Our first date was trivia night at the Brick House in Vermillion, South Dakota with my friend Sydney. Our team didn’t win, unfortunately, but we were still enjoying the night. So much so that we went across the street to Carey’s Bar where I could show off my pool skills. After grabbing some change for another game and locking himself out of his car, Parker had to call the locksmith (who happens to be my dad) and have his car unlocked! It was a great date!
Parker and I love hiking, so we decided to try a new trail along Lewis and Clark Lake in Yankton, South Dakota. Parker insisted that we go geocaching while we hiked (geocaching is hunting for objects using GPS coordinates on the official geocaching website). Part way through our hike, Parker told me that a geocache was located nearby. We got to the location of the cache, and Parker told me to find it. I really didn’t want to because it looked so thorny in the tree branches it was located in. He kept telling me to go in and look, and I kept telling him I didn't want to! Finally, he went in instead, came back out, he pointed to the branches, and he told me to look. He was pointing over at a bracelet with a tiny capsule on it hanging on a now much closer branch. Annoyed, I finally grabbed the bracelet, opened the capsule, and it read “Rachel will you marry me?” I turned around and Parker was on one knee. Of course, I was no longer annoyed, and I said yes! We celebrated with ice cream from the local drive inn, Tastee Treet, while we watched ducks at a nearby park.