On June 7, 2014 Carlin and Michael first locked eyes at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary amongst friends. Carlin attempted to stalk Michael as they walked throughout the sanctuary but Michael was oblivious. Eventually in July they got around to dating.

Since then they've enjoyed sharing several adventures together and have thus far traveled from the southernmost point of the United States to the nation's first capital and all the way down to Chile's pacific coast. They've celebrated the 450th birthday of America's oldest city, rode a banana boat in the Bahamas, and pet Antarctic penguins at Sea World.

Their most recent adventure was to Crystal River, Florida where they had the opportunity to swim with manatees in the wild. Little did Carlin know what Michael had planned for that day. On the boat on the way out, the captains provided some manatee facts and noted that there would be a quiz later. After they returned to the boat after swimming with manatees in 65 degree water, they were attempting to stop shivering when the captains announced that Michael and Carlin would be the first to play the manatee trivia game. A stuffed animal manatee was passed to Michael and the captain said "Okay first question... Well actually, he has a question for you." At this point Carlin was (a) trying to remember manatee facts and (b) confused about the format of this trivia game. It wasn't until she saw Michael get down on one knee and remove a ring from the manatee stuffed animal that she realized what was happening.