First meeting
One cold night, during Julia's second semester at Pitt, she was traveling with her friends Malcolm and Chelsea home from a night out. On their walk home they ran into John, who was finishing his last semester at Pitt, and his friend Nick. The groups exchanged introductions and talked about their plans for the remaining of the evening. John asked for Chelsea's phone number as the groups parted ways. Once Julia returned to the dorm rooms it became apparent that John truly wanted to get in contact with her as he had asked Chelsea for Julia's phone number. Julia and John reconnected the next day over coffee at Crazy Mocha. The two began a friendship, but agreed that nothing serious could be started as John would be moving back home to Arizona upon Graduation.
the adventure begins
On September 16th, John returned to Pittsburgh and asked Julia to be his girlfriend. Their relationship began as Julia continued work on her degree at Pitt and John worked as a freelance computer programmer. A few months later John received an offer to work for Exponent Failure Analysis in Alexandria, VA. This was an opportunity John couldn't pass up and so began the long distance relationship. For the next three and half years, 250 miles separated John and Julia; however, they didn't let that dampen the adventures they had. From white-water rafting, to hiking, to trips out west, the two shared so many adventures together. Once Julia finished her Master's degree, she moved down to Manassas, VA to begin her teaching career and live with John. The two brought their adopted cat Darwin with them and have enjoyed the past two and half years meeting new friends and embarking on new adventures.
Proposal
After many months of pestering, John finally got the courage to propose to his girlfriend of almost six years. Apparently everyone knew it was coming except for Julia and helped John plan all of the details. The morning of June 11th, Julia headed out early in the morning to perform her duty at Osbourn Park's graduation as John was at home frantically preparing a picnic for the afternoon. Julia left the graduation ceremony and headed over to Crossfit Manassas to get in her morning workout before heading over to the National Arboretum with John. The two left Manassas and headed to Washington D.C. to one of their favorite places. They checked out the Bonzai garden and other spots within the Arboretum. Little did Julia know several of her best friends had made their way over to the Arboretum to see the proposal in action. The two found a picnic table to enjoy the lunch John had made, Julia still didn't suspect a thing. John began explaining why he had packed the things he did and finally reached into the picnic bag and took out the ring. He got down on BOTH knees and asked the big question. Julia's response? "Are you kidding me?" Quickly followed by a YES! Julia's friends Emily, Ali and Evan came running out from behind the tree to congratulate the newly engaged couple. Overwhelmed with emotion the couple and their friends celebrated all night long!