We met on Bumble in May of 2016. I was in the habit of letting my friends at work swipe through my dating apps, so it's hard to say whether or not it was me who found Kyle. At any rate, we hit it off. Our first date was on Memorial Day. We went out for sushi at Nara and then watched the season premiere of Game of Thrones. The date went well overall, but I don't think either of us walked away thinking this was "it." The next night Kyle offered to cook me dinner at my apartment. I was working to meet a deadline and said I wouldn't be good company, but Kyle was not deterred. Anyone who has seen Kyle in the kitchen knows he goes all-out. He made chicken enchiladas for me and Beau, then sat quietly reading while I worked. Looking back, this makes me smile. At the time, however, I found it a bit odd. I left for Captiva that Friday and came home Wednesday. We talked on the phone and texted the whole time. By that Sunday, we'd been on five dates. Two weeks later, it was me who asked to be his girlfriend. What can I say? He is very charming :) He hasn't missed a trip to Captiva since.

My first look at Jenni was through a profile picture on a dating app. She had sunglasses and a scarf, and was out in desert somewhere. I saw in her profile that she liked SCUBA, water skiing, snow skiing... I was intrigued, so I swiped right. We started talking and found that we had a lot in common, especially in what we liked to do in our free time. We set up a date and I picked her up for sushi at Nara. She had a Tuna Poke bowl, I had some eel rolls, and we both had a really good time. She invited me to come watch Game of Thrones, which of course, really set the mood. It wasn’t a particularly exciting episode, but I may have needed to watch it again later. Jenni was about to leave town for a week, for her annual family trip Captiva, so the night before she left I brought over a tray of homemade enchiladas verde, for her and her roommate. Beau, was initially very skeptical of me, but after a few enchiladas, I think I won him over. Jenni clearly thought I was crazy, at this point. Seriously, who brings enchiladas on a second date? My charm and cooking were enough for her to keep talking to me though. To really drive home what a keeper I was, I made an apple tart from random ingredients they had in their kitchen. It honestly wasn't very good, but it looked good enough to instagram, so there was that. We talked and texted while she was out of town, and Jenni came to the startling realization that she was madly in love with me. She kept that to herself for a while longer, but we continued to date, watch GoT, and revel in each other’s company. Now here we are, just a short time away from tying the knot. Just goes to show, guys should really learn to cook. ;)

In the couple of years since we met, we've lived a lot of life together. We changed our diet and picked up our most recent hobby, dancing! I switched jobs and Kyle started his MBA. We sold Kyle's old house bought another, which together we have turned into a home with two dogs and unlimited renovation projects to keep us busy. We've cooked many wonderful meals together and love throwing parties, especially with Beau. We always make time to go to the movies and especially enjoy sci-fi and fantasy. My favorite Sunday afternoons are spent outside with the dogs or cuddled up on the couch. We've navigated some tough waters together. Kyle supported me through the loss of my sweet grandpa, and every day his love reminds me of the love between my grandparents. Kyle's mom has been fighting cancer since last November, and while Hilary has had to do all the heavy lifting, being present and supportive to Kyle has made me more mindful and caring in our relationship. Death and illness are never things you want to go through, but after these experiences with Kyle, I know we can handle it. And in all of this, we have also been lucky enough to travel... a lot! We've skied in Washington, spent weekends in Orlando and Las Vegas, and hit the beach in Captiva, Hawaii, and the Cayman Islands. We've seen Bruno Mars in Chicago and hopped a fence with varying degrees of success. We've spent quality time at the lake house, and Kyle has been frustratingly good at everything I have taught him. We've wandered the Public Market in Seattle, eaten at my favorite restaurant in St. Louis, and seen every exhibit at the Henry Doorly Zoo. We are so looking forward to what the next chapter will bring!

I had an idea to start with, which is that I wanted Jenni to be surprised. That sounds pretty simple in concept, but Jenni is hard to plan around. We spend a lot of time together, we live together, and generally we talk about everything. Including getting married and the future and all those things that couples these days don't talk about. We had discussed things, deciding, yeah, let's totally get married, and I would just ask her during an upcoming family vacation. That let us involve her family, which we thought would be fun. So that's when I started planning what would actually happen. I had a ring, one that includes diamonds from Jenni's side of the family, and a center diamond from my ma. I also had a great opportunity: Christmas with the Parks. I had a great present for Jenni, a Tiffany setting sapphire necklace. She knew about it, because she's a nosy thing and she saw the box. So, I made a huge point of double, triple, quadruple wrapping her necklace, in front of her. She lamented, "Nooo, now I'm going to have to pretend to be surprised opening every box." What she didn't know was that I had actually taken the necklace out and put it aside. The necklace was going to be my distraction. Cut to the Park residence, Christmas Eve's Eve. Jenni had to run out to the car to grab some bags, and I explained what I was going to do. I enlisted Claire (Jenni's Sister) to act as my diversion. While Jenni was opening her empty boxes, Claire would sneak up behind her with the necklace. When Jenni turned around to open the necklace, I'd take a knee behind her. Everything actually went according to plan, Jenni was surprised, and we had a pretty phenomenal Christmas. Not only did she get a pretty cool bike, a fancy necklace, and a beautiful ring; She got me. I made out like a bandit, as well.