Nick was on home from leave from the Marine Corps. He had been driving back and forth the whole time between my house and his house. On December 28th we were have a lazy day just hanging out watching movies. After we finished one of the movies he told me to go get ready because he had somewhere he wanted to take me. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going or what we were doing. We pulled into Como Park and I was trying to figure out what we were doing there. We went over to the conservatory and walked around and looked at all the flowers and trees just like we did on our first date there. We went when it was almost closing time. We went to the first place we ever took pictures together and we were standing there taking pictures. I had turned to look at the waterfall when i turned back around he was down on one knee with a ring in his hand and I looked at him in shock. He asked me if I’d marry him and I said yes. I'm pretty sure there were tears in my eyes too. I was so happy. We took a few more pictures together and then we went to Italian Eatery in Minneapolis for dinner. Dinner was amazing I ended up getting the spaghetti and it was probably one of the best plates of spaghetti I’ve ever had. Nick tried something he had never had before, which he said was very good as well. That night was the best night of my life.

Well, about a year later down the road after there I was in Missouri sitting here planning how would I ever find a way to ask this beautiful girl to be mine, after countless of late nights trying to figure it out, I came out with a great idea. So, the Original plan was this… I was flying in to Duluth airport on December 17th around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the plan was to kill a couple birds with one stone, one Tasha was going to pick me up at the airport, and from there we were going to drive up north to my mom’s house where I’d be picking up my black truck, saying hi to everyone real quick and then driving back to Duluth where we’d be going to Bentleyville... and here’s where the game plan was to come in. We were going to Bentley and when we walked around to the end of the light tunnel, I was going to stop with Tasha so we could get a cute picture taken, and that’s where Mandi was going to come in, she was going to walk a head and take the picture, and as we wait for a little opening in the crowd, I would reach into my pocket and have the ring ready in my hand and as soon as we were to have the picture taken I would pop down on one knee and pop the question.. I thought it would be just perfect. That is until my flight was delayed and I didn’t get to the airport until midnight. So, at that once I landed, we said our hellos, I hoped into the driver’s seat and drove the three of us back to the cities. And then came for the backup plan, and it had to come soon… we went throughout the next couple weeks hope as a rush, from flying down there for the night and driving home to see family, it was all a rush. But come December 28th, my plan was set. We were just relaxing not doing much of anything other than watching movies, when I hopped up, told her she’s got to get ready and that we’ve got to go, where? Don’t worry about it, we’ve got to go. So, I rushed her to get ready, and we took off… surprise surprise we found ourselves at Como zoo, we park and hop out and start walking out, and oh crap… I’m missing something, I flew back to the truck, pop open the center council, and there it is. Her ring. Then I stuffed it in my pocket and ran back, we went and toured Como like we always do, but as we came around back to the waterfall area, I knew this was the spot. We sat there for a little bit took a couple pictures, and just waited. She seemed to start getting antsy considering it was close to closing time, and all we were doing were sitting… but I was just waiting for that moment... then it came. There was a clearing of all the people coming and going, where it was nice and quiet, so I took a step forward and turned around, and gave her a hug, while hugging her I reached one hand into my pocket, and as soon as we stopped, I went down into my kneel, and asked her if she would marry me, she was so stunned, nothing could have caught that moment any better. From there we heading off and went to go find dinner, I was in the search for some Italian food, because usually you can find some pretty fancy Italian food… I made a couple searches in my phone and we headed out, I knew the place I had originally found wasn’t what I wanted, but someone was looking out for me, because on our way out of the side of my eye I found the place I wanted. I whipped around the block to loop around and park, we found a place called IE- Italian eatery, as we went in my heart kind of sank because of how nice it was I knew I’d be paying for it, but for an occasion as such, of course it’s worth it. But as we started looking at the menu we discovered 2 things, one. It’s not that expensive, two we can’t read let alone understand a single thing on the menu. Oh boy. Tasha ended up getting classic spaghetti, while I tried something very new, I have no idea what in the world it was, but it was amazing, and for Tasha’s spaghetti, nowhere could it have been made better, it was phenomenal. Cheers to us.