"I have known you a long, long time."

Middle and high school Track and Field, high school Spanish class, overlapping friend groups, concerts, spontaneous summer hikes to get out of the house...we've been a long time coming. Our compatibility as friends slowly (to us...the rest of the world tells us it was obvious) transitioned into something more. We both found that our common hobbies and interests were better together! After deciding to make our "let's wing it and see what happens" relationship official during senior year of college (Emily at Juniata, Eric at Penn State), there's been nothing but adventure since.

Countless Colorado and Pennsylvania hikes with the dogs, a few long-distance races, cooking experiments (Eric perfecting the new ideas and Emily sticking to breakfast and comfort food), and Saturday nights with friends eventually brought us back to Rocky Mountain National Park in April 2022. We were on a trip with Eric's family, and naturally he had a secret plan. A benefit to your girlfriend going to bed early on vacation is you have time to quietly coordinate hiking plans with your family...or try to!

The first Rocky Mountain Hike we ever went on during the first year of veterinary school was Deer Mountain. This was Eric's original idea for a hike with a summit proposal (Emily is a sucker for landscape views and sentimentality) on a day where the rest of the family was planning to do things closer to town. In the excitement of Colorado adventure, Eric's older brothers were suddenly on board with an extra hike day! More smoothly than even he imagined, Eric successfully encouraged we change the hiking plan to a more group-friendly climb (Mill's Lake) without raising any suspicion.

After passing quite a few gorgeous overlook views along the way, the perfect opportunity developed. No other hikers were along the trail to Mill's Lake, Emily is notorious for finding the sneaky way to points of interest and running off (for Eric to follow), and the brothers caught the "hang back" hint with no trouble.

"Go have your Thoreau moment on that rock, I know that's what you want. I'll take your picture."