Carter and I met on a dating site back in April of 2021. When we met I (Jaydon) was still in college at UNI, and Carter was still milking cows at his and his brother's farm in Decorah, so hanging out wasn't the easiest option. With that being said, Carter and I would FaceTime each other almost every night, sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning. It was during these long conversations that we quickly fell for each other.

Once I moved back home, we took the opportunity to spend our weekends together, and on May 31, 2021, Carter asked me to be his girlfriend. Since then we have shared countless milestones including, buying our first house, starting new jobs, welcoming our two sweet dogs into our lives, and getting engaged!

In July of 2023, we went on a vacation with my entire family to Colorado Springs. I already knew that this trip was going to be filled with memories to last a lifetime, considering this was the first family vacation we'd been on. The mountains were stunning, but there was one specific place I was especially eager to explore. Carter knew how much I had always wanted to visit Garden of the Gods, and my family had originally planned for this to be our first stop as soon as we got out to Colorado, so his first plan was to propose then. Except, when we got to Colorado everyone was tired from traveling so we decided to postpone Garden of the Gods.

A couple days later we had it planned out that we were going to explore Pikes Peak and Manitou Springs afterwards. Carter’s backup plan was to propose on the top of the mountain. He had the ring box hidden in his sock under his jeans, and was ready to go. As we reached the top, we got caught in a storm with freezing rain and lightning, which made it so that nobody was allowed to go outside of the building or drive back down the mountain. So if you can imagine, hundreds of people stuck inside a small gift shop and cafe, starting to get light headed from being stressed at the top of the mountain, everyone was eager to get out of there. We took a picture, but the conditions just didn’t make this the right spot.

Afterwards we did some shopping in Manitou Springs, the ring still in Carter’s sock. At this point Carter was thinking of a Plan C, but the night was still young. It was July 4th, so my cousins and I were determined to find a fireworks show that we could go to. Once the family got back to the Air B&B, my two cousins, Carter and I, looked up fireworks shows we could go to but also had the idea that we could make a quick pit stop in The Garden of the Gods. Finally, Carter was able to propose in the spot he had originally wanted to.

We are so excited for our big day and can't wait to see what our future holds!

At the top of Pike's Peak - I was freezing!

Shopping in Manitou Springs - Still no clue that Carter had a diamond ring hidden in his sock.

The moment right before

The proposal!!