Like all good millennial couples, Jack and Courtney met on a dating app. At the time, Courtney was finished up her Americorps term in Lawrence and Jack was living in KC. After talking on Hinge for a few weeks, and promising we were not actually murderers we decided to meet up for a date in Kansas City. We got dinner at Cupinis and then went to Up Down where Courtney destroyed Jack at giant Jenga and Skee-Ball, but fortunately he was a gracious loser. We hit it off instantly and agreed to see each other again. After a few months of dating, Courtney moved to KC and we've been here ever since!

Courtney actually was not expecting to get engaged the day we went on that fateful hike at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. You might say, how? You were going on a hike to see bison in a national park unit?? Isn't that your favorite animal in a place that you two love to travel to? Well, we were going on vacation to Colorado to a different national park unit in a few weeks and I was expecting it to happen there, so there were no suspicions. After setting out on our hike to the prairie overlook, where Jack was planning to propose, we quickly realized that would not be happening as the bison herd was extremely close to the pasture gate. Courtney made a comment about being bummed about not getting to do the whole hike to the couple passing us, who proceeded to walk within feet of a baby bison and it's mother instead of thinking about safety at all (if you don't understand bison safety, please text Courtney). While watching the couple make maybe one of the last decisions of their life, we were freaking out, and as it turns out Jack was also worried that watching people get gored was going to put a real damper on the engagement. After we settled down and were admiring the bison from far away Jack mentioned that not making it to the overlook was a bummer because there was something he wanted to ask and then pulled out the ring!! Courtney of course said YES and after enjoying the moment for a bit, we left to drive into town to get lunch and call people with the news. It was a surreal and amazing day!