There is some haziness on exactly when we met. We believe it was at a mutual friend's bonfire in either 2016 or 2017. We were casual acquaintances during college while Carl was in Texas and Mikayla was in Wisconsin. When we both moved back to Iowa in 2020 due to the pandemic, we began hanging out with our mutual friend group and talking more. Our friendship gradually grew over the summer and early fall of 2020. In October 2020, Mikayla asked Carl to be her date at a Halloween party. Fun fact, October 31st is also the day Mikayla got a call asking if she would be interested in adopting Dexter and the weekend before Carl started his first job after graduation! After that date, they decided to try long-distance while Mikayla was in her master's and living in Kansas. During this long-distance period, Carl moved to Arlington, VA in 2021. Once Mikayla was done with her master's, she moved out to Arlington with Carl while she looked for jobs in May 2022. In July, Mikayla got an offer for her dream job in Madison, WI. We decided to take a leap and move back across the country to Madison. We have fallen in love with Madison and all it has to offer. On October 7, 2023, Carl popped the question at our apartment with just the two of us and Dexter. Of course, Mikayla immediately said yes and of course, she cried. Then we went on a fall date to a local pumpkin patch getting coffee from our favorite coffee shop, Twisted Grounds, on the way. Twisted Grounds ended up being one of the locations for our engagement photos! We picked pumpkins and flowers and played all the fun yard games. We came home and decorated our pumpkin to announce our engagement. We spent the rest of the night making homemade pizza and calling our loved ones. We are looking forward to celebrating with all of you!