We both ended up in Boston for work—me at MIT working in cybersecurity and Dennis at Boston Children’s Hospital doing plastic surgery research. I grew up in FL and Dennis is from IL, so Boston was a new adventure for both of us. Volleyball brought us together in a way neither of us expected. I had played through high school and college and loved the sport, while Dennis joined a beginners’ league to meet new people. A mutual friend convinced me to join their team, promising it was more competitive—it wasn’t. But between the fun atmosphere, my love of the game, and Dennis’s sense of humor, I stuck around anyway. Over time, those Wednesday nights turned into something more, and, well, here we are! - H

In our first year of dating, I introduced Heather to my favorite pastime: backpacking. We drove up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire, parked in Crawford Notch, and hiked up over Mt. Pierce to a campsite I had stayed at before. After hiking down in the pitch black coming back from watching the sunset, we spent the evening drinking whiskey under the stars, eating our go-to trail snack ACJs (apples, cheese, and jerky, all at once), and attempting to improve the card game "Golf." We broke it. The final round was a hilarious two-hour disaster with rules so confusing even we didn’t know what was happening. It was chaos and neither of us remembers who won, but we couldn’t stop laughing. - Dennis

We’ve been fortunate to take a few really cool trips together, but our unanimous favorite is our trip to Alaska in 2021. We saw all kinds of amazing animals—bears, moose, whales, and puffins; we slept in beautiful places (mostly in our tent and really wherever we could find a spot that night); and we had unforgettable experiences: whitewater rafting in Matanuska, kayaking to the Aialik glacier (and bumping into chunks of ice along the way), hiking on glaciers, and flying in a tiny prop plane to land on one in Denali National Park. One glacier hike was so steep coming down we ended up just glissading ("butt sliding") in the snow the entire way down, laughing while freezing. And, of course, we can't forget the fireweed ice cream in Talkeetna, which was top tier. Overall, an unforgettable, spontaneous adventure. - H + Dennis