According to Ryan, we first met in high school cross country. (Cara claims she remembers Ryan from 6th grade band class). We spent lots of time running together throughout high school and become good friends. Our senior year Ryan asked Cara to homecoming. She panicked, said no, and speed walked away (she says boys had cooties).

Our senior year of high school got cut short because of COVID. Since there wasn't much else to do, we spent a lot of time running together and then sitting and talking in parking lots afterwards. But we were still just friends ;)

Ryan went off to college in New York at West Point and Cara went off to college at Northwestern in Minnesota. We stayed in touch and hung out when we were both back during breaks (the picture is from a trip up to Ryan's grandparents' cabin with another high school friend). During our first college winter break, Ryan asked Cara to go see a movie with him. Cara agreed to go to the movie... but just as friends.

We started writing letters to each other the summer before our sophomore year of college (cause it’s normal for people who are just friends to write letters to each other, right?). Ryan got one letter from Cara that he swears smelled like perfume (even though Cara did not even own perfume at this point). This led him to think that Cara was flirting with him, but he decided not to mention it. In her next letter, Cara asked Ryan about how his sense of smell was doing (because he had recently had COVID), but Ryan thought she was calling him out for not saying anything about the supposedly perfumed letter. Soon thereafter, Ryan couldn’t help but ask Cara out one more time. After some self-reflection and a lot of prayer, Cara realized she had been in denial about her feelings for Ryan for probably years and agreed to go on a date with him over Thanksgiving break.

For our first official date, we got dinner at Chick fil A, went ice skating, and got ice cream. And the rest is history. Ryan officially asked Cara to be his girlfriend on December 21, 2021. Here’s our first picture together while officially dating (yes it’s super awkward… we know).

Ryan visited Cara in Minnesota for the first time, and we went on some fun adventures like hiking by a frozen waterfall. If you want to hear a good story ask us about our experience on the light rail sometime.

Cara visited Ryan in New York for the first time and we went on lots more adventures!

Ryan studied abroad in Morocco for a semester and we survived 5 months of a 7-hour time difference and really crappy WIFI

Cara visits Ryan in NY again and we see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

We have lots of Zoom dates and Whatsapp video calls

And even more virtual dates... let's just say our phone screen time is not low

More virtual dates...

And more virtual dates... we may or may not have started to gone crazy

When we do get to spend time together in person it is such a blessing and we have so much fun. Here's a fun sunset and hiking date we went on :)

We spent lots of time trying to figure out a way that we could both end up in the same state after we graduate from college. We made an elaborate spreadsheet comparing the locations of physical therapy schools and army bases across the United States. After a lot of prayer, we settle on North Carolina as being the best location to shoot for, so Cara applies to physical therapy schools around Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Ryan works hard to “maximize his statistical likelihood” of getting stationed at Fort Liberty. Eventually, everything falls into place with Ryan getting a posting to Fort Liberty, NC and Cara getting into a PT school that she loves that’s only 15 minutes away from the base. Praise the Lord!!

Camping with friends in Iowa!

Cara visited Ryan at West Point for Ring Weekend

Another New York trip, but this time with friends!

Cara flew to New York for Ryan's Hundredth night banquet at West Point. The morning before the banquet, we went on a beautiful hike on Storm King Mountain. Ryan proposed at a lookout point at the top and Cara said yes. We're engaged!!

Ryan's Hundredth Night banquet as a newly engaged couple :)