They first met in high school “though I can’t say specifically when we would have met for the first time,” Dustin says. Monica was a grade above him and they had study hall together. “Throughout those study halls, I do remember liking her for quite a while before we ever actually got to know each other. We would talk a little bit during them, but it was usually just playful banter. I looked forward to those study halls.”

They also worked together at the local grocery store. They both liked each other, went on a few dates, and even went to prom together. “But nothing else came of it because I didn’t think he really liked me and he didn’t think that I liked him. I graduated and went off to college and we lost contact. Six years later, he popped back up in my life. I know this sounds silly, but that first time we hung out after six years of not talking was when I knew he was the one. There was something special between us. When I opened the front door when he came to hang out and our eyes met, it was like time stood still for a minute and everything else just faded away.”

They’ve been together ever since and he proposed last year when they were on vacation in Colorado. “This was the summer following a deployment the year before, so I’d been planning on proposing to Monica on this trip for a long time. However, my initial plan had been to propose at the top of Pike’s Peak, one of the tallest mountains in Colorado. Before taking this trip, I’ve always been interested in high places, nice views where you can see for miles. I had been to Pike’s Peak as a kid, thought it had been really cool and wanted to show it off to Monica. I found out during this trip, Monica likes rocks. I’m simplifying that too much, but she likes jagged rock formations and cliffs, for example, the Royal Gorge and the Garden of the Gods.