It all started in the fall of 2016 in Portland, OR when we were starting chiropractic school at The University of Western States. We officially first met at a classmates party the first week of school. Katherine was nervous to meet all of her new classmates and Chase was in the kitchen busting out some dance moves while eating potato salad. Those quirky dance moves caught Katherine's eye while also making her wonder "who is this guy?" The festivities of the party moved to a nearby bar in downtown Portland where we danced the night away. Quirky and ridiculous dance moves have been a staple in our relationship ever since. A few weeks into the program after a few study sessions and group hikes, Chase invited Katherine over to make her dinner. Katherine had heard through a few classmates that Chase was quite the cook, which is very true. He made her tacos, which quickly won her heart.

For Christmas in 2021, Chase was adamant about traveling to Montana, a place we have been wanting to go together for a long time. He planned every aspect of the vacation from flights to airbnbs. He deemed himself “The Planning Committee.” This made Katherine quite suspicious because she is the one that usually plans. Since Katherine was starting to be vocal about her suspicions, Chase had all of her friends throw her off. On our first day in Missoula, we started with a walk to breakfast and then to a coffee shop, where we played a few rounds of cribbage, our absolute favorite game. We grabbed sandwiches from the coffee shop and started our drive west into the mountains with Michael Buble’s Christmas album on repeat. When we turned off onto the road to get to the trailhead, it was covered in snow, which was manageable at first. The farther down the road we got, the more uncertain the road conditions became. There were some locals on the road so we asked them how the conditions were on the rest of the road to get up to the trailhead, and their response was “unless you are pulling invisible snowmobiles on the back of the truck, you’re not getting up there.” This was the point where Chase started to stress. He had picked out the perfect spot and no backup plan. Katherine told Chase not to worry, we still have the rest of the day and we could easily pick out a different trail nearby. Once we got back into service, Katherine found a different trailhead that was 20 minutes away. The hike was filled with nervous small talk and Katherine attempting to fix her hair and sprinting up the mountain because she knew what was coming. Once we got up to the top there was an overlook of the Clark Fork River that was absolutely breathtaking. After the proposal, Chase surprised Katherine with a yurt in the mountains where we sat by the fire and played more cribbage. It was the perfect day.

Oregon is where our story started and it’s the place we created some of our favorite memories together. We wanted to share a place we love with our friends and family.