Our love story started at a summer camp called Camp Kiwanis. We both became counselors at the summer camp we fell in love going to as kids. We were partnered up for the first week together and had an absolute blast messing and competing with each other.
With the help of pre-dating chemistry study groups, lake house tubing adventures, car races home, and group bonfires, Caleb and I grew close. In February, we camped out in his dad's truck bed (Thanks Dr. Joyce) at Ocala’s drive-in for our first official date. We talked through most of both movies and quickly became inseparable after that.
The next six years were spent with amazing and hilarious family vacations on both sides, gator football games, wine and margarita nights, beach house bike riding, and so much love all around us. Caleb and I graduated high school together from Forest, and then both ended up in Jacksonville at UNF for four years as part of the nursing program there. After that, our days were filled with being each other's built-in study buddies, making a few great friends, clinical carpools, celebratory fishing afternoons, Iceman hockey games, and late-night roomie ice cream runs.
Caleb later proposed to me on December 23rd, 2022 at the movie theatre in the heart of downtown Ocala surrounded by our families and the glowing Christmas lights. It was perfect and a true nod to how it all started for us. We are blessed to have graduated from UNF's nursing program with our dream jobs and are currently working in Gainesville at Shands; him as a nurse in the Cardiac ICU and me as a nurse in Labor & Delivery. He even convinced me to add two new members to the family: our cat, Hazel, and our dog, Holly. They are definitely stuck with us. We are excited to continue growing together and have recently bought a house to kick off our journey. Our wedding is coming up soon and we could not be happier to make this everlasting promise to each other official.