One special day long ago, Shan hosted an event at her home, so Austin got a chance to hang out with her and meet her parents. Here we are chatting while Austin worked up the courage to ask Shan the second-most important question of his life! 😉

Success! Shan had agreed, and we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend!

Our first trip to the lake together! Shan swears its Austin's fault she fell off the tube shortly after this moment. He'll never admit it!

As part of a school-related trip, we got to tour Italy together! One cool thing about this trip is that Shan got to celebrate her 18th birthday in Italy, which, due to long-distance dating in college, became the last birthday of hers that Austin got to spend with her until we were 23 and engaged.

What a beautiful date Austin had at senior prom! This was an awesome evening and a great way to end our time as high-schoolers together.

School's out! Austin and Shannon graduate from high school and say goodbye to the place where our paths first intertwined.

Even though we now spent most of our time over 300 miles apart, we still got to spend a few weekends back home together and make some in-person memories!

Every President's Day, Wheaton hosted a formal dance and Austin was lucky enough to get an invitation this year! We had a fantastic time dancing at the coolest downtown Chicago venue together with her friends.

Here we are at one of our favorite dates ever, which just-so-happened to be completely spontaneous! We had an awesome time riding all the rides at her local amusement park and tackling this cotton candy larger than our heads.

Shan graduates from Wheaton! What an outstanding accomplishment! This marks the end of our 4-year long-distance journey, and we couldn't be happier to be back in the same town again!

After driving over 20 hours together to Vail, Colorado, Shan and Austin celebrated her friend Trevi's wedding, where Shan had the honor of being a bridesmaid.

We decided to spend the rest of our week touring around the beautiful state of Colorado before driving back home. We did things like whitewater rafting, hiking, visiting America's highest-elevated amusement park, exploring caves, and more! Here we are after a nice dinner on our way to watch the sunset from a spectacular lookout point near Boulder. This also became the very last photo of us before getting engaged!

She said yes! This evening could not have turned out any better. The weather cleared up perfectly for this moment, and it couldn't have been more magical.

Coming back home to family to celebrate our engagement! Here we are showing off the goods :)

Don't worry, Austin eventually graduated college too! Here we are celebrating the accomplishment and looking forward to a bright future ahead of us.