Colin: At the last minute I decided to fly to California on Dec. 10, 2017 as a vacation after successfully defending my Ph.D. preliminary examinations. The excuse was Madeleine Double's 1st birthday part. While staying with the Wedels, they set up an online dating profile for me. The next morning I second-guessed that idea & went to delete the app. When I logged in to delete it, I saw a message from a girl named Anna who was a Ph.D. candidate, loved sports, & had similar world views. After exchanging messages and numbers, we set up our first date via Skype on Dec. 19. It went well, but I was headed to Asia in a few days & I wasn't sure if she would still be interested in me when I got back. Anna: While Colin was lucky enough to go "one and done" on dating apps, I spent a lot more time online. When people asked if I really thought I'd find my husband online I would shrug & say that maybe the odds were one in a hundred, and that after a hundred first dates I'd quit. In Dec. 2017, I reached my 100th first date from online. I had been around the block enough times to know that when a guy leaves the country for two weeks he's going to ghost you. So I tried not to get my hopes up. But when Colin got back we had another long Skype date. Over the next few months we spent hours on the phone. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop & more than once thought he must be a stalker to be this in sync with me. "You had a Sheltie growing up? Me too!" "Your favorite book in second grade was Tacky the Penguin? My library in Japan had that book! I loved it!" When we agreed to watch tennis together for our first in-person date (my 101st date from online), my brother caught me prancing around the kitchen singing gleefully, "I think he likes me!" Colin: Our first in-person date was at a tennis tournament in Indian Wells. We had a blast watching tennis together. On our way back we realized we liked each other and decided to give long-distance dating a shot.

Dating Long Distance... Colin: From March-December 2018 we spend literally hundreds of hours on the phone. We agree that it forced us to actually talk...a lot. This helped us talk in more depth about things that perhaps would have been put on the backburner if we were in the same city. I like flying a lot, so I would come to California every-other weekend during the spring (I earned A-List on Southwest as a result!) while Anna would occasionally come up to visit in Spokane. A typical week for me would be: Wednesday: teach at WSU & Whitworth Thursday: teach at Whitworth Friday: teach at WSU then fly out at 5 p.m. to CA Saturday-Tuesday: visit Anna in CA It was tiring, but worth it! The proposal... Colin: In early December, I gave Anna's parents a scrapbook that I made Anna for Christmas highlighting our year-plus together. On Christmas Eve, 2018, I flew from Salt Lake City to San Jose, where Anna was spending Christmas with her parents and brother, Daniel. As Anna read through the scrapbook with her family (thanks for Skyping in Andrew, Emily, & Teo!), it (very) slowly dawned on her that this scrapbook was more than just a fun gift. The last page included tickets to her favorite NBA team, the Golden State Warriors vs. LeBron and the L.A. Lakers on Christmas Day in Oakland. Attached was a note that asked, "Who should you go with? Check the front door." There I was with a ring. After many happy tears, hugs, and statements of disbelief that I was standing there at her place when I was supposed to be in Utah, she said yes!