We met just before Thanksgiving in 2016 at a little speakeasy called Juniper Moon where we discussed why Ash Wednesday and Arbor Day are the best holidays. Finding ourselves with a lot more to talk about, we resolved to meet up again after the holiday.

Over the next few months we spent time together making homemade pizza, singing along at concerts and traveling throughout the midwest. Everything seemed to click and we were always having fun regardless of what we were doing that day.

In April of 2018 the stars aligned for us to move into together. Having been apartment dwellers up to that point, we also took the chance to dive into homeownership. Along with our cat Tilly, we moved to a house in Altoona, IA on the eastern side of Des Moines.

Over the next two years we spent time making our house a home, putting in a small garden and having friends and family visit. In April 2019 we added our dog Juniper to the mix and spent more time running in the backyard and walking the neighborhood.

We got engaged on the day before Valentines Day 2020. T.J. picked up some cupcakes from a shop that we visited on an one of our early dates and replaced one of the cupcakes with the ring box. McKinna said yes!

Originally we had planned to get married in August of 2020, but those plans were foiled by COVID-19. Since then we were officially married in a "mini-mony" in July of 2020 with our immediate family presents and welcomed our son Elliott late 2021. After these big changes we are excited to celebrate with everyone in 2022!