So, I planned to propose to Kim. There were a couple of things I had done, over the years, to prepare for this event. Some were quite easy to see through, and others were downright devious.

• Kim and I had, just for fun, looked at jewelry online together. I needed to figure out what kind of designs she liked; sadly, I'm pretty sure she caught on to this first little ruse of mine.
• I also got her seven rings of different sizes all at once, using the excuse that it would have been odd for me to get her a single ring without actually proposing. She thought that was weird logic, but bought the cover-up story. Score! Now I knew her ring size.
• In order to maintain the element of surprise, I cleverly waited six years to throw her off the scent. Now, we'd been on so many dates that she'd basically lost hope that I'd ever get around to asking her.

With all my machinations in place, I set the gears whirring and began my proposal plan. Our six year anniversary was approaching, and in order to make the day even more special, I decided to propose on our date. It also meant that Kim could help plan the day to be very special and memorable without realizing what she was helping pull together.

We went to the Salish Lodge right above the Snoqualmie Falls. If you haven't been, it's great, they pour honey from five feet up onto biscuits and it tastes great. If that image confuses you, now you have all the more reason to go and figure out what I'm talking about! After this, we were to go look at the waterfall, and that's when I was going to pop the question.

A problem arose in my foolproof plan, however. We didn't have enough time to get to the waterfall before we had to go off to our next activity of the day. So we ended up going straight to the Falls City Wallaby Ranch to pet some kangaroos and their smaller cousins, the wallabies. After this fantastic hitch in the plan, one that I definitely also recommend, we headed back to Snoqualmie Fall.

We walked out to the viewing platform and I put my hand around the ring case that had been hiding in my jacket pocket all day. This is when the second error in my perfect plan became glaringly obvious. It was crowded, too crowded to kneel. That's when the two of us started leaving back to the car. I still managed it, though. Despite not getting the waterfall, I still managed to ask for Kim's hand in marriage. Unbeknownst to me, this moment wasn't unrecorded. A perfect stranger videotaped the event the second he realized what was happening, and so by luck accident, we have photos of the proposal.

P.S. The whole "seven rings" thing didn't work. I bought her a 6 1/2 band for the ring, and she's a 4 1/2, it turns out... So keep that in mind, just in case you thought I had any good ideas, other than getting engaged to someone as amazing as Kim.

Kim and Daniel met in high school. At first, the romantic spark everyone talks about escaped the two. They sat at the same table during lunch, but were too awkward to speak much. After a while, Daniel hosted a Lord of the Rings marathon, and that was the first time Kim and Daniel really met. It took Daniel two more weeks to finally ask Kim to become tied up in a relationship. Kim took Daniel out on their first date, though. They went to Olive Garden before the dance at Tolo.

Throughout High School and college, both exerted large influences on each other as they spent more and more time together. Kim is now an official nerd, thanks to Daniel's great interest in immersing her in geek culture. Kim, who had been co-captain of the cross-country team in high school, got Daniel into running. Both of them, along with Eric (Daniel's brother), ran the Green River Marathon in June of 2018.

We recently adopted an eight-week-old black lab-Australian shepherd mix and named him Bean. He's in the other room while this is being typed out, driving us wild and keeping things interesting in the best of ways. Daniel is looking to go to graduate school and Kim is working in the field of chemistry. Kim is currently in physical therapy, healing from damage done to her knee from running her marathon, so that she can begin running and hiking again, things we both love doing. Daniel is drawing up plans for the castle he hopes we live in in the future. We're looking forward to a long, quirky, active, fulfilling marriage most of all.