We met through mutual friends while planning our spring break trip senior year of college. Driving to Fort Meyers and back really lets you get to know someone. We hung out a bit that summer, taking a 8 hour round trip drive to St. Paul together to visit our friend Matt. Even though we spent so much time in the car going to Florida, Ericka was slightly worried it would be an awkward 8 hour drive. However, once we ended up talking the entire ride, Ericka figured she had found a dear dear friend. Fast forward to October, because Kyle didn't know how to go about asking Ericka out after dating one of her roommates, Kyle's mom did some intervening at a harvest party out at the farm. Sitting by the large bonfire, Ericka's chair kept ending up slightly closer to Kyle's every time she got up. Given this was the first time that Ericka met Kyle's family, she wasn't exactly sure what to think. The night was heavily discussed the next day with some friends. Finally later that week, at one of Kyle and our friend Kelly's Doctor Who nights, Kelly finally told him to just ask her out already." Follow that up by a phone call from Matt saying pretty much the same thing, Kyle finally asked Ericka out for a "right, proper date." When we say "right, proper date" it's because we went to a volleyball game the week before that kinda was/wasn't a date. Going to sports became a real recurring theme once we were dating, particularly badger games. The first date featured a walk, some dinner, a movie and a pinch of contrition. And then we were dating; it was nice. Then Kyle decided to go to grad school in Minnesota which made seeing each other a bit more of a challenge, but that worked out too. We saw each other every few weeks and Skype is just wonderful thing. We're very excited to be in the same city now.

Originally it was planned for the day before, but traffic and weather prevented Kyle from picking up Ericka in the Northwoods at a reasonable time, after campaigning for her boss. We went to a wonderful party hosted by Andy and Sam (and questions were asked about a proposal). The next day we went to Stillwater, MN to pick apples in the snow at a winery we were at for our anniversary the year before. We followed this by hiking around a secluded lake recommended to us by our "wine tasting host" the year before to see the fall colors. Kyle got down on one knee, after putting some gloves down because it was really muddy, on the peninsula in the lake that we found a year earlier and asked the question. A photo of the spot hangs in our apartment.