At the end of Collin's second day on the Stanford cross country team, he encountered a task of the romantic (and not cardiovascular) variety--speed dating. Per tradition, the Stanford cross country team hosts a mock speed dating session, a fun and practical way to help new athletes get to know their teammates. Collin thought this was a venue in which to display his humor and charm; Aisling, a team veteran, had been through the process before, and some of the more cliche questions wearied her. Collin started off with some cliche questions. Fortunately for him, Aisling is not quick to judge, and she allowed him to continue. He finally hit on a good one: what is your ideal first date? Aisling described a nice dinner followed, perhaps, by hot chocolate (depending on the season, of course). Two months later, Collin asked Aisling on this date. It must have been close enough to her ideal first date because she agreed to a second date, a third date, and eventually a wedding date.

The scene: three friends drive up a mountain road on a winter's day in Flagstaff, Arizona--the day after a snowfall. The characters: a chatty Aisling and Katrina (Collin's Georgetown friend, ostensibly there to enjoy an afternoon hike but actually invited by Collin to photograph) and a stone-faced, nervous wreck Collin. You see, this was no normal hike for Collin. He carried a rather important ring in his pocket and a rather important question in his mind. The question had been in his mind for quite some time. Three weeks prior he had told his parents and Aisling's parents, and the plan was hatched--his mother's diamond and Aisling's mother's words of wisdom resulted in the ring he carried. Aisling parked (illegally) halfway up the San Francisco peaks at Aspen Corner, and the trio started galumphing through the shin-deep snow, two of them wearing sneakers. (Katrina brought boots; Katrina is smart). They hiked down the trail toward a grove of Aspen trees, which Aisling and Collin both love. (Collin loves the fact that they grow in colonies where all the trees share the same root structure, which protects them from forest fires. Aisling agrees that this is neat; she also thinks they look nice.) The trio arrive at a fork in the trail--right takes hikers to a large grove of Aspens, straight ahead leads to an open clearing with a small Aspen grove. Collin realizes that he has no idea how far the large grove of Aspens are (he hadn't considered it in his planning), so he walks straight ahead, reaches the open clearing, says (out loud) "well this is as good a place as any," turns around, kneels down, presents the ring and the question, to which Aisling responds "Are you serious?" Collin assures her that he is, and, eventually, she says yes. They spend the rest of the afternoon FaceTiming family members. Talk eventually turns to wedding planning.