Lara and Tyler met in Sioux City thanks to what turned out to be a fairly obvious setup by Lara’s best friend, Alissa, and her sister, Erika. Lara had moved back to the area about a year earlier after spending nearly a decade in Southern California, and they had been trying to introduce the two of them ever since. At the time, Lara was a single mom and not at all interested in dating. The only thing she knew about Tyler was that he loved the band Disturbed. One evening Alissa invited Lara to meet her for a drink after work. As Lara got closer to the restaurant, the guest list mysteriously kept expanding - first Erika and her husband, and then “a few more people.” When Lara pulled into the parking lot and spotted a pickup truck with three Disturbed bumper stickers on the back window, she knew immediately what was happening. She almost didn’t go in. Tyler still insists he had no idea it was a setup, and the two of them barely spoke that night anyway. A couple of days later Erika texted Lara to ask if Tyler could have her number because he had been asking for it. Lara agreed, mostly because she planned to politely explain that she wasn’t interested in dating anyone. Instead, they started talking almost every day. About a month later Lara finally agreed to meet Tyler for lunch, and they haven’t gone a day without talking since. Things moved quickly from there. Lara and Tyler met in the spring of 2024, found out they were expecting their daughter that summer, bought their home together that fall, and got engaged that December. Tyler proposed in their pasture after carving their initials into one of the big trees on the property. When Lara turned around, he was on one knee. It was December, freezing cold, Lara was pregnant with a sinus infection and convinced she looked terrible - but it was perfect. From the very beginning, their life together included family. Tyler welcomed Lara’s daughter Iris, with open arms, and in May 2025 they welcomed their daughter Zelda. These days their home is full of two little girls, plenty of laughter, and a life that somehow came together much faster than either of them expected.