happily ever after starts here

It all started the summer after we graduated high school, Sunny from Twin Valley and me from Fertile-Beltrami. He was playing baseball with my good friend Michael Stuhaug, who turned out to be a pretty great wingman. Michael set us up and even tagged along on our very first hangout: a casual game of driveway basketball. From that day on, we just clicked. When fall came, we headed off to our separate college journeys . Sunny to Mayville to play baseball, and me to Crookston to play volleyball at UMN Crookston. We were committed to making long-distance work, planning frequent visits and cheering each other on from afar. But it didn’t take long for Sunny to realize he wanted to be closer. Just two days before classes started, he connected with Crookston’s admissions team and the baseball coach and somehow, everything fell perfectly into place. Looking back, I’m so thankful we got to spend our college years together on the same campus. After graduation, Sunny began law school at UND. We moved into an apartment in Grand Forks together, where I commuted back to Crookston for work while he studied. Three years later, he graduated and we bought a house together in Ada, MN. Then, just a week before our six-year anniversary, we went up to his family cabin on Lake Superior, one of our favorite places. That morning, we took our usual beach walk, hunting for agates and sea glass like we always do. As we reached the end of the beach and turned to head back, Sunny paused and said, “Wait, you missed one.” (Which didn’t surprise me because agates are harder to find than you’d think!) But when I turned around, he was down on one knee, holding a ring box and asking me to spend forever with him. It was the easiest "yes" of my life.