Picture it; nine months into quarantine... Seattle had been locked down so there was no hope in “meeting someone at a bar, “bumping into someone at the grocery store”, or “being introduced by a mutual friend”. So, like many did, we both made a Tinder dating profile. Amy was strategic and so was Jacob, adding fun pictures like Amy hiking with Alki and Jacob riding a motorcycle- easy to spark interest but Amy was smart, she added a final line… all the way at the bottom of her profile; “I’m a sucker for cheesy pick-up lines” … In comes Jacob with a classic “Are you a magnet, because I’m feeling a connection” … he quickly added that “I was afraid you Havarti heard that one”. For those that don’t know cheese, Havarti is a German cheese… Long story short Jacob continued with responses that involved cheese… Amy couldn’t stop laughing so she agreed to a date. The rest is history and to this day, Jacob still melts Amy with cheesy lines.

After the match we gave this dating thing a shot, literally. On our first date we decided to go to the Redwood Driving Range and get to know each other over hitting a bucket of golf balls. Jacob came in with a ton of confidence from years of playing golf. Amy on the other hand strolled up with way more confidence from her few times swinging a club and knowing that she is a trick shot pro. We picked the first booth right as you walked out to the packed range so everyone in ear shot could hear our laughter as the date went on, especially when Amy decided to perform some of her golf “trick shots”. It felt as though we went through a bucket of balls in the blink of an eye. We hit it off from the moment we said hi, from Amy’s silly personally that can make any situation into a side-splitting comedy routine to Jacob’s ability to keep up with Amy’s jokes with the golden improve statement of “yes and”. With the minute hand on the clock moving faster than we have ever remembered we had to move onto the next part of this date and make it to our dinner reservations. We had a 5:30pm dinner reservation at Village Wines, one of Amy’s favorite restaurants in Woodinville. Being that this date was in February during Covid times we had a 90-minute time limit at our table outside. We got seated out by a fire and continued kindling our own spark. The waiter came by and took our drink orders and we asked for more time to look at the menu to see what piqued our interest in the ways of food. We quickly pivoted from studying the menu to talking about our interests and life stories which then made us lose track of ordering food. With the initial plans of getting food quickly dwindling away from the endless stories and laughs that were being had by that propane fueled fire, we had a predicament. End our date with empty stomachs or start trying to figure out a place that has food and is within a reasonable distance. Amy jumped on the case like a modern-day Nancy Drew, finding a place that had “Pizza with wet cheese”. Jacob never heard of Burrata cheese aka Wet Cheese, so we settled our tab and ventured over to Vivi’s to indulge in the wet cheese pizza. Moving the conversation down the street to the cute Italian restaurant we walked in and instantly got a spot to sit. Thankfully we knew exactly what we wanted to order, or we would have been in the same situation as we were in at Village Wine for the fact, we never broke conversation. Through out this four hour date we laughed as though we were never going to be able to catch our breath. Yet the moment that took both our breath away was at the end of the night when we both shared our last first kiss with each other. I know it sounds cheesy but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

For my 30th birthday Jacob planned a whole special weekend. It was a surprise so leading up to the day I thought nothing more than a birthday trip until we got in the car and took the exit for Anacortes… Anacortes has a ferry to Friday Harbor on the San Juan Islands. This city holds a special place in our hearts. This is where we took our first trip as a couple. When we arrived, Jacob took me to the same hotel we stayed at on our first trip, as well as the same brewery, and the same trail to the lighthouse except this walk would be a little different than the first. When we arrived at the trail Jacob was “worried it may rain” so he grabbed his jacket from the back seat. As we walked, Jacob said he wanted to take a picture of me at the same rock where I took a picture from our previous trip. Once we found the rock, I took in the amazing views but as I turned around… Jacob was down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It was perfect. We continued to celebrate both my birthday and our engagement on the trip. It is one I will forever remember!