Our story began at Nelson’s Ice Cream in Saint Paul. Well, it almost didn’t. For those of you who know me [Courtney] well, this could not have been a more perfect first date: dinner, a walk, and ice cream. A few hours before we were set to meet, Kyle texted and said, “Hey, I am going to have to work late.. can we just do a walk and ice cream?” Me, annoyed and punctual, said “Sure, no problem”. Another hour or so passed, and Kyle once again said “Hey, I am still at work…” At this point, I’m sitting there thinking, MAN he is really going to blow me off on this date. I responded and said something along the passive-aggressive lines of, “Just let me know when to be there”. Finally, a time was set and we met at Nelson’s. We ordered our ice cream and of course Kyle ordered ice cream, with nuts (a naive guy unaware of my peanut allergy). After ice cream (and cleaning up all the ice cream Kyle spilt on himself), he asked “Do you want to go for a walk around the lake, I’ll drive?” (Mind you, it’s dark out and there is not a lake nearby). Things seemed to be going well, so I said “Sure”.We drove to Lake Calhoun and enjoyed a nice DARK romantic walk around the lake. Lucky for both of us it worked out! :)

Kyle’s former lacrosse team was playing in the Twin Cities and we were going to watch (aka get me out of the house). After the game, he REALLY wanted to go on a walk and I REALLY wanted to go take a nap. He was SET on Cleary Lake, which was in no possible way remotely close to where the game was- or our house for that matter. Kyle was insistent on the walk and so off we went down to Prior Lake. We walked from the car over by the water.. Kyle said something along the lines of the water is so calming… and I *so kindly* said, “Are you stressed? You played Xbox and watched Lacrosse all day?” He sighed and just like that he’s on his knee and I said YES!