After living 52.8 miles away from each other their entire lives, Justin joined the Navy in 2011 and Amanda joined in 2014. Justin's path brought him to Tinker, Oklahoma in 2015. Months after, Amanda arrived to her first command, also Tinker, Oklahoma. They shared a mutual friend who introduced Justin to Amanda as his "Military Jeeper's Friend". Throughout the years, Justin and Amanda remained friends and he even watched Moose (her cat) while she went on deployment. Fast forward three years down the road, Amanda and Justin were out with friends at a diner in Lake Tahoe. The sunshine glimmered on Justin's eyes like a sunset on Lake Michigan. Amanda commented how beautiful they looked and the rest is history.

It was a beautiful, sunny morning in Australia and we were heading out to swim on The Great Barrier Reef. We took a huge catamaran out to the island where they introduced us to hundreds of types of corral and fish. While the rest of the group took an island tour, we stayed in the ocean to swim. Justin then told me he found a cool rock for me! Being obsessed with rocks, but realizing we weren't allowed to take them, I told him that we were on a National Park and had to leave it. He told me to still go underwater and check it out. So, I put my mask on, dipped my head underwater and there he was on one knee with a ring in his hand. We both came up and needless to say, I filled the ocean a little more with happy tears and said yes!