had begun to fall asleep and had drifted into a construction lane. We were hitting traffic cones going 75mph. She corrected and all was fine, but it's safe to say we definitely wondered if we were going to survive. My mom picked us up early the following morning and we actually ended up making it to Idaho sooner than we had originally planned! Unfortunately though, our misfortune hadn't quite ended. On the day of the BBQ I became extremely sick and really wanted nothing more than to lay in bed and sleep it off.

After a trip to the doctor we drove into Boise to pick up a rental car that would take us back to Oregon. I slept in the car while Jon went to pick up our already-reserved rental. The process began to take much longer than we had expected, and we eventually decided that I would need to head back to my parent's house to get ready. By the time I got home I had realized that the anti-nausea medication I had been prescribed was not going to work for me, but I was not planning to miss the opportunity to spend time with my friends and family. My mom took action to prevent me from looking terrible in our proposal pictures and helped me get ready. (Thanks mom!) In the meantime Jon had let me know that there was a problem with our rental reservation and that he would not be able to pick up the car that day. This meant that he was stranded without a car for the second time in two days. Luckily we had many friends headed from Boise to my parent's house around this time, and he was able to catch a ride with some of our close friends. Though I was still sicker than a dog, we were so happy to relax at the BBQ and just enjoy the people we had traveled to see. I had been chatting when I heard the music change to "Simple" by Florida Georgia Line. At the time we were obsessed with the song, because we felt like it described our relationship perfectly. When the song was nearing the end, Jon walked over and started up casual conversation. Right as the song ended he said "Hey babe, you know how we're best friends and I love you?" (I thought he was going to ask me for a favor.) I said yes, and as the music went quiet he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I soon realized that every person at the BBQ had known about the proposal and I honestly just felt like the luckiest person on the planet to be surrounded by all my favorite people when my best friend asked me to marry him. "It's a story to tell the grandkids!" And I wouldn't have had it any other way :)