The first time I saw Savanna was on our mutual friend, Meridien’s Instagram story. On her Instagram story was a picture of all of their roommates, including Savanna, in front of an SUU T-bird sign. Immediately Savanna caught my eye. Right away I text Meridien asking who that girl on the far right was. She told me that she was her new roommate and that she was single. Without skipping a beat, I texted Meridien right away I would be coming over after my class tomorrow to meet her. The next day before I left for class I made sure to shower, do my hair nicely, and put on my best outfit. I was going to make sure she noticed me. After class, I walked over to their apartment and met Meridien at the door. When I walked in I could hear an unfamiliar voice coming from down the hall. I got so nervous I went right to their couch and sat down without seeing who the unfamiliar voice was. After a couple of minutes, the girl with the unfamiliar voice walked down the hall and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Savanna, nice to meet you” were the first words she ever said to me. I introduced myself and told her it was nice to meet her too. After we introduced ourselves I got so nervous talking to this beautiful girl I went back to talking to Meridien on the couch about school. I didn't say anything else to her the whole time I was there. After a couple of minutes, Savanna left with some friends and that was the start of me and Savanna's long story together.

Savanna always made fun of me for how long it took me to finally make a move. I always tell her I was playing the long game to make sure I got it right since it took a couple of months for me to finally ask her out. After I met her I knew I had to get closer to her and get her to be friends with me. I told Meridien and our other friends for months that if you want me at an event or a certain place make sure Savanna is there and I will be there. I always made sure to make an effort to be around her or sit next to her. If we went to a football game I would push my way through the friend group to make sure I sat next to her. My thought process was if I sat next to her then she had to talk to me. If we were all driving in a car together I would make sure I sat right next to her. I thought I was Mr. Smooth, but came to find out that was the exact opposite. Savanna thought I hated her. When I would sit next to Savanna I thought that was good enough, not for Savanna Pett. Savanna thought I hated her or thought she was annoying because I wouldn’t talk to her enough. When I sat next to her I would say a sentence or two and that was it. This was because I was so nervous. Savanna was my dream girl. Just being next to her made me so nervous I could barely form a sentence.

One night in October I came over to Meridien and Savanna's apartment to hang out with all of them, especially Savanna. By this time Savanna and I had been around each other and talked on and off enough for me to feel like we were friends. Savanna didn't think this. She still thought I hated her and thought she was annoying. On this night Meridien and our other friends got tired pretty early in the night and eventually, it was just me and Savanna. For me, this was a dream come true. That night me and Savanna talked to each other from midnight till 5 in the morning. I couldn't believe it. I finally got to have one-on-one time with the girl of my dreams. We talked the whole night about our high school life, our families, our college experiences, and all sorts of things. Finally, I’m having a real connection with Savanna. Eventually, Savanna kicked me out. I would have stayed up talking to her until I fainted on the floor from lack of sleep if she had let me. I never wanted this moment to end. I never felt closer to Savanna. When I was leaving she decided to be a good host and walk me to the door. I knew where this was going. Me and Savanna were going to have our first kiss. Immediately when I realized that this was a possibility my heart started racing, my legs became jello, and I had butterflies in my stomach. I couldn't believe it. As she was walking me to the door my mind started racing. How do I do this? Do I go in for a hug then after we hug I go in for a kiss. Do I put my hand on her face and lean in? Do I just go for it and pull her to me? Eventually, we reached the door. I decided I would go in for a hug and then kiss her. When I turned around to face her I was met with a horrible thing. Savanna held her hand out making a fist. The girl of my dreams was first bumping into me after I talked to her till 5 in the morning. I couldn't believe it. I thought that I was finally in and we could be something. On the car ride home my mind was racing. After sleeping I woke up and thought about the night. I decided I would ignore the fist bump and take it as a sign that she was comfortable with me. I told my friends that day about the night I just had. When I saw them I immediately told them that me and Savanna had talked all night. I told them I finally got a connection with Savanna. I was so excited. I told them about the fist bump and how I was just going to ignore it. They thought I was blinded by love. They tried to tell me maybe it was a sign that she just wanted to be friends. I told them that can't happen and it won't happen. I knew that Savanna was not going to be the one that got away.

From here on out Savanna and I became good friends. Whenever I came over to visit she would always say hi to me and we would talk about how our days were going and what plans we had that night. At this point, I knew it was now or never and I had to ask Savanna out. In the following weeks I tried to find a good moment to ask her. However, somehow there was always something that would get in my way and cause me to hold off asking her. I would scheme a plan each week on how I was going to casually ask Savanna out but it always failed. After failing for the fourth time I decided enough was enough. I was going to just go for it and ask her. I wasn't going to leave anything up to chance and decided to ask her out over text. This way there was no way anything could stop me from asking her. I got Savanna’s number and I spent an hour writing out a simple short text that would get my point across without seeming obsessive. To my surprise, she responded within 10 minutes saying she would love to go out on a date with me. After three months of waiting and trying I finally asked the girl of my dreams out on a date.

One of my favorite stories to tell, and one that Savanna hates to hear, is the first and only time I have taken her backpacking. This was our first summer together and I wanted to include her in activities I liked to do. One thing I wanted to do that summer was hike in the High Uintas and fish at one of the high alpine lakes. I brought this idea up to Savanna expecting her to decline the offer to come with me, but to my surprise, she said she would love to go with me. I was very excited to hear that she wanted to come with me. However, Savanna told me shortly after that she had never gone before and she didn't know what to expect. I explained to her that this was no big deal. My father took my family to backpack the High Unitas multiple times when I was a kid. I also went on numerous camping and backpacking trips as a Boy Scout. I told Savanna that I would pick the hike, plan how to hike it, and pack our backpacks for both of us. All she had to do was be ready to hike and spend time with me. After a couple of weeks, we found ourselves at the trailhead on an early July morning. With our packs loaded and ready to go we were ready to hike. Before we started I suggested that we take a before and after photo of the backpacking trip. With Savanna being a novice I knew that she was most likely overestimating herself and underestimating the trip. I wanted to see what her reaction would look like before we set off and after. Savanna agreed and we took a picture before we left. Once on the trail, I was surprised at how well we were doing. We made great time the first couple of miles and I was surprised at how well Savanna kept up. The trail I picked was 8 miles up and 8 miles back. We flew through that first 8 miles and by late afternoon we had reached the high alpine lakes. At the lakes, we ate lunch and I did some fishing. While I fished Savanna fell asleep by a tree. After an hour Savanna woke up and she and I decided to hike around the lakes and see what we could find. We found some very pretty views and more alpine lakes. By evening we decided that we would be nice to ourselves tomorrow and hike down to a lower lake at the 6 mile mark to cut time out of our hike the next day. I thought that this would be a good idea because of how well the day has been so far. I couldn't believe, to my surprise, how well this trip was going.

On this trail, there were many fallen trees. Most you could just step over or go around but some you had to climb over. When Savanna climbed over the big trees I noticed she would slide down them. This concerned me because I didn't want one of her legs to be impaled by a broken off branch or at the very least ripping her clothes. I tried to explain to her that with a heavy backpack, you can jump down off of the trees or slide down them, and instead you have to lower yourself slowly off of them. I told her that I was there to help you and if she needed help coming off of a fallen tree I could be there to support her. Now Savanna being the nervous nelly she is, she was worried about bears, moose or other large animals in the High Unitas. I explained to her that there are ways to decrease your odds of getting attacked by an animal that we will implement, but to be safe I brought a handgun as an extra safety precaution. This helped ease her stress. However, she was still worried that she would be attached if I stepped away from her to fish or do something else. To ease this worry I gave her bear spray to attack her belt. I explained to her how to use the bear the night before. I showed her the safety mechanism and how to properly attach it to your waist without the risk of it coming undone. On the way down to the lower alpine lake there was a fallen tree that reached my waist. I explained to Savanna that she could not slide down or jump off this one like she had been doing with the other fallen down trees. I told Savanna I would climb over first and then help her over the fallen tree. I climbed over the tree slowly and steadily and managed to reach the other side unscathed. I turned around to help Savanna over the tree to find her already on top of the tree trying to get off. Worried that she was going to hurt herself I rushed over to her to help. Before I could get to her she started to slide down the tree. Next thing I know I hear a hiss and I feel a burning on my face and eyes. Somehow when Savanna was climbing over the fallen tree the bear spray's safety came off and she hit the bear spray trigger with her elbow. Immediately knowing what had happened, I knew I had to quickly rinse the bear spray off of my face with my water bottle. I threw my pack on the ground, and with painful, watery eyes I grabbed my water bottle and poured the water down my face. Luckily for Savanna, I was wearing a buff around my neck to protect me from the sun and for some unknown reason, I had an urge to pull the buff up to my nose. Because of this when the bear spray hit me, it only hit my right side and only the corner of my eye was affected. However, when Savanna slept under the tree she had her sleeves rolled up and one of her arms got pretty sunburned. When the bear spray went off it covered Savanna's sunburnt arm. With my numb right sided face and Savanna's burning arm, we decided to hike as quickly as we could to the lower alpine lake to wash off the bear spray. By the time we reached the lower alpine lake, we were hungry, tired, and in pain. We quickly set up camp and got to work. After we were fed, washed up, and laying in our sleeping bags morale went back up. We slept soundly that night and in the morning packed up camp and headed down the mountain.

I know that the worst miles on a backpacking trip are the last few ones. By the last couple of miles, you are tired, fatigued, and done with the hike. When me and Savanna left early in the morning, the previous day, it was barely dusk. We also didn't realize that when we started the hike, for the first mile and a half it was all downhill. When Savanna and I were hiking back we reached that mile and a half left marker. However, in my head, I thought we only had half a mile left. By this time Savanna was done with hiking. Her arm was in a lot of pain and she wanted to go home, shower and lay in a comfy bed. So to motivate her I told her to just push through a little longer. It's only half a mile and we are so close. To my surprise, we were still a mile out, and the trail started to get steep. To keep Savanna’s motivation high after every hill or turn I would tell her it's just up ahead only a little further. After hiking another half a mile, Savanna threw down her backpack and sat on a rock. I tried to motivate her again and told her to get her back up and let's power through this. Savanna looked at me with death and anger in her eyes and proceeded to yell at me. She yelled at me for two whole minutes about how it was cruel for me to give her so much hope for her to turn the corner and see another hill. She told me that her feet hurt, she hated nature, and that she just wanted to go home. I tried to calm her down by telling her that stopping will only make it worse and I'm just trying to motivate her. That was like putting gas on a fire. She proceeded to yell at me again for another 2 minutes. After the 2 minutes of yelling she told me that she was going to sit there on that rock until she felt like getting up and there would be no talking while she sat there on that rock. To this day I have never seen Savanna so angry. After about 5 minutes of sitting on her rock in silence, she slowly got up, but on her backpack and without saying a word she started to hike. After a little bit, we finally reached the car. Once at the car she apologized to me and told me she appreciated me taking her with me. Before we set off from the High Uintas I told her we needed to take our after photo. I put both our before and after photos in the photo gallery. I'm sure you can tell which one was the before photo and which one was the after photo. To this day, after a year and a half Savanna and I have yet to go backpacking together, and I don't expect us to be going anytime soon.

After a year of us dating, I knew she was the one for me. I had no doubt in my mind. The only thing that I questioned was when would be the perfect time for us to get married. During our second summer together in June Savanna got wonderful news that she had been accepted into the respiratory therapy program at Utah Tech. Once I heard this amazing news I knew that I wanted to marry her before she graduated. After thinking about how her semesters are scheduled I decided that the best time for us to get married was in December, during our Christmas break. Knowing that for us to get married in December, I had to propose soon. I decided that the best time for me to propose to Savanna would be before she started school. I instantly started planning the proposal. I looked all around for a good ring ship and managed to find one in Cedar City. This shop had great reviews and did custom rings. I thought that this would be great since we met in Cedar City and had most of our memories in Cedar City. It was only fitting that I got Savanna's engagement ring from Cedar City.

Once I had the ring I planned out the proposal. I told Savanna I wanted to celebrate her making it into the respiratory therapy program by spending a week up at my family's cabin in Heber. Savanna thought that would be great and told me she would love to go. We planned to leave Saint George on Friday to drive to Heber, spend Saturday doing activities together and then Sunday we would drive back down. The first thing we did on the trip was eat at a sushi restaurant in Saint George. This Sushi restaurant is called Sakura and was where I took Savanna out on our first date. I knew that we had to start our trip by going to the first place I ever took her. After eating we hit the road and drove up to Heber. We arrived late and decided to call it a night. The next day was the big day. I planned to propose to her that Saturday night. I knew that I had to be on my best behavior and to make Saturday a day she would never forget. I started that Saturday morning telling Savanna I was going trail running early in the morning. However, I never did go trail running. Instead, I wanted to surprise her with breakfast in bed and flowers. I thought that Savanna would appreciate it very much and that would be a great start to the day. Early that morning I set off to Heber. I got flowers and breakfast without any problems. I knew however that I had to look like I went trail running, to not give Savanna any suspicion. In order to trick her I knew I had to come back sweaty. On my way back with the flowers and breakfast I turned up the heat full blast and started to shadow box in my car for the whole 15 minute drive back. Before I reached the cabin just to make sure to really throw her off my trail I pulled over, got out of my car and proceeded to run through the bush like a maniac hoping to get covered in sweat and dirt. When I returned to the cabin to my surprise I saw the kitchen light on and windows open. I knew when I left all the windows were locked and all the lights were off. When I walked into the kitchen I found Savanna trying to cook breakfast for us. I appreciated the gesture however the pancakes were as black as night and the sausage she tried to cook was burnt to a crisp. Savanna was very happy to see me with breakfast and flowers. After breakfast, I told her we were going on a hike. I told her I wanted to take her to a special place I knew about. This place was where me and my dad would go deer hunting. This place was my dad’s secret hunting spot he used to hunt when he was a teenager. We loaded up the car and drove to the trail. We walked around for a couple of hours and took a lot of pictures together. After we finished hiking we got back into the car and drove back to the cabin.

When planning the proposal I knew that I wanted to for sure do things. Take her to a very nice dinner and then take pictures after. Going to a very nice dinner would be a good cover for us to dress up nicely without raising suspicion. Then after dinner, we would go take photos and that's when I would get on one knee. It would allow me to have pictures of the proposal and it would allow me to take her to a pretty place without her getting suspicious. Dinner reservations were at 5:00 and I made sure Savanna and I were going to be there on time. We left the hiking trail at the perfect time and allowed Savanna one hour to get ready. On the way back however, she remembered that she didn't pack her curling iron. Savanna was very upset. She wanted to look good in these pictures and wanted her hair to look good. After calming her down I told her it would be okay, we would just stop off at the store on our way back. Savana told me that it would be alright if we did that. She told me these photos don't really matter anyway because only me and her would see them. I tried to reassure her that maybe more people would see these photos than just us so let's try and make it good. I love Savanna but one thing she is not good at is getting ready on time. Because we had to stop off at the store we were running a little behind. The curling iron she picked out also was smaller than her regular and had to spend more time than usual doing her hair. All of these things made her panic and go into a stressed state. Trying to keep her calm I reassured her it would be okay and we would still get there on time. We managed to make it on time and on the car ride there Savanna calmed down and went back to her normal self. After Dinner, we drove into Midway near Wasatch Park and found a pretty spot with a big willow tree. This made Savanna ecstatic. I planned on taking her to an outlook by my cabin around sunset to propose to her. Watching the time I made sure we left Wasatch Park in time to get to the outlook in time. At the outlook, I set up our camera on a tripod and told her to look the other way for a second then when she looked back she found me on one knee with a ring box in my hand. That's when I asked Savanna Leslie Pett, the light of my life, the girl of my dreams, the girl who fist bumped me and bear sprayed me if she would make me the happiest man alive and marry me.