We decided to "meet up" one night while we were both out with friends, making it more of a casual hang out rather than the pressure of a first date. The two of us hit it off at Finn's Manor and decided a more proper "first-date" was in order. Will was the perfect gentleman and took Kat out on the town for some of her much-loved seafood at the Denver Central Market and a cocktail at the Nocturne Jazz Club. The rest really is history, we are two peas in a pod who love the outdoors, value friendships, enjoy trying new restaurants and traveling the world. We both moved to Colorado the same month and year in Sept of 2007 and our paths did cross one Halloween in 2010 unknowingly and we have photos to prove it! Ask us for more details on that story.

It was just about the end of the fall season in the mountains and snow had made its reappearance for the year when we decided to get in one more hike to try and catch some golden aspen leaves changing. We knew it would likely be our last chance to hike for a while as we were heading on vacation that next day to The Netherlands! Kathleen went to high school in The Hague and used the excuse of needing to renew her Dutch citizenship to schedule the trip with Will down memory lane. As we drove up Guenella Pass (well known for its aspen trees) we looked for a good spot to hike, the first stop was no good as we had gone too high and it was very cold and snowy. We drove back down and found a trailhead with few people around. Finney, our dog, led us away from all the people and Will started to scope out a little clearing near the river with gorgeous aspens everywhere. Kathleen thought Will was acting a little funny as he rarely looks for the perfect place to take a good picture but alas it was really beautiful so why not! Will pretended like he was setting up his phone on his backpack to take a picture of us with Finney by the river but he was actually recording the whole time! Will came back for the "picture" and instead got down on one knee, opened a little box with the most perfect ring and shared how much fun we've been having on our journey together and asked Kathleen if she'd continue on this journey with Will! Kathleen had already started to cry and nodded 'yes' and then found her voice again and said 'yes!'. On our teary-eyed walk back to the car we saw a deer very close to us and took it as a good omen. Here's to our journey ahead, we hope you'll come to celebrate with us on September 28th, 2019!