It was August 2013, Emily had just graduated from Truman State University and was going to visit her friend Lindsay for a housewarming party in Springfield, MO. It was also the day after Kristopher’s 26th birthday and his roommate Thomas was heading to the same party; when Kristopher spontaneously decided to tag along. Throughout the evening Emily noticed that Kristopher seemed to continuously end up next to her. They chatted throughout the evening and exchanged numbers. The next day Emily went back to Quincy and Kristopher went back to Kansas City. After years of dating long distance Emily found out that Kristopher had thought she was married that night! Luckily he continued to chat with her and found out that was not the case.

At the end of 2015, Emily moved to Kansas City. In the two years that followed Kristopher and Emily enjoyed traveling together, including trips to Ohio, Minnesota, Las Vegas, and Costa Rica! They also made many trips to Washington to explore the Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula as well as visiting Kristopher’s family in Snohomish. In 2017 Kristopher planned a trip to Washington for Emily’s birthday. They spent time with Kristopher’s family on the coast in Westport, WA. Then they headed to Port Angeles to catch a ferry to Victoria, British Columbia the next day (which also happened to be Emily’s birthday). Emily noticed that Kris was being very cautious about the plan for the next day. This was odd as usually, Kris had more of a “wing it” personality when it came to travel. This time, however, he had bought a package ahead of time for the ferry and a shuttle to the Butchart Gardens. He even wanted to go to the ferry the night before to scope it out and make plans for heading out in the morning.

The next day they took a 2-hour ferry ride to Victoria ( ferries are one of Emily’s favorite parts of exploring the Northwest). Then boarded a shuttle to the Butchart Gardens. Upon arriving at the gardens Emily suspected something was up. Ten minutes into exploring what could only be described as the closest thing to the Garden of Eden that exists on earth; Kris took Emily down a secluded path with a bench at the end. Where He Proposed He asked Emily to sit down and, after telling her that he wants to spend the rest of his life having many more adventures with her, he took out a ring and tried to place it on her right hand! She held out her left hand and he placed the ring on the correct finger. They then spent several hours leisurely strolling the gardens as Emily spend an equal amount of time staring at the ring as she did staring at the beauty of the gardens. And the rest of forever is yet to come!