Adventures await!

We met playing pick up volleyball where the trash talk never ended and fun times were just a serve away. Eventually, Austin and Casey played a full day of volleyball on the same team together where he charmed her with his quick wit and Superman shoes. Soon she invited him out for drinks and dancing in the city and the rest is history!

Choosing a day in which Austin and Casey wouldn’t have double booked plans would be challenging. They love to live life to the fullest, often including family and friends. Austin realized that the only way to block out a day on their packed calendar was to invite all of the local friends to a (surprise!) engagement party. Austin raced to the google calendar and found the only free weekend day of the Summer: Sunday, August 20th, 2023. Quickly adding as many people to the Facebook invite as possible, the invite was sent out and asked everyone not to spoil the surprise for Casey. Everyone invited would keep the secret, and agreed not to schedule plans for this momentous day! Casey enjoys spending time outside and hiking, as evidenced by her 155 mile hike for 2 weeks on The Long Trail and suggestion to do a 9-mile hike with 2,000+ feet of elevation in the Shenandoah in one day. A hike seemed like the perfect place for a proposal…so Austin thought. He chose a short 3 mile hike in the Wissahickon, during a relatively cool summer day. Estimated to only take a little over an hour to complete, they would set out at 1pm, finish hiking a little after 2pm, and be home by 3pm to return to a house full of friends and food, what could go wrong? Picture this. Austin in 2 shirts (one being a button down) on a hot and humid day in the summer. Getting lost several times, they take up an extra hour and mile of hiking. Only packing one tiny little juice box for a diabetic. Not stopping for lunch beforehand since Austin knew there was food at the house for the party, when the hike starts at 1 pm. A diabetic sensor not beeping in the middle of the woods to alert of low blood sugar. After 3 miles of enjoying the views of the hike, and taking wrong turns, Austin decides to chug his only juice box, and prompt Casey to walk down to water with him. Standing with the box closed, and using the last of his diabetic-dying breath, he asks Casey to “spend some more time” with him. She quickly laughs and says “Yes!”, but requests that he kneel down and ask again so she can get cute pictures, to which Austin replies “But it’s dirty.” Regardless he did it for “the gram” and then spent 20 minutes chugging the champagne that was brought and eating granola bars stolen (politely asked for) from some random picnickers. The newly engaged couple headed home for a “game night” with the friends who joined them on the hike. Unbeknownst to Casey, 50+ of the couple’s friends would be waiting to celebrate the happy couple. Many sweaty hugs and slices of pizza later Austin and Casey are ready to start the rest of their lives together ❤️