From my opening line on Bumble of "french fries or onion rings?" to his response of "cheese curds", getting to know each other was full of random and fun facts. Including how on our first date, a park district officer came by to kick us out of the forest preserve we met at because we didn't want the night to end at sunset and stayed back on the swings of the playground for 3 hours talking about everything and anything.

Trying to get to know someone in the middle of a pandemic is not the easiest thing. With the help of four hour-long phone calls and endless Zoom meetings where we would go online to play chess together, we truly owe the development of our relationship to modern technology. Once the weather became nice enough, our picnic lunches and adventures through forest preserves continued!

Sam had a summer job as East Camp Director at Camp Ma-ka-ja-wan up in Pearson, WI. I cried the whole car ride home after I said "safe travels to camp tomorrow. Let me know when you leave home and when you get there." We spent the summer sending letters to each other and catching a 20 minute phone call whenever we could. I couldn't get time off to visit him until the end of July and it was worth the wait of the whole summer because he would be home two weeks later and I didn't think I could survive without his hugs any longer. The moment I truly knew that I couldn't spend the rest of my life without him was during the aftermath of a terrible storm, just a few days after I had come to visit. The radar had shown blocks of red surrounding the area for hours, in wave after wave. I had no communication with Sam for over 24 hours. I was so close to calling the Admin Building on camp property to ask if he was okay, but I didn't know if that would embarrass him. I waited in a panic for a text, a call, a carrier pigeon, anything that said he was okay. Finally a text came through "We're fine. No one was hurt." I cried in the middle of work because the love of my life was alive and well.

This past year was my 10th year on staff at Ma-ka-ja-wan, so the process of leaving home and my loved ones for many weeks was not new to me. But after meeting Rebecca and getting to know her in the months leading up to the summer, this time was much harder than before. The day before I was going to leave, we took a very long walk around the lake near my house to try and soak up as much time together as we could. She gave me a package to open when I made it up to Camp, and inside she included objects related to various inside jokes and conversations we had during our dates, along with very supportive notes to help me through the summer. She even had a series of letters pre-written for me to open during various points in the summer, like on our birthdays, during the ‘first thunderstorm,’ or ‘when I really needed a hug.’ Her continuous support meant the whole world to me, and I knew I wanted to give her the same love and affection for the rest of our lives. Seeing her when she visited in July sealed the deal for me, because she shared my love of the wilderness I had called a second home for 10 years after only a few hours, and she said she understood why it was a special place for me. I knew I had to make it a special place for us both…

Before the craziness of the holiday season, we wanted to get away for a couple of days to unplug and go for hikes, sit by a fire and read a book, burn pizza in a pizza oven, and collect some rocks. Basically just exist together in nature. It worked out that Sam had some supplies that needed to get up to Camp; the sooner the better. So right before Thanksgiving we headed up with a full truck and a canoe trailer towed behind us! The burnt pizza happened right away, so did sitting by a fire and trying to eat around the burnt-ness of the pizza. We unloaded the truck quicker than we thought we might (insert cliche “teamwork makes the dreamwork”) and since we were already popsicles, a hike around the mostly frozen lake seemed like a good idea! On our hike, with absolutely no one around and the forest absolutely still, the coolest noise came from the lake; we heard what sounded like gunfire crack along the ice. If you know me (Rebecca) at all, you know I just had to throw a rock onto the ice to see if the noise would replicate. Not to the same extent, but it was an otherworldly sound! Most of the hike was then spent throwing rocks onto the lake to see which would make the best noise. After lunch, we set off on another hike to see the bog, and some deer that were hanging out on the other side of the water. Right across the road from the Bog is a shoreline clearing that looks out across the entire length of the lake. We had collected more rocks to throw and when we ran out, we sat in calm silence. Sam got up and said he was on the hunt for more rocks. I had heard him walking back after a couple minutes of his rock hunt. “I found another rock, but you can’t throw this one.” I turned around to find Sam on one knee with a nervous smile, a pretty ring in a pretty box, and nothing but love in his eyes. “Will you marry me?” “Are you serious right now?” I did say yes, obviously, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading our story on our wedding website as April 9th draws closer.