Jacob and I first laid eyes on each other at staff orientation for the wildlife camps where we were both working for the summer. Between his height, outgoing personality, and neon green shirt, Jacob was hard to miss, and my tie-dye-wearing self soon found out we would both be working at Hawk Camp together. Working together at camp meant we spent the summer enjoying the outdoors, doing activities that ranged from orienteering and archery to survival techniques and shelter building. We became close friends with a bunch of the staff, and the group of us spent a lot of time together even outside of camp. Many s'mores, laughs, and ridiculous stories later, summer finally came to an end, but our group of camp friends continued to hang out, so Jacob and I continued to see each other. Eventually, just the two of us started hanging out together (Jacob was able to come up with a lot of excuses to come back from Ames, and he would usually stop by and visit me in Iowa City), which eventually transitioned to dating. We've continued to hang out and go on adventures ever since!

I had known for a while that I wanted to propose on RAGBRAI. When I saw the route release for 2018, I knew it was the year to do it. The route went through Ledges State Park, and with how often we are outside, I knew it would be a great place to visit for years to come. As the date came closer, I grew more and more nervous - not because of proposing, though; I have always been comfortable around Bailey. I was nervous because of the amount of flooding Ledges State Park was experiencing. Because of the flooding, RAGBRAI ended up being rerouted around the Park, which meant I had to come up with another plan. I recruited Quinn to help me keep an eye out for "the spot." Eventually, I decided to just wait for the next state park, which happened to be on the last day of RAGBRAI. I spent the rest of the week nervously checking on the ring that was tucked away in my wallet while biking across the state. At one point, Bailey even held onto my wallet while I went down a slip-n-slide! Bailey's mom and dad were both able to ride the last day of RAGBRAI, and by the time we made it to Wildcat Den State Park our group of friends and family had grown to about fifteen people. Wildcat Den State Park has a beautiful old mill and bridge that we stopped to explore, and I knew this was my chance. Everyone in our group was trying to give us space but still see what was happening, so we ended up playing a game of cat and mouse for what felt like half an hour before Bailey and I ended up alone on the bridge. When I got down on one knee and asked Bailey to marry me, the response I got was "wait... are you serious?" She was too focused on trying to read my expression, so I had to put the ring nearly in her face before she saw it and finally said yes!