It was March of 2020 (GASP!!!) I was in Sioux Falls at the Summit League basketball tournament with some friends. While watching some games that SDSU was not playing in, I caught myself scrolling through the Match app. I came across Traci’s profile and knew I had to try and reach out! We struck up a conversation, and soon after decided we needed to make plans to meet once I made it back home to Pierre. Lucky for her I was scheduled to have Lasik surgery before I went home so she was about to meet me with red eyes and cool protective goggles. Little did we know on my drive home the world would start shutting down due to COVID. This shutdown posed some challenges, but most of all it opened things up for us to spend quite a bit of time together without work getting in the way. Traci is a high school special education teacher, and I at the time was working for SD Game Fish and Parks. Teaching went fully virtual, and my office had closed its doors indefinitely until things mellowed out. Our first date was your standard first date, dinner conversation and a lovely walk around the Capitol on a tropical March day. Throughout our time getting to know each other, our interest in watching Sprint Car races, brought us even closer together. Traci, a Jackson, MN native grew up going to the races in her home town, as did I in the Huron area. Every summer we look forward to spending time at the races with family and friends! Fast forward to many miles and trips back and forth, I ultimately made the decision to move to Spearfish in the spring of 2022. The rest is history… you know the kind they make online dating commercials about.

On Easter weekend Traci and I had planned an impromptu trip to Jackson Hole, WY. Her parents had just been out to visit, and my dad also within the last couple weeks. Instead of driving 5 hours east to visit family we decided to drive the other direction and spend a weekend in snowy, and I mean snowy Wyoming. Our plan was to leave Spearfish in the evening and drive about halfway and spend the night in Riverton, WY. I knew I was going to ask the question on this trip, so naturally I was nervous and excited… I was nexcited! In between Gillette and Casper, the roads had started to get bad with drifting snow and icy conditions. We continued to trek on, thinking it wouldn’t get much worse. About 30 miles west of Casper the roads had degraded fast, and we came up on a semi jackknifed in the middle of the road. With traffic backed up on both sides, the state ended up closing the highway down as the winds were going to continue to blow through the night and road conditions would not improve. We made our way back to Casper and stayed in a hotel for the night. The next morning, we woke up ready to leave, but the highway was still closed. At this point I was rather grumpy because my great proposal plan was falling apart before my eyes. We planned on heading back home that morning, but as fate would have it, right as we were leaving town, I received a notification that the highway was open! We made it to Jackson Hole and spent a fantastic weekend being “tourists.” Lots of great food, ample wildlife viewing, the famous picture in front of the elk antler arch, and a tram ride to the top of Rendezvous Mountain at 10,000 feet filled our days. Knowing Traci isn’t a fan of “making a scene” I had to be strategic with where and how I asked the question. On our drive home, we stopped at multiple pull offs to take pictures of the Tetons before the clouds rolled in. This was where it was going to happen, but every pull-off had other people, until the very last one. Traci was snapping a couple pictures of the peaks, and when she turned around to come back to the jeep I was down on my knee with a diamond in hand. She did say yes, but not before saying “Ok, you can stand up now.” ***Edit: I (Traci) would like to add that Brennen describing himself as “rather grumpy” when we were stuck in Casper, does not really capture the level of grumpiness that he was actually at! I was ready to send him home so I could do something fun in the mountains! I suppose a (potentially) ruined proposal plan is reason to be grumpy! Good thing the trip really turned around after that!