For those of you who don’t know, health and fitness are a big part of both of our lives. Two years ago, Amber had started working out at a gym where I coached classes. Recently out of a relationship, I was not looking for anything serious, but we began learning more about each other as we were attending the same class every day. Eventually, Amber invited me to paddleboard Lake Natoma where we exchanged great conversation, laughed, and little to her knowledge at the time, I was quickly falling in love. Something was different about this girl, and it was apparent from our very first date, I wasn’t going to let her go.

Over the next few months, we continued to talk every day, spending more and more time together, getting ice cream (our favorite), going out to the lake, snowshoeing, hiking, and somehow never losing to each other in board games! No matter what we were doing, it never felt like enough time and I was always looking forward to when I was going to get to see her next. We began looking forward to the next adventure together, whether it was hiking the Grand Canyon, taking a trip to Tahoe, or attending our first Bills game together. No matter what the adventure, we always made each moment special and quickly realized we couldn’t live without each other.

Our next chapter began with our craziest adventure yet. Amber had planned a trip to Yosemite National Park to hike Clouds Rest, which neither of us had ever done. Little did she know, I had been making my own plans to turn this adventure into a lifetime together. The week prior, a winter storm came through the area, but we kept our plans the same. There were freezing temperatures, found out at 5am the road to the trailhead was closed, and so we ended up driving to the valley floor of Yosemite with backpacks and no real plan. The hike quickly went from 14 miles to 22 miles with 6300ft elevation. We were hesitant to say the least, realizing that this hike was going to take us all day and potentially into the night. However, Amber planned this exciting trip and, more importantly, I didn’t have a plan B! While we both wanted to turn around at various points, 6 hours later, we made it to the top. The moment I proposed at the summit will forever be cherished. We had the most beautiful setting and incredible story to start our next chapter together, and I couldn’t be more excited or grateful to be doing it with my best friend.

I love you! (more)

Matt