Let's try this again and make it official! We're so excited to celebrate with you.

Sarah and I first met at Red River Adventures, a small rafting company owned by one of our mutual friends in Moab, Utah. That day I was pretty exhausted and the summer heat was beating down on me. After seeing her smiling face, I quickly went from "why am I throwing boats in the 100 degree heat" to "this summer might not be too bad." I am not ashamed to admit that I pulled out all of the stops in an attempt to win this girl's heart, from always being available to help with chores that she was doing around the boat barn to inviting her along on a midnight stroll up Ancient Art (in which I hulled up a 6 pack on ice). I knew deep down that this girl was someone special. When that first summer came to an end, I realized that this adventure had just begun.

After two years of defying geographic odds and thrilling trips back and forth across the country, our relationship had felt stronger than ever. I had just moved to Morgantown. Thomas, always showing me the wild and wonderful aspects of this (new to me) state, drove us down to Fayetteville for some early-season rock climbing. You can ask him, but I believe I was pretty vocal about how I felt about rock climbing in 40 degrees weather with flurries of snow... it was cold, but I know my guy, and he wants to climb. I was preparing myself for some cold hands and car camping. We agreed to put on our backpacks, hike out, and "see how we felt". We walked out to diamond point (hey yo!) and looked out over the New River Gorge. He wasted no time to ask me the question that would change our lives. I start screaming “seriously?!?!?” and proceeded to scare away all other hikers. We had the lookout to ourselves to laugh, cry, and eat our picnic lunch. Some additional quotes from the proposal included: “can you get down on your knee again?”, “can you re-do it, I missed what you said?” and “should I propose to you now?”. The sun came out the next day and we climbed a route up to our engagement spot on diamond point which, for us, now carries a very literal meaning! Although we may never be done crisscrossing the country, we’re committing to doing it together.