When Kendra’s town pool shut down, she reluctantly had to look one town over for a new lifeguarding job. What started as a disappointment over Cranbury Swim Club shutting down ended up being the best thing that could’ve happened to her, because it led her to West Windsor Water Works. We met at 17 in the summer of 2014, but it was two summers later when our love story really began. After many deep talks at guard station 3 behind the mushroom at the baby pool, intense games of capture the flag with the other guards, teaching swim lessons side by side, and trips to Bagel Hole before work, we finally went on our first date. That date accidentally lasted 10 hours and included a trip to Moe’s, a movie, a fire call, and hours and hours of talking and getting to know each other. After that first date, we knew we’d found something special. That first summer was packed with Chinese takeout and home-cooked meals, waterfall hikes and competitive bowling, canoeing and mountain biking. If you know us, you know we never pass up a spontaneous adventure, and that summer was just the beginning. Before we knew it, the summer was over, and we were starting our years of long distance.

During our first three years together, Kendra was at Loyola University Maryland while Anthony stayed in New Jersey pursuing his passion and going to school. Our relationship was built on weekend visits, holiday breaks, summers at home, and a whole lot of FaceTime. We fit in everything we possibly could. In the summers, we kept working at Water Works together as lifeguards, then head guards, and eventually managers, moving up the ranks side by side. When our days off lined up, we took full advantage with beach trips, annual county fair visits, Princeton dates, Six Flags adventures, and island camping. Every fall break we visited Terhune Orchard, completed the corn maze, and carved a pumpkin (RIP Herman I, Herman II, and Herman III). In the winters, we always made time for sledding, gingerbread houses, and trips to Rockefeller Center. During the rest of the year, we made distance work with visits whenever we could. When Anthony visited Baltimore, we loved exploring the city together, whether that meant peddling duck boats in the Inner Harbor, visiting the aquarium, or going out with friends. One especially memorable visit was when Anthony traveled farther than ever before to see Kendra while she was studying abroad in Denmark. We crossed four countries off our list together: Oktoberfest in Germany, pizza in Rome, gelato in Venice, a boat ride to Sweden, and biking around Copenhagen. Through those years, we celebrated milestones from afar, met halfway in Delaware for dinners on special occasions, and leaned on trivia crack tournaments, Facebook pokes, and FaceTime dates.

As Kendra graduated and moved to Baltimore to teach, Anthony officially began his career as a firefighter and moved to Memphis. Long distance now meant plane rides and different time zones. Kendra loved visiting Memphis to see the life Anthony was building. We spent time on Beale Street listening to live music, visited the Bass Pro Pyramid, watched the Peabody ducks, explored the Memphis Zoo, ate plenty of BBQ, and looked for buffalo in the park. Anthony would visit Baltimore for nights on the rooftop, Ms. Shirley’s brunches, and walks to Bmore Licks. When Covid hit, it marked the longest we would spend apart, four months, with Kendra teaching 4th grade virtually and Anthony continuing his work in Memphis. Eventually, we each drove 10 hours to meet in the middle at our first national park: the Great Smoky Mountains. We camped, hiked to Mt. LeConte, made grilled cheese over the fire, saw our first bears together, biked, swam, and hammocked, unknowingly starting a tradition that would shape the rest of our relationship.

After two years in Memphis, Anthony joined the DC Fire Department and moved to Alexandria. With the miles between us finally shrinking, we spent that year driving just an hour up and down I-95 to see each other while Kendra finished her third year of teaching in Baltimore. During that time, we fell in love with Old Town Alexandria and ultimately decided to move there together when Kendra was hired to teach in Fairfax County.

Over the last three years, we’ve loved building our life here and fully exploring our home. We cook dinner together every night, take long walks by the Potomac, try new museums in DC, and escape to Shenandoah whenever we can. We spend summers at outdoor movies and Nats games, enjoy Christmas shows in the city in the winter and cherry blossom walks in the spring. Our love for travel and national parks has only grown. Since that first Smokies trip, we’ve visited 20 more parks across the U.S. and beyond. We’ve been to national parks in Florida, Utah, Maine, Colorado, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, South Carolina, Canada, and even Iceland. And on April 14, 2025, at sunrise in Haleakalā National Park in Hawaii, Anthony proposed during the most beautiful sunrise of our lives.

We’ve spent almost ten years growing up, growing individually, and growing together, through miles and milestones, every kind of adventure, and so much laughter. Now, in year ten, we can’t wait to get married surrounded by the people who mean the most to us and who have been such an important part of our relationship and our journey. We’re ending a decade together with the start of forever.