Brayden and Annika’s story began with the help of their families. Brayden’s mother Kristen, who often likes to play Cupid, stumbled across a post by Annika’s Aunt Monique on instagram of Annika in her cap and gown recently graduated from KU. The Littles and Brandau’s had been family friends for many years leading up to this point, but Annika and Brayden had never crossed paths due to their upbringings in separate states. At this point Brayden was recently graduated from ASU and living at home, and Annika had been living in Arizona for a short time with her Aunt and Uncle. Kristen was unable to contain her match making impulses and messaged monique commenting on how beautiful Annika is and how she would love for her to meet Brayden. Following the instagram converstaion between Kristen and Monique, Kristen decided to share with Brayden that Monique had reached out to her, sharing her niece had just moved here and is looking to meet people her age and was wanting to give his information to Annika. Kristen knew Brayden too well, and decided to tell him this little white lie to avoid further questions about why she was playing match maker for her son without him knowing. Monique wisely adopted a similar strategy with Annika. Before they knew it Annika and Brayden were each other’s most recent followers on Instagram. May 17th 2021, a couple days following the instagram exchange of Kristen and Monique, Annika was scrolling through Brayden’s instagram and came across a picture of Brayden in a Kansas City Chiefs hat. It was love at first sight. This gave Annika the courage to message Brayden and that kicked off many days of conversation between the two. May 29th 2021, Brayden and Annika had their first date. They enjoyed dinner in downtown Gilbert followed up with a visit to Dierks Bentley Whiskey Row country bar. Shortly, after their first date Annika returned home to Kansas City for a month. Brayden was devastated as he was having so much fun spending time with Annika and getting to know her. He couldn’t wait for her to return to Arizona. Annika finally returned to Arizona in late June/early July, and the dates between the two picked up right where they left off. Brayden and Annika shared their first kiss in her Aunt and Uncle’s drive way and were officially dating July 24th 2021. This was just the start of 2 years of adventure and love, becoming each other’s best friends, and growing together as young adults. November 17th 2023, Brayden and Annika, accompanied by their two dogs, set out on a 2-day road trip to Olathe to spend a week with Annika’s family for Thanksgiving. Brayden was so anxious the entirety of the drive knowing Annika’s engagement ring was hiding under the truck floor board right beneath her feet. They successfully made it to Olathe without Annika having any suspicion of the ring or the proposal plans. Thanksgiving day, November 23rd 2023, Brayden and Annika spent the morning getting ready to head to the Carlson’s family Thanksgiving lunch. Before, heading out the door Brayden asked to take some pictures with Annika in the backyard. Her mom grabbed the camera and her dad followed them outside (with the ring in his back pocket). A couple
photos were taken and Brayden asked Annika if she liked them. While she was looking at them on the camera with her Mom, Mr. Carlson sneakily slipped Brayden the ring. Brayden asked to take a couple more photos with Annika and that was when he dropped to one knee and asked Annika to spend the rest of her life with him. She was speechless at first, but managed to let out a an excited YES!