It was a few days into our trip when I caught wind of who Tiana was. An adventurous young lady from Canada that travels the world on her own. It wasn’t until I started to hang around her that I saw her charm and got to hear that wonderful laugh after my often and sometimes horrible jokes. You could even say it drove me to tell more. At that point, I made a promise to myself that I would tell her how cute her laugh is. For those that don’t know me, I’m quite shy when it comes to those things so this was a defining moment that told me there was something about her that was different from the rest. As we were walking down some stairs during our Machu Picchu tour, I finally did it! I told her, however, being the shy guy I am, I immediately looked at my feet. At the farewell dinner on the last night of our trip, we had our own live band and Tiana pulled me up to dance and had a chain going around the room with our tour guide. It was a great night but we all knew that the trip was coming to an end and we’d have to say goodbye. Tiana was continuing on to Bolivia on her own and being concerned for her safety I kept texting her and checking in on her until she got home. We have chatted or called every day (pretty close at least), since. Being long distance we both decided to commit to the unknown challenge ahead and become official on the following November 5th.

While traveling in Thailand I met Didi - who later turned out to be Shawn's best friends sister. While chatting I casually mentioned wanting to travel to South America next, as it would turn out her and several friends would be heading to Peru that fall and I was invited to tag along. Fast forward a couple months and while in Peru I met a sweet, geeky boy who told terrible jokes. Fortunately for him I was also on that trip and was often the only one who would be laughing along with him. As we said goodbye at the airport I couldn't help wondering if he would be the one that got away but we kept in contact. November 5th Shawn asked me to be (and I quote) his Canadian girlfriend. One month, a leap of faith and one flight to Wisconsin later we reunited. After a couple months of talking on the phone and texting we were finally able to meet again in person and the first thing Shawn does is poke me...apparently he had to make sure I was real. After spending a week together in Wisconsin I think both of us knew that there was something special between us and the rest is history.

While Shawn was in Canada visiting we spontaneously (or so I thought) decided to dress up and go for dinner. Since that's not something we often do Shawn suggested we get a couple nice pictures before heading out. Dad (Allen) took a few quick pictures then Shawn asked him to take a video. At this point I was a little confused and a lot hungry so I asked if he was planning on videoing the cows. He gave a cheeky smile and in that instant I knew what was happening. Sure enough, he gets down on one knee and proposes, although he forgot to actually ask THE question until several hours later...so several hours later I said YES!