How We Met
Nine years ago Kris and I had our first date on Valentine’s day of our senior year in high school. Totally cheezy but we went to see the Justin Bieber movie and then went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner (which ironically enough, that night there was a man sitting at the table right next to us that dropped down and proposed to his girlfriend…so crazy, foreshadowing?!). Anyways, even though we had gone to the same school since freshman year, it wasn’t until we both were playing varsity soccer our senior year that we became friends. Shortly after we started dating, we both went away to college- him to Ohio, and me to North Carolina. We stayed together for all four years and it never really felt “hard” like some people say it is. Kris and I were friends first and our relationship has a strong foundation rooted in friendship, trust, and respect for each other. It’s why I love us so much!
How They Asked
We’ve been dating for 9 years but I would do it all again for this moment. On October 21st around 5:45 pm, just before sunset, Kris dropped down on one knee in Zion National Park and asked me to be his WIFE. Earlier in the day we worked out together, got a couples massage, and had lunch, not anything out of the ordinary for a first day on vacation… BUT he was acting super excited in general which made me a little suspicious something might happen on this trip. He told me someone from work recommended the Canyon Overlook hike for sunset and that we should do it before we went to dinner. We drove up the mountain to the trail and hiked a short but beautiful 25 minutes to the top.
When we got up there we took a few photos together and he started pointing out at a mountain range saying something that didn’t really make sense(clearly was the nerves starting to kick in!) He then called me up to the higher rock platform, after some people had moved away from the edge, and turned me close to him, face to face. I don’t remember all of what he said… mostly bits and pieces.
But in total light-hearted Kris style, he added in that “I’ve passed tryouts”. It’s a joke he’s made over the past year for why we weren’t engaged if our family or friends would nudge. “She’s still in tryouts”, he’d tell them jokingly. As we stood there with my hands on his chest I could feel him shaking which then made me start to get shakey and as he dropped down to one knee all I felt was paralyzed by pure happiness. After I said yes people started cheering and I realized there was a photographer in a red jacket taking pictures of us… I turned to Kris and said, “you did good”.
