It just is.

We tell people we met at a family reunion.

But the truth is, we met in Bend. Brett was on Broken Top, I was at Smith Rock.

Well really, the truth is…we met on Tinder. But we started to connect while we were both in Bend.

Bend…where it all started. My home town, Brett’s home town. So really, this is a story of two country bumpkins falling in love.

I had finally flushed the toilet on a very toxic chapter/person of my life and I was finally ready to move on. Literally...I was actually planning on moving back to Bend in 2019. I had a house set up, worked remote - it would be great getting back home. So I downloaded Tinder again...to see what kind of jokers were in Bend, (rather, see how bad dating would be).

And then I came across Brett...who hit many of my “swipe left” criteria (yep - I had a swipe left on: drummers, bartenders, military/cops, more than 2 selfies, snowshoe photos, fish photos, has a doodle or a kid, or a Mazama). And Brett - came with a 9 year old, 2 doodles, took a Mazamas class...but something about him, I had to swipe right. 

From Brett’s side - he had just closed a chapter on a relationship that wasn’t serving him...an off and on kinda toxic/kinda crazy/kinda still fun relationship. He too had been married before and figured his life would be a mix of dating off and on and raising Hailey solo. 

And then, we matched on the ol’ dating app...

We connected and started to chat that night. And I kept at it. We grew quiet the week after we matched but something about him made me persistent (or that’s the word Brett used). 

Fast forward to the following weekend. I was in Bend for a trail running race, Brett was in Bend for an AIARE 2 class. And we talked...everyday, all day long. Text, photos, phone calls. I couldn’t get enough. He got back to Portland Tuesday night and called me right away. And that night, on January 29th, 2019, we met. 

I stayed at his place till 3am that night. The following night, I met Hailey and stayed till midnight. Thursday came around and Brett asked “I have a wild idea...why don’t you and River stay the night tonight?” 

And I never left. 

We dropped the L Bomb five days into our relationship. I “officially” moved into the townhouse, which became ours, in March. I became a step-mom real fast. I started to ski, we grew our two dogs to a pack of three, we traveled to Canada more times than I can count, I added more plants to our home, we each suffered injuries and life started to hit us hard and throwing every potential obstacle our way.  And yet, we navigated it all successfully - growing into better, more confident and mentally healthy adults. (or so we think!)

We knew when we first met that our lives were completely changed. We were certain (and still are) that we were together in past lives. Meeting Brett felt like I was finally coming home. We knew this was unique and rare and so fucking special. The best phrase we both came up with about us was “it just is.”

And we were right. Three real estate transactions and a global pandemic with a couple career changes later, here we are. Owning a home together, raising our daughter, wrangling dogs and charging hard on mountains. We filled all the legal documents, I changed my last name (finally!!!) and all that’s left now is to say our vows in front of a few close friends, deep in the Central Oregon Cascades. 

We never do a damn thing by the book. But you know, our relationship, our intense and deep connection, our crazy, extreme life...it works for us. And I highly doubt doing things “by the book” or following the “proper” protocol would never work for us anyway. 

So we live our own wild life, by our own rules. We continue to fall in love every day, grow closer to one another, seek bigger mountains to climb and figure out what our next adventure will be. 

Our story is crazy. It’s not your ordinary boy meets girl tale. But it works really fucking well for us. This is who we are, this Brett and April Show. And we love it. It’s wild.

But...it just is. And it always will be.