Fall 2020
Hadlee attended MSUM Chi Alpha during her freshman year, where Sam just so happened to be sitting behind her. During worship, she noticed his voice singing behind her. Though she didn’t compliment him in the moment or even glance in his direction, when she returned to her dorm room with her roommate Kaitlin, she said, “I could marry that guy just for the way he sings.” This was Hadlee's first encounter with Sam.


Spring 2022
One of the last nights of Spring semester a group of Chi Alpha friends were having a game night in the MSUM dorms. Hadlee attended a game night with her friend Kaitlin where Sam was in attendance. At this game night Hadlee and Sam met officially but only briefly interacted with each other.


Fall 2022
Sam and Hadlee were both on staff at MSUM, where they were placed in a role-play group together as siblings for a couple of hours during a training simulation. During Welcome Weekend at MSUM, Hadlee's friend Kourtney noticed that Sam seemed to coincidentally keep showing up, either to talk or hang out with them. Later, Sam added Hadlee on Snapchat, and they began talking more frequently. Throughout the fall, Sam and Hadlee spent a lot of time together—at game nights, Chi Alpha, and various hangouts. This eventually led to them hanging out at Hadlee's apartment with her roommates, Kylee and Kourtney, as well as doing homework together at the library porch on campus.


Winter 2023
Sam came up with the brilliant idea of asking Hadlee to be his girlfriend using a box of Milkduds, her favorite candy. He shared his plan with Hadlee's friend Lexie, who suggested it might not be the best approach and recommended he try something else. Despite the advice, on January 20th, 2023, Sam decided to go ahead with the Milkduds plan. Let’s just say the goal was achieved, but it wasn’t the smoothest execution. From that point forward, Hadlee and Sam began spending a lot of time together, intentionally getting to know each other. They played pickleball, attended game nights, went bowling, watched movies and TV shows, enjoyed dinner dates, went garage sale shopping, thrifted, ran errands, and did anything else they could think of.


Fall 2024
On October 4th, 2024, Sam took Hadlee to a pickleball court in Moorhead, planning to completely surprise her. He had intended to propose there, but when they arrived, there were other people playing. Sam stretched out the game as long as he could, all while Hadlee thought she was playing exceptionally well. She was overjoyed to win her first game ever against Sam, unaware that he had been holding back to delay the game hoping the people would leave. After the game, they headed to the car. Hadlee's roommate Lexie ran out from behind a building to distract her just as Sam dropped to one knee. When Hadlee turned around and saw what was happening, she was in total disbelief, but quickly said, yes. That day marked the moment Sam and Hadlee became engaged.