It's about time!

Jesse- "Simply put, we met at Homestead High School. We both were on the track team as throwers and we met in the discus ring. Kyle was a Senior and I was a Sophomore. After I had thrown, Kyle was nice enough to hand the discus back to me. How nice of him right!? Yeah, not really the cutest story." Kyle- "If Jesse doesn't think that's cute, she's really not gonna like this one...as the end of track season and graduation approached, yearbooks were distributed. I did not give yearbook signatures much thought at that point, so I was surprised when one day at track practice, Jesse asked me to sign hers! She said she did not have it with her, but would meet me during lunch the next day to get my signature. The thing was, I always ate lunch in Coach Wolf's classroom watching ESPN, so I was never in the actual lunchroom. Despite a brief protest, Jesse agreed and showed up at the classroom during lunch the next day. Although she was an embarrassed, 15 year old Sophomore, Jesse walked into a room with a bunch of Senior football players and a teacher she never met and got my signature! Now that's commitment! That was, however, the last time we spoke for several months..."

Jesse- "Kyle had driven home from Michigan Tech for our First Date. We went for a romantic dinner at Mama Mia's as I had never been there. After dinner, I thought he would just take me home; however, he had other plans in store. We wound up at his parents house. Yes, I freaked out but he told me all would be fine. His parents were (still are) great. The only thing was, they wanted to get to know me right away. I can't even remember the number of questions they asked. Later, we carved pumpkins and this is the night that Kyle had asked me to officially be his girlfriend." Kyle: "For those of you who have been privileged enough to hear this story in person, it ALWAYS leads to a spirited debate! 'Make me meet your parents on our first date, how could you?' Well, let me tell you, I thought pumpkin carving was a fantastic and unique date, and never ONCE thought about the whole "meeting the parents" thing. However, as much grief as Jesse gives me about that night, she tends to leave out the fact that I met HER parents the very next night. Our second date involved carving pumpkins with Brandon and Sophia, her younger siblings, while her mom and step-dad attended a dinner and a show. While the whole story is too long to get into here, I also ended up meeting her dad that night, who stopped over while we were watching a movie with the kids. It was quite the mutual surprise, we were not expecting him to stop over, and he didn't know Jesse was talking to a college guy, let alone dating one!"

Jesse- "Quite a funny story. Kyle and I were talking on the phone and one night he had said 'okay I have to get going. Love you. Bye' and hung up. I didn't really think to much of it, but it sure made me smile." Kyle- "For the record, I believe Jesse was the first one to articulate 'I love you.' That is a very important choice of words, because it was a typed 'I (heart emoji) you.' And because I know Jesse will doubt me, I have proof...during a discussion on this very topic over a year ago, I went back in our conversation and screenshotted this very moment...on October 13th 2011. For those keeping score at home, you are correct, that was before we even started dating :P But yes, Jesse is accurate, the first time the words 'I love you' were spoken, it was by mistake. I had just gotten off the phone with my mother before I called Jesse. While we were on the phone, two friends came into the room wanting to run down to the dorm cafe before it closed. Because the previous conversation had also ended with a quick 'ok, love you, bye', my brain went on auto-pilot and ended this conversation the same way.... 'ok, love you, bye.' What Jesse doesn't know is there was a stunned silence in my dorm room as I hung up the phone, broken only by my roommate's statement, 'dude, did you just say I love you?'"

Jesse- "Yikes! Crazy to think we have been together for 8 years. Time has surely flown. We started our relationship as long distance and carried on into our college years. I attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Kyle went to Michigan Technological University. It never was easy. We've lived in different states for most of our time together (Wisconsin, Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida) and even in different countries (Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Thailand). What can I say? I have the travel bug and I LOVE Disney.... anyways we never gave up on each other. Through our years, we've been able to travel together to México and Thailand, and we've even been able to work at a wildlife refuge in Costa Rica. Adventure is out there... and mine has been with Kyle!" Kyle- "I really do not have much to add here...other than that I feel blessed that Jesse pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged us to take our first trip together (Costa Rica). All through high school and college I never considered taking time off afterwards to travel, I would not have been comfortable, and it really wasn't my thing. In Costa Rica, however, I had so much fun that I wished we could have stayed on the road that whole summer! She infected me with her travel bug; we will never stop travelling, and there is no one on Earth I would rather share those experiences with."

Jesse- "I could go on and on about the surprise trip Kyle took me on, but that would be too long. Ain't nobody got time for that. Anyways, on the last day of our [Arizona] trip, Kyle and I went on a hike. He said we had dinner reservations that night and that we would need to dress nicely. We ended up going to Cathedral Rock to see the sunset. As sunset fell, Kyle got down on one knee. Yes, I cried and it couldn't have been more perfect." Kyle- "I'm glad Jesse thinks the proposal was perfect, she sure gave me enough time to plan it :P hahaha :P Ok, ok back to the story...I think I had almost as much fun planning the trip as I did on it! I started giving the proposal plan serious thought in January 2018. I toyed with a bunch of different scenarios, some involving the beach, some the mountains, some with friends, some alone, before finally settling on Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona. I also decided that I wanted to keep the details of the trip and proposal a secret (although how many ways could a secret trip after 7.5 years of dating really end?). Jim and Linda (my aunt and uncle) knew we were coming to Arizona (but not our full itinerary), Jesse's mom only knew the dates, and my parents figured out the final destination (but not for sure what would happen, because I kept the ring a secret too). At Christmas, after an arduous treasure hunt, Jesse found out that we would be getting on a plane in 3 months, but had no idea where we were going! Giving her hints, some fake and some true, made it all that much more fun. Despite all that planning and preparation, I am still not sure what I actually said when I was down on one knee, but I must have gotten my point across, because I vividly remember the response, 'yes'!