2nd Date - Kavel came over to my place and we watch a horror film followed by a stroll in the local Mount Pleasant Cemetery. We had a bizarre experience while there. Feel free to come ask us about it.

We LOVE exploring the small towns of Alberta and the gems they have to offer. This was a Monastery in Mundare, AB.

Our bucket list consists of seeing every "World's Largest ____________ Monument" Mundare has the sausage. If you ever go, the local pub has great food!

Ikea date! We went in for the meatball dinner and ended up testing out every office chair they have to offer.

About 1 year into dating. Kavel and I have made it part of our weekly routine to work out together. I often time snatch some selfies while he isn't looking. We've made some insane personal records together.

"Socially distanced" walks became part of our life while dating during the pandemic. Lots of scenic views close to both of our homes, so we took advantage. I'm convinced that Shadow wished the pandemic upon us. She was LOVING all of the extra walks she was getting!

World's largest dragonfly!! We hadn't intended to go here, in fact we didn't know about it. We stumbled upon it while completing the Great Escape challenge through Explore Alberta. Wabamun, AB.

Yet off to another small town or in this case middle of no where. Honestly can't remember where this was taken but it was east of Bruderheim, AB. We had stopped to see the Largest Recovered Metorite and a farming museum. My uncle used to live out that neck of the woods so we tried to find it.... and failed. But we found a beautiful old Ukrainian church and stopped in to walk around.

Vegerville is quite the happening place. We went to the county fair and obviously HAD to make a stop at the World's Largest Pysanka (Easter egg). It was a blast! We met up with a couple of my cousins at the fair, went on a single ride called the Zipper. Kavel isn't a ride person so for him to humour me and go on the most insane ride at the fair meant a lot to me. I nearly told him that I loved him while on the ride, but I chickened out.

I took one for the team and waited outside Dairy Queen all night long to get us 1 year of free blizzards. The amount of ice cream we ate is insane! It was around this time that I was mustering up the courage again to tell Kavel I loved him. We had been out one night shortly before or after this (honestly can't remember) and I had gone to drop him off at home. He had left the car and as he was closing the door I said, "Love you", not thinking I said it sound enough to hear....Well I found out later that he did hear it but since we was already out of the car and supposing that he maybe wasn't supposed to hear it, he proceeded to go inside where he thought on it.

Since we had been in and out of lock downs, I hadn't had the opportunity to meet any of Kavel's friends. Only 18 months into dating, my first interaction with them at a Halloween Party. Every Annabelle needs their Indiana Jones hahaha It was a week or two after this that Kavel told me he loved me. We were at a wedding of one of his friends. We were standing and out of the blue, he looked at me and said he had been wanting to tell me something for a while. I said okay, thinking the worst that maybe he was going to break up with me. He proceeded to tell me that he loved me and had for a while. I still owe my sister "I love you" burgers....

Graduation Day!! When Kavel and I met, he was just finishing up uni while I was getting ready to head back. Kavel was always so supportive of my education and pursuing what I wanted. I graduated with my Bachelor's of Education. This day was extra special as our parents got to meet for the first time. Naturally we were a bit nervous hoping and praying our families would get along. We had a bit of stress and anxiety living rent free in our heads for no reason. Kavel's dad cracked a "dad joke" right off the bat which then set my dad off laughing and down the "dad joke" rabbit hole. This was a big win day for our relationship. It was really important for us that our families got along. They say you "aren't marrying the family" but we disagree. To an extent you do marry the family. Thankfully we now didn't have to worry about this. At this point in our relationship, I knew I wanted to marry him. I knew he was the man I wanted to spend forever with, so the fact that our parents got along as well as they did right off the bat, meant the world to me.

Pati (Kavel's grandma) and I became close. I often joke that Kavel is dating/engaged to his grandma. Pati became my grandma. She was a school teacher, I am a school teacher. She was a seamstress, I am a seamstress. She worked with individuals with disabilities, so did I. No joke, we are the same hahaha. The dress I am wearing, I made from fabric she gave me. It was really special to make and wear something of hers to my graduation the day prior. I won't forget how she lit up when I told her the fabric had belonged to her.

Wedding time again! Kavel was in the bridal party for this wedding, so I got to spend lots of time with his friend's and their wives/girlfriends. Kavel has many different friend groups

Kavel and I had our fair share of bad luck. 2022 was a hard year in many ways. In June my grandma fell ill and passed away suddenly. My grandma was the first in our family to meet Kavel. We went and had a picnic lunch where we spent time chatting and getting to know each other. My grandma was spunky and Kavel loved that about her. Nothing would have made me happier than to have her see me get married. She lived in our family home after my grandfather passed away years ago. I always imagined her being at my wedding and it breaks my heart she won't be there. Knowing she will be there in spirit brings both of us comfort.

Kavel and I go to a lot of weddings hahaha only this time it was my own sister. My niece and nephews LOVE Kavel! Any chance my nephew has to play Mario Kart with Kavel is a blessed day. Seeing how Kavel is with my niece and nephews just melts my heart. Many times my niece has come to sit next to him on the couch and just sits there holding onto his arm, or leaning up against him. Maybe one day we will have our own little munchkins!

Tragedy struck us once again. Kavel's grandmother passed away. Never in a million years did we think we would both lose our maternal grandmothers less than six months apart. After my grandma passed, I leaned to Pati as filling that void only to have that void grow even bigger. I remember the first time I met Pati. It was not planned for us to meet. She sat on the couch and we talked for a solid hour about sewing and teaching. I have many fond memories of her that will stay with me.

Wedding time...again! This was my first experience of a family wedding on Kavel's side. It was a blast! I got to meet more of Kavel's extended family. Turns out I knew one of his cousins from working in the same school board!

Here we are at another wedding!! This was my older sister's wedding. We had gone outside to take a quick photo while we had the light. The photographer was like "give me your phone and I'll take it". So we gave it to her, took a couple of photos then took some on her professional camera. Well we looked at the ones she took on my phone and it was NOT flattering. A few months go by and my sister gets her photos back and now we understood her big plan hahaha. Take bad ones on our phone and take amazing ones on her camera. (this is from her camera)

It's not easy being in love with a man who likes the wrong hockey team! Just kidding. But I've gotta start covering him. I'd never been to a hockey game, so as a post wedding party for my sister, a bunch of us went to a Flames game. It was quite the outing, that's for sure!

Happy Birthday to Kavel! Obviously we had to go check out the newly re-opened Zellers!!!!

We decided to skip town and go adventure to Rocky Mountain House. Little did we know that we picked the weekend where there was a town wide Easter egg hunt.

Earlier in 2023 I took a job as a grade 2 teacher to finish out the year. Unfortunately, the job I held was given to another teacher. This meant I would be back on the sub list. I applied for countless amounts of jobs in the Edmonton area and received not even one call back. Desperate, I applied to one job in Calgary and I got the job. My move to back to my home town was coming. It was not an ideal situation and going into a long distance relationship was going to be challenging. Little did I know what the summer would bring.

Lake Louise

Calgary Stampede. My sister's husband had never been to Canada in the summer time. We took full advantage of the situation and had to take him to the Stampede. The men had bonding time at the rodeo while us girls did the rides. It was rainy and cold but we still had a great time!

Seattle here we come! I'm an over all, very organized person. It was the night before our stupidly early flight and I was helping Kavel pack his bag. I was trying to get his checked luggage together and his carry on. I was told repeatedly that "a man packs his own carry on". I was like "okay...." thinking it was weird, but I brushed it off. Little did I know why he didn't want me to pack it.

Seattle is beautiful! Something I love to do, that I now have Kavel also loving to do, is paddle boarding. We went out with his cousin & her husband for a day on the water. What we didn't know, is that the Blue Angels had a show going on that very afternoon. What an incredible experience to watch the show from our paddle boards. 1000%. recommend.

Engaged!!!! Kavel and I had planned to do a hike while in Seattle. He suggested a couple of places but we settled on Snoqualmie Falls. When we let that morning, I got into the truck to sit in the middle seat. He came out and asked me to sit next to the window....I thought this was strange but blew it off. I got out, he slid in and off we went. We wanted to hike down right to the bottom of the falls but we couldn't figure it out. So we decided to walk along the river bank away from the falls. It was stupidly hot out and we were climbing over the biggest boulders I've ever seen. I was honestly dying a bit and I even asked Kavel if he wanted to turn back and he said nope and to keep going. We kept going when we saw this father teaching his son how to fish and in the distance we found a little beach in the rocks with a rose in the water. We both thought it was odd that a single rose would be growing in the water. So we did what anyone would do and walked over to check it out. We got to the little beach and I took my shoes off and walked through the water to the rose. I pulled on it gently and it came right out of the water. (As I was doing this, I figured Kavel was getting his shoes off to come join me in the water) when I turned around, Kavel was on one knee. I was so surprised. I even asked him if he was serious. I said a definite YES!!!!!