"The Lucky Ones"

September 2013: Bobby is an Honor Guard for Patrick AFB traveling all over FL and having little time to search around for a “love of my life". Intro to the modern dating app… Tinder. Amanda, had the suggestion from some of her friends to download the app as a joke to see who/what was on there. She had her search radius to a sparse 10 miles. Attending her now Alma Mater UCF (Go Knights!) she was not really searching outside of that range. In a rare chance moment, I was sent to Sanford for a detail on duty and we matched! 10 miles of chance venn diagram overlapping that could have only occurred for a mere hour or so. Lucky Stars aligned. Our first date, Oct. 2013: I nervously sat down at a local cafe with her, not knowing what to expect. I nervously braced as I was subjected to machine burst levels of questions by Amanda on anything she could find out about me. We were hopelessly hooked from the start, we spent the entire night enamored with each other. The first two years were a blur of romantics, failed scavenger hunts, and writing original love songs for Amanda (I don’t sing. It was horrible ha!) We weren't just lucky all the time though, spring forward in time to 2015: I got orders to go overseas. I was devastated. It’s a part of the deal of signing up to serve in the military but I somehow never thought I'd get picked, perhaps naivety on my part. Late July we had to part for a better part of 8 months until January 2016. It was hard but the lucky trait really pulled through for us, and I arrived safely back home in January to my love. From there, 2016 started our first international adventure where we spent 2 weeks in Ireland, Scotland & England. A time we will never forget! Having a fresh Guinness, seeing historical landmarks and relaxing in the Scottish countryside were all a part of a trip of a lifetime that started our ongoing love for traveling to new places. In 2017 it became a year that will forever change our lives as we both made the compassionate choice to become vegan! Amanda made her decision on Earth Day no less, while I decided to make the conscious choice to leave animals off my plate later that year. Since those days we’ve learned a lot about how to still enjoy our favorite foods but without the cruelty. We never dreamed we’d become super hot vegans. But here we are…kale’in it. A year later, Amanda got her dream job, on her birthday no less! At PETA, I’ve seen an absolute bad a$$ woman travel to 42 states where she took the lead on many historic animal rights demonstrations and continues to do so to this day. From there, we spent a few more years in Orlando before landing down in Lake Worth, FL with our best friends/roommates Josh & Wade! We’ve traveled to grand places in that time, including the PNW, Colorado Rockies, Banff National Park and of course the beautiful Asheville, North Carolina where we have spent two of our anniversaries. We love the Blue Ridge Mountains, it holds a very dear place in our hearts and we’re thinking of everyone affected by Hurricane Helene. We look forward to celebrating our wedding day with our dearest and closest friends and family in Land O’ Lakes, FL!