We're getting married!

We met in the cardiac ICU at Seattle Children's Hospital while Jacob was on a travel contract as a respiratory therapist. Jacob spotted me typing away at a computer at first where he initially thought I was a "cute doctor". Luckily, he also just so happened to be helping out with the baby's room who I was doing therapy with. While playing with the baby, Jacob popped his head into the window and silenced the monitor alarms for me. When walking out of the room, Jacob easily found his way into my conversation with the nurse. We hit it off right away and I even surprised him with an actual handshake during our official name introduction. Though we could have talked all night, the conversation was wrapping up as there was still work to do. He asked if he could cook for me but sensed my initial hesitancy and very quickly and quite boldly asked, "Well, did you enjoy this conversation?" While I was very much so taken off guard I realized that hell yeah I did. Hook, line and sinker, I was all in. I walked away with the biggest smile on my face, absolute butterflies and an overwhelming notion that my life was never going to be the same.

I knew I wanted to ask her parents permission for Emma's hand in marriage after seeing her give a tearful eulogy for her grandmother in the spring. The annual family trip to the Minnesota lake house was the perfect time to propose. In true "Jacob fashion" I decided that during mile 7 of Spokane WA's Bloomsday 12k road race, would be the perfect time to surprise Emma's parents by asking their permission to marry their daughter. A few weeks later with a ring in hand, I asked them again getting a confident and joyful yes! That summer we had spent a week attending WE Fest, a country music festival, and enjoying the lake life in Minnesota. The last day of the trip marked our one year anniversary. The plan was set to take family pictures that night before going to dinner but little did Emma know that the dockside pictures were a ploy to set up the proposal! As everyone was outside, I asked Emma to run back into the cabin to grab our polaroid camera. While she ran inside, I quickly changed shirts, of the same exact color of course, to an "I love Emma" shirt that used to belong to her Grandma and were originally made for her 16th birthday. As Emma ran back outside, the family slowly stepped away from me while I was turning around. Once Emma saw the shirt she began putting together what was going on. After struggling to get the ring out of my back pocket, I got down on one knee asking Emma to be my "forever ride or die" as my wife. Through tears of joy she said yes! I hastily stood up giving her the biggest hug and kiss I could muster! When pictures were through and the champaign was drunk, Emma and I hopped on a Harley and rode to dinner accompanied by the family to continue to the celebration. After dinner Emma's family went to the last night of WE Fest while Emma and I stayed lakeside fishing at sunset and hung out by the fire. The proposal could not have been any more perfect. As the cabin now has even greater significance for Emma and I, we chose a wedding venue that is located about 30 mins from there. We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you. See you in MN! :)