Blake and I didn't take the easiest route to end up together. We met in college and became very good friends. He loves telling everyone I was the best wing woman, but it wasn't a hard sell with such a smart, kind and handsome man. He moved to Kansas City, Australia and California, while I moved to Milwaukee, England and then Michigan. We always kept in contact throughout the 13 years we were friends. I even received a phone call while he was in Australia asking if I would marry his best friend Jed, so he could get a green card and move to America with Blake. Blake was scrolling through his facebook friends and said "If I could marry anyone it would be Katie Hoye." So being the good friend that I am, I agreed (I mean who can resist an Australian accent?) Fast forward to the 2019 Iowa bowl game which was in Tampa. I called Blake to ask him if he was going, he said that he was not, but that he was going to Cuba with some friends and that I should join. Mind you this is 3 days prior to him going, and of course I said yes. I was so excited! You know who was not excited? My father. He said "Let me get this straight, you are flying to Cuba to meet a bunch of frat boys by yourself? I'll pay you double what you paid for your ticket DON'T DO IT!" Meanwhile Blake was in Iowa with his family where he had been watching Christmas movies with his mom. She was so excited too, It was like a real life hallmark movie! (Spoiler alert, Jill was right.) So this brings us to Cuba where I showed up with only an address on a piece of paper to show the cab driver. When I got to the address Blake was nowhere to be found. Cell phones don't work there, and I started to think my dad was right. I was crazy for going to a third world country on my own to meet a boy. But then he appeared with seven stray dogs following him and I had to laugh. We laughed a lot that trip and that is where we fell in love. What is it that they say? I guess the rest is history.