It was Saturday, March 15th, 2019 and Kathryn and I were approaching our 2nd day of an action-packed ski trip with my brother, Aaron, my future sister-in-law, Nicole, and our two friends Joe and Brittany. We had been knocking the rust off our snowboards and skis on a smaller mountain the day before, but we had big plans to head to higher elevation to really “shred the gnar”. Little did Kathryn know that by the time she made it up to the mountain, I was going to get down on one knee and ask her to marry me. It was 6:00 AM when my alarm went off that morning and I had never been more excited to get out of bed before in my life. The night before I had told Kathryn that Nicole, her brother Kory and I were going to head to the mountain before everyone so we could snowboard down some more challenging runs and “beat the crowd”. Once we arrived at the resort, Nicole, Kory, and I immediately hopped on the ski lift and started making our way up the mountain to set up for the big proposal at John Paul Lodge. The lodge was nice enough to reserve a table on the back patio where I hung up pictures of Kathryn and me and set up an arrangement of flowers, rose petals, and lanterns. Kathryn is a huge fan of the mountains so I made sure everything was placed perfectly to get a good view of the snowy, white mountain range in the distance. Meanwhile, my brother and the rest of the group were tasked to bring Kathryn up the ski lift to meet us at the lodge. It was at that moment when my brother texted me saying, “We’re on the ski lift” that my emotions really started to kick in. After 3.5 years of getting to know Kathryn, her family, and her friends, I could not have thought of a more perfect human being to ask to spend the rest of my life with. The happiness, love and laughter she brings to me and everyone that surrounds her is truly a gift from God, and I was so unbelievably grateful for the times we shared together up until this point.

After experiencing what seemed to be the longest 10 minutes of my life, Kathryn finally made it to the top of the mountain. She immediately stated in concern, “There are only blue diamonds down the mountain... Why did we come up here?” (She had only skiied greens down the day before.) I may have not thought that one through, but I figured her mind could be easily distracted. With some promises of fresh waffles and a view like she had never seen before, I was able to lure Kathryn to the back patio. While walking together down the path of flowers I made for her, Kathryn quickly put two-and-two together and realized what was about to happen. In response, she stated “Oh, I could go down a blue for this!” Both of us smiling uncontrollably, I got down on one knee, confessed my love for her and asked her to marry me!