While not typically amongst the top holidays, Memorial Day now holds a special place in our hearts. May 27th, 2024, we each got invited to a game of beach volleyball. Emily's dear friend, Lane emphatically said yes to going & the two drove over to join a game full of strangers, albeit one. Despite Emily's unique & inspiring kicking technique for the game, Brady fell madly in love... well, not quite. He was still eye rolling at the fact that this cutsie blonde was getting 2nd serves. From there, volleyball merged into a spontaneous pool day which flowed into dinner, we all just kept hangin out! Emily noticed the handsome red-headed-mustache-mullet man during a game of MarcoPolo where he sat in the corner to avoid getting caught. Concerned he felt out of the group, she befriended him. Over dinner, Brady became fascinated by this cutie with the hilarious jokes across the table from him. After dinner, Emily invited the group to a house cookout the next weekend. 'Twas after this, Brady used his incredible charm to convince her to go on a date. Note: He waited 10 minutes after leaving her house to call & ask her out. This initiative was unmatched to anything she had witnessed before! On a pre-date run, Emily directly asked, "Whatchu doin?" She knew Brady was leaving Memphis for Minneapolis in a mere 6 weeks! In short, Brady's response convinced Emily to take a chance & go to breakfast with him. This rolled into lunch which blended into errands & melted into dinner & a show, complete with a 5am airport run the next day. Both could tell there was something very special there. The next few weeks were spent together as much as possible. However, Emily knew he was onto grad school where many pretty, smart, mildly funny girls would be & was skeptical about long distance. But Brady had fallen hard and if you know Brady once he puts his mind to something - he follows through 100%. In his words, "I had to use my cunning charm to convince her otherwise. When she finally did agree to give it a shot, I was so excited my head exploded & I had to get a new one." Weird. Anyways. Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things either of them had done & Brady did everything to delay leaving. Brady returned back to Minnesota, his home state, to start med school while Emily continued her nursing career in Memphis. Over our 5 months long distance we made trips to meet the parents in South Carolina & Minnesota, ran the St. Jude race in Memphis, met mid way in St. Louis with a coinciding wedding, White Coat ceremony, MN State Fair, the whole deal. What an exciting & trying time for the relationship. Emily was navigating a difficult workplace, while Brady was trying to keep his head above water in school. 7 trips, dozens of letters, & 100+ FaceTime calls later, Emily decided to take a leap of faith & move up to Minneapolis to be with her boyfriend of <6 months. In December Emily loaded all of her belongings into an '06 Chevy Cobalt & Uhaul trailer, and, with the aide of her lovely parents drove a chaotic 16+hours through a snowstorm to Minnesota. After moving in, the two decided to max out the 2 week break with a Europe trip to connect with Emily's family & home in Ireland. A whirlwind trip through Iceland, Paris, & Dublin (& for Emily, Nairobi, Kenya) was an adventurous end to 2024/beginning of 2025. Year 1 we decided to really push our relationship to its limits. In 2025, after international travel, we added: new job & city for Emily, 2 moves in MN, Genevieve's death (Emily's beloved rabbit), more domestic travel, night shift, an injured back, etc). We grew magnanimously. Through it all God has been so good at providing a community to surround us. After months of prayer, Brady found a mentor. Our C Group has been fantastic support. Emily knew 1 person in MN other than Brady: Anna Madsen. Her & her husband have graciously walked alongside us in premarital counseling. God is good & Zola has a word limit so... We hope to celebrate with you soon!!