Jr. Boys 2006, a fun photo when we were staff kids at Camp ABK. Our paths would cross here and there at ABK in the years to follow, as staff kids, campers or staff.

Brooke moved to North Bay for her Nursing program at Nipissing University, where 2 years later Matt would move to as well

Matt moved to North Bay with his friends Tay and Jay. He was working as a plumber and in a few months would start his own plumbing company. But in the mean time he started going out to College and Careers and NCCF events.

North Bay Christmas Walk with NCCF- Since Matt moved to North Bay, Ellé George would invite him to NCCF events. Brooke, Hope, Ellé, Julia and Matt would commonly hangout at events, like the Christmas walk,.

Ellé George and Dave Bugo decided that they wanted to do a triathlon, which caused Ellé to recruit friends to join in training for it. In turn, this created a friend group where Brooke and Matt got to see each other more often.

One day at triathlon training, Brooke, Matt, Kayah Robinson and Micah Kipfer were the only ones at the pool and Matt invited them out to Ju-Jitsu that week. Brooke was the only one who took him up on the offer so on the 6th Matt picked her up to take her to a class. Brooke loved it and wanted to go again, so they went again the next day. After that class, Matt asked Brooke if she wanted to get $2 deal burgers at A&W (which she obviously said yes to). It took over half an hour to get the food, leaving Brooke and Matt waiting, though it lead to great conversations to get to know each other. Afterwards it was off to the apartment for the friend movie night that was planned.

The first date- After asking permission from Brooke's dad, Matt planned a date to East Side Mario's (Brooke's favourite), where they enjoyed talking, eating a lot of bread, and laughing at how often Brooke spilled on herself.

Matt went to watch Mike throw at NOSSA track and field (where he won first in Shot Put securing him a spot at the OFSSA championships). This is also the day Matt asked Brooke's parents for their permission to marry her! Fun fact: This was at Chippewa Secondary School, where Brooke's Dad had asked her grandpa's permission to marry her mom. But Matt didn't know that until after he had asked!

The Proposal- After a sleepless night Matt was up at 3:48am setting up all the pieces. Brooke was expecting to have sunrise tea with some of the summer staff girls. Startled by a knock at her door at 5 am, she opened the curtain to find a note taped to the door. That note led to a chain of notes hidden around camp, and where each note lay, it was surrounded by rose pedals and photos of their memories. And after walking down a rose pedal covered trail to the point, she found Matt with a bouquet of flowers. Hope and Kayah were in a canoe taking photos. Matt asked Brooke to marry him, and without a doubt in her mind she said yes.