We met at Vision 16, a Christian living organization for UW students. At first we just knew of each other, until we became Party Planning Committee (PPC) presidents! Peyton was super excited about PPC, and Daniel was simply told to be there. The first PPC meeting was where Peyton's crush for Dan started, but Dan was waiting for the meeting to end so he could play football. We became fast friends and worked together to put on awesome events for Vision 16. We stayed friends for a few years before we started dating!

Fast forward to after we both moved out of Vision 16 and Peyton finishes grad school. She's living with some friends, but they're leaving their house in Roosevelt. At the same time, Dan and his friends were moving out of the Ave house and looking for somewhere to live. Dan texts Peyton asking for her landlord's email (he wanted to rent the house without seeing it...), but Peyton insists they all come over for dinner (she just wanted to see a cute boy LOL). Dan and his friends come over for dinner with Peyton and her friends, Dan cracks some jokes, and Peyton made some great food.

Since Dan is a gentleman, he texted Peyton to thank her for having them over. Peyton wanted to keep the conversation going, so she kept texting him about the house. Eventually she texted him saying "we should catch up soon, I forgot how funny you are." Dan instantly knew she like-liked him. He asked if they could go on a date the next morning!

On our first date, we honestly had no plan, except that Dan was going to knock on Peyton's front door and they would do something. Prior to our date, Dan and his friends were meeting their future landlord outside the house to do some housing-related business (this is important). When Peyton opened the door, Dan was wearing almost every piece of Mariners apparel that he owns. SO CUTE! We decided to go on a walk to Greenlake (not around Greenlake, just to Greenlake). Peyton was so nervous she couldn't eat anything, so they decided to get breakfast at a cute coffee shop...but that place was closed so they went to a random place nearby (we have no idea what it's called). After about 2 hours of walking, talking, and laughing, Dan received a call from one of his friends. Dan said he had to go (Peyton just assumed he hated her...JK). There was a miscommunication with his friends' ride home...AKA they had no ride home and were sitting outside Peyton's house. When we got back to Peyton's house, Dan got swept away by the boys. Even though our date was cut short, we've been inseparable ever since!!

Something about Daniel is that he loves animals. We decided it would be fun to go to the zoo on a date! We had also been writing little notes to each other on sticky notes during the work day (we would just take a picture of it and text it LOL). Dan said he had a sticky note that he wanted to give me at the zoo. When we went to the zoo, we were just walking and Dan said "oh, here's that sticky note by the way" and on it he asked Peyton to be his GIRLFRIEND! She said yes (duh) and then we saw the gorillas! Holy moly! What an awesome day.

We dated for a little over one year. In that time, not only were we inseparable, but we have had so much fun learning about each other and living life together. Some of our favorite things to do are: watch reality TV, play games, go outside, eat good food, snuggle, spend time with our friends, and yap. During the school year, Dan would come and volunteer in Peyton's classroom sometimes. He is seriously the biggest celebrity of the school. When it got to the end of the school year, Peyton's students were BEGGING to know when Dan would propose and if they can come to the wedding (they can't). Basically, we just love to spend quality time together, whether that be in work or in fun!

For context, Dan loves cats and has always had a cat growing up. Peyton has not had any cats and is a little weirded out by them. Dan says cats are a non-negotiable for him, and Peyton says haha. Fast forward to Halloween, and Peyton's coworker is fostering a pregnant cat...and she has 5 kittens! Over winter break, she invites us and some other friends over to play with the new kittens. We go into this experience saying WE ARE NOT GETTING A CAT!! It'll just be a fun time for Dan to play with some kittens and Peyton to hang out with coworkers. But of course, once we meet them, there's this one little guy we fall in love with. His name was Boris. He snuggled in Peyton's lap for over an hour and was so soft and cute. She looked up at Dan and said "alright I really want him." Dan immediately emails his landlord (Peyton's old landlord...they got the house) asking if he can have a pet. His landlord agrees and we get to take our little kitten home! We renamed him Pesto because we both love pesto sauce and thought it fit him well. We've gotten to see him grow, learn, explore, and snuggle with us since January 2024! He can be very crazy, but he is such a sweet kitten.

Alright, buckle up. Peyton, being on summer break, knew that Dan was going to propose soon. She knew he had a ring and that he had talked with her parents about marriage, so it was coming any day now. Peyton, again being on summer break, had nothing else to think about...she also really doesn't like not knowing what's happening. This led to Peyton figuring out when Daniel was going to propose. Peyton also can't keep a secret like that so she told people who alerted Dan that Peyton knew. Dan, trying to throw Peyton off, suggested other plans for the day and even suggested they just STAY HOME!!! None of this happened, of course. We went to dinner at Marination in West Seattle (right along Alki). Peyton thought Dan would propose on a pier nearby, but there were all these smelly fishermen around (she still would've said yes). We had plans to meet our friends at the beach after dinner, and Peyton was shocked when we started driving away and Dan didn't even propose! Dan, who drives a manual, kept dumping the clutch so that the car was driving shakily. He said there might be a problem and pulled over. Peyton, slightly disappointed, was just scrolling on her phone when she looks up and the car is smoking heavily. Bruh. We get out of the car. Dan asks if he should call AAA. He comes back and says that AAA can be there in about an hour. Peyton (again, disappointed and now slightly annoyed) says she'd like to go back and get another margarita while we wait (it was 94 degrees out). As we walk back towards the restaurant, Dan guides us towards a smaller, private pier where his roommates (also "AAA") had set up flowers, champagne, and the ring. Dan asks "would you like to marry me" as Peyton sobs and says YES! Turns out we were never going to the beach, and that all our friends were meeting us at a cider house we love. BEST DAY EVER!

Also, turns out that the car was totally fine, Dan had placed a smoke bomb under the car and that was why it was smoking. Peyton was a little stressed because she had never been inside a car that was on fire (turns out she still never has).